History shows us that political Islam has time and again interrupted trade between India and Europe. The Mecca Defence Alliance just the latest attempt. Paradoxically, it is more a Sunni Islamic “five eyes” intelligence agreement fashioned to be a defence pact by countries which have competed for leadership of the ummah since the advent of Islam.

When the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was announced at the G20 in New Delhi in September 2023, a visibly furious Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded with: “There is no corridor without Turkey.”

The Indo-Mediterranean is the cradle of four of the world’s major modern religions, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It has also been one of the great commercial spaces of human history. Today, it is once again becoming a theatre in which the future balance of power is being decided.

Trade between India and the Mediterranean flourished in Roman times, with Indian spices, textiles and precious stones reaching Europe through the Red Sea and Egypt, particularly Alexandria. This ancient commercial artery interrupted after the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Egypt in 641-642 CE, bringing its principal Mediterranean gateway under a new Islamic political order.

Centuries later, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, eventually becoming Istanbul, the seat of the Ottoman empire and Islam’s last Caliphate. It effectively arrested trade between Europe and India requiring European powers to find alternative sea routes.

Less than a month after IMEC was announced in 2023, Hamas launched its brutal terrorist attack against Israel on 7th Oct. The transformation of the Middle East’s security environment that followed has now been accompanied by the Mecca Pact, bringing together Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in what its proponents call an “Islamic NATO”.

Egypt is not among the initial signatories, but its possible participation would create a Saudi-Turkey-Egypt-Pakistan configuration (STEP), bringing together four consequential Sunni states. Egypt remains close to the United Arab Emirates as tensions between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh become increasingly visible, hence the challenge on both sides-not withstanding Cairo’s own rivalry with Ankara.

The four countries have different political systems, strategic priorities and interpretations of political Islam.........

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