Here I was... just minding my own business when my MSN messenger informed me I received an email from a relative. This is the first time I have ever received an email from this person directly, so I was intrigued and I checked it right away. This is what awaited me:
Refuse these stamps at the Post Office when you buy stamps!!!!
CHRISTMAS STAMP
How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?
USPS New Stamp
This one is impossible to believe. Scroll down for the text.
If there is only one thing you forward today.....let it be this!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military Barracks in Saudi Arabia!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001!
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!
Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class
Holiday postage stamp. Bull!
REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp
When purchasing your stamps at the post office. To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.
REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know!!!
If that doesn't make your blood boil I don't know whats wrong with you! Can you be serious? I was so angry that I went onto one of my favorite sites PostMormon.org and vented my frustration. That is where a friend told me that there is an article about this on Snopes.com. I was happy, and decided to fire back a reply. Here is what I sent:
Good Afternoon,
I would just like to take a little time to let you know that this stamp does exist, although it is neither new nor a Christmas stamp: It is a seven-year-old USPS Holiday Series stamp commemorating two Islamic holidays that have no connection to Christmas.
The EID postage stamp was introduced by the United States Postal Service (at the then currant rate of 34 cents) as part of their Holiday Celebrations Series on September 1, 2001, just ten days before the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The EID stamp has since been reissued at updated first class postage rates in 2002, 2006, and most recently in September 2007.
The United States Postal Service describes the EID Stamp:
"The Eid stamp commemorates the two most important festivals --or Eids-- in the Islamic calendar: Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. On these days, Muslims wish each other "Eid mubarak," the phrase featured in Islamic calligraphy on the stamp. "Eid mubarak" translates literally as "blessed festival" and can be paraphrased as "May your religious holiday be blessed." This phrase can be applied to both Eid Al-Fitr and Eif al-Adha.
The word Eid is roughly equibalent to the English word "celebration" or "festival." The three-day Eid Al-Fitr celebrates the end of the month-long fasting of Ramadan; the three day Eid Al-Adha commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael in response to God's command, and it marks the end of Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. (In 2007, Eid Al-Fitr begins on October 12, and Eid Al-Adha on December 20.)
The Eid Stamp is often mischaracterized as a "Christmas stamp" but it has nothing to do with Christmas other than it is part of a series of U.S. Postage stamps commemorating several diverse celebrations (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving) that generally occur around the November-December timeframe commonly known as the "holiday season" in the U.S. The USPS Holiday series also commemorates celebrations that occur at other times of the year, such as Cinco de Mayo.
The Statement "Muslims don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp!" is therefore nonsensical, akin to protesting Hanukkah stamps because "Jews don't even believe in Christ but they have their own Christmas stamp!"
I do remember all the horrific tragedies that occurred due to terrorism, however, I do not blame Islam in general for those acts. I blame Islamic EXTREMISM for those acts. There are extremists in every religion, including Catholics, Christians, and even Mormons. Mormon extremists still practice polygamy to this day, and believe they are right... just as these muslim extremists believe they are right.
I have many Muslim friends in Orlando, and I have to stand up for the honor of their character. To consider blaming their religion as a whole is wrong, and that is not what our troops are fighting for. They are fighting for our freedom to believe what we want... even if that belief is an extreme version of any religion.
To bash any religion is un-patriotic... as there are hundreds of thousands of Muslim American Soldiers ready to fight for our country.
October 30, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Thanks for posting this! I'm gonna forward it to the whole list of people who passed this crap along. I can't believe how extreme many of the xtians I know are, equating Muslim/Islam with terrorist. It makes me sick and reminds me that it wasn't that long ago that my mom & her sisters had to drink from separate water fountains! I sure wish people would realize that evolving takes effort. No magical being is going to come down and do it for ya!
November 6, 2008 at 6:14 PM
How can anyone thinking not equate Muslim/Islam with terrorist? Yes, there are some sweet Muslims, but all of us infidels should worry when we see what Muslims in all countries they are flocking to live in are doing to those countries. And they don't even try to hid their intentions to make everyone on this planet a Muslim. I hope they issue you an ill fitting burka when they insist at the point of a gun that you wear one. Tunnel vision like yours is helping their progress.