Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

MECCA JOURNAL: “The Price of Progress: Transforming Islam’s Holiest Site,” by Hassan M. Fattah, New York Times, 8 March 2007, p. A4.

This is not our culture versus theirs, but the desire for modernity and connectivity versus the desire for tradition and the status quo (ante, if you’re a radical Salafist).

Simply put, America is not in charge of this transformation world process called globalization.

No one from outside is telling the House of Saud to plop one of the world’s largest malls and condo developments looming over the Grand Mosque in Mecca. I mean, it’s a big country. Certainly they can plop it elsewhere.

But Saudi Arabia wants to both facilitate and take advantage of all the Muslims who visit this place, so the Disneyfication is self-inflicted for all the same reasons why we like Disney.

I mean, when you make your pilgrimage, why not hit the neighboring fast food joints, amusement park rides and lingerie shop?

Because don’t be under the impression that somehow this development crassly commercializes the uncommercial. No, the real crime here is the displacement of Mecca’s ancient and famed night market.

Mecca has long been a commercial as well as a religious center, but increasingly global brands dominate here.

Better get a move on, Osama. Time is rapidly running out.