Professor William Baker, director of Asian & African Languages and lecturer in Arabic & Middle East Studies at Baylor University, Texas, enlightened the audience at IIIT with his lecture: “Understanding the Middle East: A Cultural Approach to Teaching About Islam, The Middle East and Arab Culture” on Friday September 15^th.

Professor William Baker, who grew up in Nazareth where his parents were Baptist missionaries, learned Arabic and Hebrew from an early age. He was raised in an area where he could witness, firsthand, the Arab-Israeli conflict and get perspectives of both sides. His background in a ‘cultural setting’ enabled him to have respect for the ‘other’ with regards to his beliefs and his right to be different.

 

After graduation from Baylor University with a bachelor's degree in Foreign Service and a Master's degree in Political Science from Texas State University, Baker pursued a career in the Air Force, traveling various regions of the Middle East, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia, the Sinai Peninsula, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Qatar.

 

Professor Baker gave a brief synopsis about Baylor University. He said that it is the largest Baptist university in the world and the first chartered university in Texas. He stated that many Muslims enter Baylor University because “there is an emphasis on spirituality”; he firmly believes that academia and faith are continuous and complementary.

 

After retiring from the Air Force, Professor Baker became a teacher at Baylor University. He emphasizes the cultural communication aspect when teaching; he tells his students that they can’t learn a language devoid of its culture. “The students don’t equate violence and terror to Islam once they finish my course. They see it from a different light,” he said. He wrote a book about the Arab culture: ‘The Cultural Heritage of Arabs, Islam and the Middle East’. He answers his own question: “Where do you start when you teach about the Arab world?” by answering: “When you personalize relationships and remove barriers.”

 

Americans are astounded by Arab contribution to the world. When Professor Baker teaches his students Arabic, for example, he tells them the roots of words such as ‘algebra’ and ‘alchemy’ are from Arabic. His students then begin to view the Middle East with a new mindset. He likes to tell his students about his own experiences in the Middle East and says that this brings a ‘face’ to the area.

 

Finally, Nabeel Khabbaz, as Professor Baker is known to his Arab friends, was asked for his opinion on how to tackle the negative views about Muslims in the United States. He answered that Muslims should loudly and consistently condemn the terrorists and their terrorist acts. The lecture ended with a question and answer session and many in the audience gave their opinions and views on how to tackle the issue of Islamophobia that is spreading all over the world.