Inauguration or Bust<\/a>, people anywhere in the country can find locals to travel with. At the site, the contingent from Savannah, Georgia, refers to its trip as a \u201cpilgrimage\u201d. That word, most often associated with religious fervour, is appropriate here. The inauguration buzz is reminiscent of the excitement I have encountered in Muslim countries in the days preceding the hajj.<\/p>\nThe theological comparison isn\u2019t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America\u2019s civil religion. This makes the constitution the country\u2019s holy text. The division of government into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an earthly version of a triune deity. As for the presidency, the novelist EL Doctorow described its metaphysical role when he wrote: \u201cWith each elected president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into, and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inauguration is a ritual, akin to Muslims touching the walls of the Ka\u2019bah in Mecca. It renders tangible the ethereal. It is a reminder that the government is like an idol, a fact that was well known to those who introduced the modern nation-state \u2013 the French even raised a new goddess after the revolution \u2013 but which goes entirely forgotten by us.<\/p>\n
The comparison is not all exalted, however. Quite like the hajj \u2013 where wealthy western and Gulf-based Muslims discover their piety in five-star hotels while everyone else stays in a tent city on the desert plain of Mina \u2013 the inauguration also offers an insight into inequality.<\/p>\n
For example, minor ticket touting has been made illegal, but members of the presidential inauguration committee \u2013 ie donors who have paid $50,000 or more \u2013 are invited to experience the event from exclusive Washington restaurants. Major law firms like Vinson and Elkins are reportedly holding a sumptuous party high above the masses, where the only sardines will be the ones in cliched analogies. Nearby, a lobbying firm will be holding a celebratory event for fellow legislative mercenaries, a chilling reminder of the establishment\u2019s intractability. Change you can believe in.<\/p>\n
Certainly the more mundane issues of the hajj \u2013 no taxis, crashing wireless networks, dirty toilets and bad manners \u2013 will also be on prominent display.<\/p>\n
And, of course, the parallel wouldn\u2019t be complete without the religious police. Enter Pastor Rick Warren, who will give the invocation at the inauguration. He is the man who last summer blatantly administered a religious test upon the presidential candidates at his Saddleback Church, making certain that the world is well aware that in America only someone with Christian credentials should aim for the highest office.<\/p>\n
Still, for its various issues, the thing about the hajj, ultimately, is that it erases all previous sins. It is a time for renewal. Reincarnation without death. A hopeful look forward. It is upon that principle that Obama\u2019s inauguration, the coronation of the first black president in American history, is to be valued. He is a mea culpa for America\u2019s original sin. A trip to this inauguration thus becomes a secular hajj for collective redemption.<\/p>\n
Exactly 150 years ago in Savannah, 400 people were sold in one of the largest slave auctions ever held in the US. On the Inauguration or Bust website the city has so far registered 560 people. They will return as hajis of America\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Ali Eteraz is a frequent contributor to altmuslim and the author of the forthcoming book Children of Dust<\/i>. This article was previously published in The Guardian<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quite like the hajj – where wealthy Muslims discover their piety in five-star hotels while everyone else stays in a tent city – the inauguration also offers an insight into inequality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-eteraz","category-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n
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