fujincodes

Wouldn't not believing in the Hajj be equivalent to blasphemy, which in turn is equivalent to being killed in the name of Islam?

Pilgrimage is as old as religion itself. It is encouraged in Abrahamic religions, but is a core activity in ancient religions like Hinduism, where there are pilgrimage sights dotted all over India (with some lying as far away as Afghanistan). These are like mini quests; you can do this mission where you visit the 11 Krishna sites, or this another mission where you have to reach these 15 sites, but they are all on mountains, and you have to walk 10k steps to reach there...

I have no bias against the UK if that's what you're implying. In fact, I very much like English literature etc. I am just stating the fact that they have historically been a very poor society with a large divide between the haves and have-nots.

That is entirely orthogonal to the matter at hand. But go ahead, expose your bias and take a guess.

Yeah, luck plays a part too. Saudi Arabia got lucky with oil, without which it was just warring desert tribes. I happened to see pictures of UAE Sheikhs before the discovery of oil, and they were not very royal, to say the least.

Canada has a ton of natural resources, they ought to be wealthy.

The UK has always been a poor country except for a few hundred years when they were propped up by enslaving other people and looting them.

In a fair world, where there is equal access to basic things required for living life (food, health services, education), the UK has no business being a top economy. They don't have the land area, nor the population, nor the natural resources. They were propped up by the colonialism for a bit but now are fast going back to be a small inconsequential country.