There is room for serious debate about whether African or American nations should now pursue reparations, and much of that debate can be conducted on purely economic terms. But to dismiss the pain of colonisation as though it were simply an entry on the credit side of history is not analysis. It is inhumane, it is insensitive, and it is proof that the mentality of empire has never actually ended.
Today, almost nobody asks who the “caliph” is anymore. ISIS lost its territory, and the title became a joke even among those who once took it seriously. But the groups that pledged allegiance to it have outlived the fiction, and the contradiction at the heart of their project has only become more grotesque.
She must have been struck by the extraordinary diversity of the Muslim world, which she witnessed at Hajj. She encountered Chinese Muslims, admired the vibrancy of Javanese women’s dress, and met a Nigerian nobleman who had crossed the desert on foot with his family to reach the Holy Cities. Reflecting on what she observed, she wrote that Hajj was simultaneously “a League of Nations, an International Academy of Art and Science, and an International Chamber of Commerce, all in one.”
© 2026 Tüm Hakları Saklıdır. RN Medya
