{"id":153,"date":"2008-12-16T16:21:44","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T16:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/mubarak-hajjis-come-home-inclu.html"},"modified":"2008-12-16T16:21:44","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T16:21:44","slug":"mubarak-hajjis-come-home-inclu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/mubarak-hajjis-come-home-inclu.html","title":{"rendered":"mubarak! hajjis come home – including a Congressman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hajjis have begun to arrive home. Among them were Rep. Keith Ellison<\/a>, the first muslim elected to Congress and now the first US elected official to have ever performed Hajj. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Democrat from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional
\nDistrict traveled to the Saudi Arabian city along with about 3 million
\npeople. The journey is a lifelong dream for many Muslims.\n<\/p>\n

“It was transformative. It was a wonderful experience,” Ellison
\nsaid in a telephone interview today. “I learned a lot about myself,
\nabout my faith.”\n<\/p>\n

He said that word soon got around that he was a congressman —
\nsome people had recognized him from TV — and he wound up talking to
\ngroups of 60 or 70 people.\n<\/p>\n

“I didn’t want to turn it into a politics thing,” he said. “I
\nwas trying to play it low. I really wasn’t trying to play the role of
\nthe public official.”\n<\/p>\n

Ellison said he talked to the groups about “the importance of
\ncalling on your spiritual journey, and that whether you’re a postman or
\nbusinessman or a congressman, we all need to do what we do better. With
\nmore purpose and more focus, and a greater sense of serving humanity
\nand looking out for the poor and stuff like that.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that Ellison’s status as a Congressman was cause for mini-celebrity. It speaks, I think, to the tremendous reservoir of hope and goodwill that muslims worldwide have for the United States, despite near-universal condemnation of our foreign policy over the past 8 years. As Ellison notes<\/a>, he was also approached by many who were eager to express their hope about Barack Obama’s election:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

People were encouraged about the role the U.S.
\nwill play under President-elect Barack Obama, Ellison said. The fact
\nthat Obama’s middle name is Hussein and he had a Muslim father came up
\nin conversation.\n<\/p>\n

“People think that the (incoming) president might have a higher level of sensitivity,” Ellison said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

We truly are at the cusp of a new era in American-Islamic relations. However, we have to be careful about setting expectations too high<\/a>, as well…<\/p>\n

There’s also a nice article from last year in the LA Times, “personal trek, with millions<\/a>” about a group of California muslims who went to hajj. This year, an NBC producer and author named Kamran Pasha, also blogged his Hajj experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}