Saturday, October 20, 2007

Boycott Muslim Holiday Postage Stamp?

I recently received an email which demanded that Americans "adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT" a commemorative stamp for the Muslim holiday, Eid. There is such a stamp.

The email had over 100 forwarded addresses on it and has been circulating wildly throughout the internet. Here are some of the erroneous excerpts from the frantic email, followed by correct facts:

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THE FRANTIC ANTI-MUSLIM EMAIL

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class Holiday postage stamp.
Bull!

How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but we don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?
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!!!
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THE FACTS ABOUT THE EID POSTAGE STAMP
1. President Bush has publicly praised the Muslim holiday called EID – Click here for his speech.

2. President Bush has said, "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. Islam is peace."
3. This stamp says NOTHING about Terrorism, but only commemorates the holiday that Bush has openly praised many times.
4. The literal translation of the Arabic calligraphy on the stamp, Eid mubarak, means, "Blessed festival," and is often paraphrased as, "May your spiritual holiday be blessed."
5. The stamp was NEVER issued as a Christmas stamp, but was one of many multicultural religious holiday stamps remembering the religious freedom for which America stands – including a Jewish Hannakuh stamp, an African Kwanza stamp and several Christian stamps. Every year there is a series of seasonal holiday stamps issued between November – December. Click here for more info on the lies in this email, Snopes Urban Legends.
6. Comparing the issuing of this stamp to posting the Ten Commandments on Federal Property would be like a Muslim saying, "You published a Christian stamp of the Christ-child but don't allow us to post Koranic verses on Federal Property."

7. This stamp was originally issued before September 11, on September 1, 2001

8. To get this stamp you have to special order it, and all proceeds go to the United States Post Office.

9. By the year 2010, Islam will be the second largest religion in America; we had better start thinking of how to apply our constitutional right to religious freedom rather than spread lies and strife while needlessly making enemies.

10. To label the EID Muslim holiday as characterizing all one billion Muslims as Islamicist Extremists is like saying the Christian holiday of Christmas makes all Christians members of the Ku Klux Klan, or witch burners, or participants in the Medieval Crusades which slaughtered, raped and robbed thousands of innocent Jewish and Muslim men, women and children. These Crusaders also often killed Christians who disagreed with them!

Whoever concocted this hate-filled and error-laden email is not practicing the teachings of the Christ they purport to follow. This email sounds like the Christian version of the angry, hate-filled Muslim Taliban.

Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies; Paul said to forgive your enemies and heap hot coals of guilt on their heads by showing friendship and acceptance after they try to harm you. One of the reasons the early Christian church grew so rapidly was that when the Pagans persecuted the Christians, then became sick with the deadly Black Plague, the same Christians stayed in the cities, giving water, food and care to these same people who tried to kill them.

The Hebrew Proverbs give this assessment:
~ "A disturbed person stirs up trouble, and a gossip separates people from each other."
Proverbs 16:28

~ "Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
do you really want junk like that in your belly?"
Proverbs 18:8, Message Bible

~ "Bigots secretly hoard hatred; fools openly spread slander."
Proverbs 10:18

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