Anyone know about the EID muslim postage stamp?

[Catherine Vincent]

I received an email stating how the muslims did this and that, and how the US post office is honoring muslims and dishonoring Americans that died with this stamp.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Eid al-Fitr

This is the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. There is also another Eid holiday in the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Adha, but Eid al-Fitr is the "main" one.

A few years ago, the USPS commissioned a stamp marking Eid. I believe there was a minor fracas over it, the usual xenophobia-in-patriotism-clothing, and I didn't hear much more about it.

After Ramadan (which starts on October 27th this year), if you want to be nice to your Muslim friends and acquaintances, say, "have a blessed Eid".

--bkl

also see http://moonsighting.com/ramadan.html

[T Wolf]

2. they have been available

since at least last Christmas, maybe even Christmas 2001. I used them on my Xmas cards, especially the ones to my right-wing relatives.

It is actually a very pretty stamp too.

[Richardo]

3. Yeah - evidence that the USPS LIHOP to increase sales...

From snopes.com:

<snip>

Origins: The 37-cent Eid postage stamp, as noted in the United States Postal Service (USPS) press release cited above, is an October 2002 reissue of a first-class stamp introduced (at the then-current 34-cent rate) in September 2001, just ten days before the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

<snip>

Always snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/boycotts/eidstamp.asp

[Catherine Vincent]

8. Thanks for the snopes.

I tried to find info about it on their site earlier but no luck. My friend that sent me the email doesn't know any better but I will forward her the snopes site.

[CBHagman]

4. I got an extremely ugly e-mail about that

You probably received a variation on the one I did, which was a frothing-at-the-mouth rant against Muslim acts of violence (as though every Muslim was a participant in acts of terrorism!). I still haven't figured out how to respond to it, but I was pretty upset.

Nasties like Grover Norquist had whined about the need to put the World Trade Center towers on the Eid stamp (!), but the stamp went forward as originally designed, and a number of us non-Muslims made a point of buying it and using it to show our support for having a Muslim-themed stamp.

After all, the USPS issues at least two Christmas stamp designs every year, and I could make a very good case that so-called Christians are perfectly capable of creating massive bloodshed and indeed have done so over the centuries.

The Postal Service, to its credit, actually ran an ad showing all its holiday-themed stamps together -- Christmas, Eid, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah. I hope they do the same thing again this year.

[maxomai_vs_rove]

5. I want this stamp

Seriously. It must be a knee-jerk reaction: every time I see bigots and freepers (I know, redundant) go off like this, I have to counter the boycott to piss me off.

Al Franken's book? Bought it the day it came out!

French ban? I started collecting French wines!

Now I want Eid stamps to use on all my Christmas cards!

[FloridaJudy]

9. French Ban

Had one neat side-effect: it let me know who my fellow Progressives were at work. We're the ones who showed up the next morning with our bottles of Perrier.

[donsu]

6. I bought and used these stamps last year

nt

[WoodrowFan]

7. other stamps

The email I saw complained about honoring the Muslim faith, but NOT other eliigions. But in reality there are also religious Christmas stamps, Hanakua (sp) stamps, Chinese New Year, Kwanza, etc. (ok, Kwanza isn't a religious holiday but it is specific to a particulr culture, as is the Cinco de Mayo stamp)

[baldguy]

10. Show the stamp!

[BuddhaGirl]

11. what a pretty stamp!!!

got to get some of those!