Las Vegas of Arabia: Ziauddin Sardar’s heartfelt biography of Mecca

Mecca was the city of Sardar’s childhood dreams, the ideal Muslim polity of humility and submission to God, and a community of faith. Today, under Saudi rule, it has been “remade in the image of . . . wealth and imperial splendour”.

By Zachary Karabell

(Photo By Kissing the Kaaba: Mecca may be tacky and inward-looking but it still attracts millions. Photo: Reuters/Hassan Ali)

Mecca: the Sacred City
Ziauddin Sardar
Bloomsbury, 410pp, £25

We are embroiled today in a global debate about the nature of Islam. By “we” I mean just about anyone, from cable television and pundits in the United States who decry Islam, to the denizens of various European countries questioning whether Islam is compatible with modernity, to civil wars within Muslim-majority states such as Iraq and Syria. This debate is old, but it continues to burn hot.