The current system of global Hajj management is breaking down under the combined pressures of glaring problems that have accumulated over many decades. The list of dangers and injustices is daunting – constant overcrowding, deadly stampedes, corruption, commercialization, favoritism, monopoly, political manipulation, human trafficking, pandemics, sectarian discrimination, environmental degradation, and bickering over who is to blame for the flood of protests and lawsuits in nearly every country.

Ironically, the crisis of the Hajj stems from the stunning successes of post-colonial Muslim societies in spreading economic development, technology, and political empowerment to more than a billion people. After all, the Hajj's explosive growth would have been impossible without the benefits of inexpensive air travel, disposable income, and elected governments responding to the demands of pious voters in thousands of small towns and villages throughout Asia and Africa.

In view of their proven ability to mobilize such impressive resources, there is every reason to believe that Muslims can also reform the Hajj. In that case, they can turn their troubles into opportunities to demonstrate and institutionalize the ideals that Islamic pilgrimage has always sought to embody – egalitarianism, justice, and universal community. But reform requires that the leaders and citizens of the largest Islamic societies devise new methods of power sharing – both globally and locally – to accommodate the rival claims of states, interest groups, and ordinary voters that are indispensible to any workable solution.

THE HAJJ GOES AIRBORNE

Jumbo jets and charter flights have revolutionized the Hajj. In just a few decades, the global diffusion of affordable air travel triggered dramatic changes in the size, composition, and organization of the pilgrimage. The number of overseas hajjis going to Mecca every year jumped rapidly from about 150,000 in the 1950s and 300,000 in the 1960s to 700,000 in the 1970s and 900,000 in the 1980s. By 1995, their number regularly exceeded one million, and throughout the twenty-first century it has climbed steadily to roughly 1.8 million.