Last October, the Islamic Society of Southern Texas released a statement denouncing violence in the name of Islam. Jim Lago had several members on his show, brought together and to Jim through Dr. Greg Silverman. Apparently, one of these gentlemen got in touch with Jim to seek some radio time for Dr. William H. Baker who founded Christians and Muslims for Peace. Baker is in town to speak.
Tuesday night Jim called me to ask if I’d like to come in and be on the show Saturday (today). He knows full well I play golf Saturday mornings, so it had to be something special. “I’m going to have a Nobel Prize nominee in here to talk about his organization and peace in the Middle East.”
Of course, I asked his name, and any information Jim might have so I could be adequately prepared to speak intelligently.
On Wednesday I had to take a trip to Houston for the day, then Thursday my daughter-in-law went into the hospital to deliver my granddaughter. So, I didn’t get any time to research prior to Friday morning. I was in for quite a shock when I started preparing.
The first indication of problems was when I did a Google search and found an article in the Orange County Weekly about him.
Though he was listed as “Dr. William Baker” in the conference program, Baker has no doctorate of any kind; officials of Oxford University in England disputed Baker’s claim that he did graduate work there. Baker claimed to have attended another graduate program that turned out to have been a six-unit freshman field trip.
In 1984, Baker was national chairman of Costa Mesa-based Holocaust denier Willis Carto’s Populist Party, whose platform called for the repeal of U.S. civil rights laws. Baker now states that, although he planned his party’s national convention, he had no knowledge of its platform or ideology.
He is also scheduled to speak at a banquet in Boca Raton the end of this month, and is hailed in the program as “one of the most outstanding figures in the Christian society.” It also claims he is part of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral–from whence he was banish several years ago.
Daniel Pipes keeps track of people like Baker through articles such as one in a Michigan newspaper:
Baker “began his 33-year career as a peacemaker after he was taken hostage by 11 men of the Hezbollah who blindfolded him and aimed their AK-47s at him. For three days, he and his captors talked about justice, oppression, innocence and guilt. He also pointed out to them that terrorism is not sanctioned by Quran or Islam.” All very interesting, but Hezbollah did not exist in 1971, nor for more than another decade. So either Baker is engaging in some Walter Mitty-like fantasies or the unnamed journalist at the Kalamazoo Gazette got it wrong. Either explanation is cause for concern but I suspect the former explanation is the right one.
More information about this shadowy man comes from Jonathan Calt Harris:
Baker also called himself “professor of ancient history and sacred literature” but all evidence suggested he only taught Christian subjects for three years after he graduated from Ozark Bible College in Joplin, Missouri.
There are many more such articles on the internet. What there isn’t is any substantiation of Baker’s claims to be what he says.
He claims to have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Unfortunately, this is a convenient claim which cannot be verified. The Nobel Committee does not allow the names of nominees to be released for fifty years. I don’t doubt that he might have been nominated because anyone can be, and it requires a letter to the committee written by someone who is in academia. There are plenty of people who like what he says in our universities. That’s how he earns his living: Giving speeches to students at colleges, paid for by university funds. Nobody else seems to be interested in his anti-Israel, anti-Jew rhetoric.
I understand why Jim cancelled Baker’s appearance on the show. Personally, I was looking forward to the confrontation. I could never “win” an argument with someone like that, but I could certainly provide a vehicle for him to expose himself for what he is.
He is here this weekend, probably speaking to young people in Corpus Christi. He is surely telling them that Christians and Muslims must work together to rid the world of those in opposition to Christianity and Islam so that there can be peace. Who is he talking about?
Israel and Jews. I hope the youngsters listening to him understand that.
