{"id":187,"date":"2009-01-17T00:15:09","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T00:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html"},"modified":"2009-01-17T00:15:09","modified_gmt":"2009-01-17T00:15:09","slug":"the-inauguration-a-secular-haj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html","title":{"rendered":"The inauguration: a secular Hajj"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend Ali Eteraz calls the Inauguration a “secular hajj<\/a>” for America:<\/p>\n

\n

The theological comparison isn’t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America’s civil religion<\/a>.
\nThis makes the constitution the country’s holy text. The division of
\ngovernment into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an
\nearthly version of a triune deity. As for the presidency, the novelist
\nEL Doctorow described its metaphysical role when he wrote: “With each
\nelected president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the
\nartificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws
\nbut the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our
\nresponses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble
\nthey get into, and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally,
\nthe media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He
\nbecomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail.”<\/p>\n

The
\ninauguration is a ritual, akin to Muslims touching the walls of the
\nKa’bah in Mecca. It renders tangible the ethereal. It is a reminder
\nthat the government is like an idol, a fact that was well known to
\nthose who introduced the modern nation-state – the French even raised a
\nnew goddess after the revolution – but which goes entirely forgotten by
\nus.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eteraz doesn’t stop there, though – go read his piece in full, for just like the Hajj, there is a kind of redemption involved.<\/p>\n

I was hoping he would make a pun regarding the Black Stone, though \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Ali Eteraz calls the Inauguration a “secular hajj” for America: The theological comparison isn’t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America’s civil religion. This makes the constitution the country’s holy text. The division of government into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an earthly version of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29,40,194,26],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-read-this","tag-barack-obama","tag-hajj","tag-inauguration","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe inauguration: a secular Hajj - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The inauguration: a secular Hajj - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My friend Ali Eteraz calls the Inauguration a “secular hajj” for America: The theological comparison isn’t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America’s civil religion. This makes the constitution the country’s holy text. The division of government into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an earthly version of a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-17T00:15:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The inauguration: a secular Hajj - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The inauguration: a secular Hajj - City of Brass","og_description":"My friend Ali Eteraz calls the Inauguration a “secular hajj” for America: The theological comparison isn’t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America’s civil religion. This makes the constitution the country’s holy text. The division of government into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an earthly version of a…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2009-01-17T00:15:09+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html","name":"The inauguration: a secular Hajj - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-17T00:15:09+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-17T00:15:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/the-inauguration-a-secular-haj.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The inauguration: a secular Hajj"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. 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\/187","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=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}