Soapbox

4 Letter Words

We must rise up from the ashes of this world spun out of control:
We must not succumb to the darkness, we must not let it into our souls.
~Up From the Ashes by T. Meisky 2001

In 2001 the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp inhonor of the festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim religion. After a month of introspection, fasting and prayer, Muslims celebrate God’s many blessings and the revealing of the Qur’an to the Prophet. It is traditional at this time to wish others “Eid Mubarak” or blessed festival.

It seems that there is an e-mail message being passed around by people of otherwise good sense and conscience entitled “Don’t Buy This” The senders are protesting this stamp, re-issued by the USPS this fall. The message lists what it calls “muslim attacks” on the US, i.e. the bombing of the USS Cole, Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, the 9/11 attacks, etc. It emphaticaly states that this stamp, (which recognizes a religious celebration, as do Haunakah and Christmas stamps) “…would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.” Patriotic Americans, it says, must remember the Americans killed by these “muslim attacks” and boycott this stamp.

It’s hard to know where to begin in response to this illogical and narrow-minded diatribe. It is so full of anger and hate and blaming that when I first read it I felt as if I had been slapped in the face. They are truely fighting words for any one of an open heart and mind.

A prefacing editorial comment in the version I received, without attribution, states that ” they don’t even believe in Christ and yet they are getting a Christmas stamp, but don’t dream of putting the 10 commandments in a court house.” The holes in the logic of this statement are big enough to drive a truck through.

First of all, the Eid ul Fitr stamp is NOT a christmas stamp- it is a Ramadam stamp. It happens that this year the end of the season of daytime fasting and prayer and good works falls around the beginning of the Christmas season, but that is mere co-incidence. In other years it falls on other dates, since its timimg follows the lunar calendar. Ignoring for a moment the fact that muslims do believe in Christ- as a great and holy prophet- the Christian religion does not OWN the month of December, and any stamp issued therein does not have to pass some “Christ test.”

And the connection between this stamp and the 10 commandment monument in Alabama (See “Just a Bunch of Rocks” in this weblog) is impossible to see. To my knowledge there has been no Muslim outcry against the monument, and in fact many Christians object to the display on constitutional grounds. Plus, the muslims honor the “books of Abraham” as I understand they call the Torah and Bible, and do believe in the 10 commandments.

Then comes the body of the document that asks us to remember the MUSLIM attacks (their emphasis, not mine) on America and Americans. While technically true, this thin tissue of veracity cannot disguise the bedrock of hate beneath.
The attack on the World Trade Center was not a “Muslim attack”- it was an attck by people who were Muslim. Our own president urged us not to make this error in thinking shortly after 9/11 when he said,

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. Islam is peace.”

But for those who insist on judging an entire world-wide religion based on the actions of a few fanatics, I again quote our president and say, “Bring it on!”

Remember the CHRISTAIN crusades?
Remember the CHRISTIAN inquisition and burnings?
Remember the CHRISTIAN witch trials?
Remember the CHRISTIAN lynchings in the south?
Remember the CHRISTAIN bombings of clinics?
Remember the countless innocent HUMAN BEINGS who were murdered in these
attacks on humanity?

These acts were every bit as representative of true Christianity as the
World Trade Center attack was of the Muslim faith, which is to say, not at all. If you as a Christian do not wish to be judged by the actions of Timothy McVey and Torquemada, then please do not judge the entire Islamic faith by the actions of a few sick individuals.

You cannot possibly say that a Ramadan stamp “honors” the 9/11 hijackers without also saying that an Easter stamp “honors” those who burned young women at the stake. Use your head. Tolerance is not a 4-letter word: hate is. It breeds more hate, and more revenge, and feeds on itself in a cycle of violence that, unchecked, can consume us all.

I think it’s important for Christians and patriots of good conscience (and good critical thinking skills ) to stand up and say, “Count me out! I don’t subscribe to this absurdity.” Refuse to be intimidated, or to let this blameing go unchallenged. It may not seem that important: it’s only a little stamp, after all, but small things can grow. A wounded finger, left untreated, can infect the entire body. Likewise, a small hate, unchallenged, can infect a whole society. When we allow people to be shoved into categories and then categorically condemned, we display the kind of thinking that let the Nazi holocost go un-checked for so long.

One has to wonder what the people who are passing this poisonous message around the country even know about the religion of Islam or the festival the stamp commemorates. I suspect we all could use some education. A quick Google search under “meaning of Ramadan” would show that this holdiay has nothing to do with hate and violence.

I also suggest that you go to the post office and purchase a few of these stamps, and if anyone sends you the “Don’t buy this!!” message, you might consider mailing them a cheery christmas card with one of these stamps pasted on the front.

“Enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots” ~from the Koran