ALONG with a billion Muslims across the globe, I turn to Mecca in Saudi Arabia every day to say my prayers. But when I visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the resting place of the Prophet Muhammad, I am forced to leave overwhelmed with anguish at the power of extremism running amok in Islam’s birthplace. Non-Muslims are forbidden to enter this part of the kingdom, so there is no international scrutiny of the ideas and practices that affect the 13 million Muslims who visit each year.
When Egypt's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced in a television address the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ultraconservative Salafi party official sat by his side, making an unlikely ally.