Stamp Rage
Another ridiculous email forward. I received this one on 12/04/03. My comments below. --E.M.
Can
you believe this?
DON'T BUY IT!
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.
New USPS 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 the
Twin Towers 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 MUSLIM Eid holiday season with a commemorative
first class
holiday postage stamp.
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.
* * *
Re: Stamp Rage
C'mon, people. "Muslims" in general did not
commit these terrorist acts. A
radical political organization called Al Qaeda did. Each of these attacks was committed by Al Qaeda or a
like-minded extremist organization.
Al Qaeda represents the
Muslims of the world about as well as the Nazi party or the Spanish Inquisition
represented Christianity. Such
despicable perversions of humanity crop up in difficult historical times. And just as many Christian Germans fell
into a patriotic support of Hitler, so many misguided Muslims have fallen to
supporting Bin Laden.
The great thing about America
is that we recognize the dignity of the different religious traditions. That the Postal Service can print
stamps in honor of different religious holidays is indicative of our strength
and humanity. We in America can do
it, but if the Saudi government were to print a stamp showing Jesus on the
cross with an Arabic inscription "Son of God" there would be an
uproar. We in America can handle
different religious traditions, but the Saudis--to take one example--still
cannot. This is something in which
we are ahead of the Saudis: they need to learn from us. We, however, have no reason to begin to
imitate them in their bigotry.
So it is unfortunate that some
Americans think we should start insisting it is wrong to show respect for
anything that is not Christianity.
Why return to the fold of the world's bigots?
As for comparing the newly
issued stamp with the controversy over putting the Ten Commandments in a
courthouse, it isn't quite apt.
One should rather compare the Muslim stamp or a Jewish holiday stamp
with the Christmas stamps the Postal Service usually issues.
Again: It is not the world's
Muslims who committed these terrorist acts, but various extremist
organizations. Al Qaeda and like
organizations function by radicalizing disgruntled and lost young men. As most Muslim scholars acknowledge,
the rise of these groups in the Muslim world is a serious problem, a mark of
shame on Islam. But both Muslim
and Western scholars agree: the recent rise of Muslim fundamentalism is to be
understood in political terms rather than in terms of the Koran or religious
traditions. Most Muslims can see
that the fundamentalists are bad Muslims: they have betrayed what was true in
their faith just as surely as the Catholic Church betrayed the truth of the
Gospels when it burned Jews and others on the pyres of the Inquisition.
Hating Muslims will get us
nowhere. Rather we should hate
terrorists and bigotry of all kinds.
We should fight those who would manipulate scripture--be it the Koran or
the New Testament--for violent political ends.
Eric Mader,
12/04/03
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Email: inthemargins03@hotmail.com
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