Postal Muslim Holiday Stamp

[St_John]

I think I’m having a hard time with this country changing, but when I saw a postal holiday stamp with Arabic writing, I felt very unhappy.
http://shop.usps.com/wcsstore/PostalStore/upload/images/100x100_569340.jpg

I’m so sick to my stomach, call me a bigot, but I’m sick about this. There was also a Kwaanza stamp. They do have a nice one of Mary with Jesus. I like to buy enough of them to last all year. I know that things are changing and I don’t like these changes. Click the link to the Postal Service holiday stamp webpage.

shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?shouldCachePage=false&jspStoreDir=PostalStore&mpe_id=10651&orderId=.&catalogId=10152&categoryId=17901&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&evtype=CpgnClick&intv_id=18553&completedURL=%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FProductCategoryDisplay%3Fidentifier%3DST+Holiday+Stamps%26categoryId%3D17901%26catalogId%3D10152%26storeId%3D10001%26top%3DN&callingpage=eMarketingSpotDisplay&identifier=ST+Holiday+Stamps&langId=-1&top=N&storeId=10001&calculationUsageId=-1

 

[catsrus]

What “holiday” do muslims celebrate between 12/3 (1st day of Advent this year) and 1/6?

 

[Maxply]

This hits me a couple of places:

(1) I think the post office needs to stick to George Washington, etc., and not all the Bugs Bunny, cartoon stuff, etc. junk. Our coins and stamps and currency should have some dignity and tell the great story of our country.

(2) I think the muslim stamp is oddball just because there are so few muslims in America. But on the surface of it, we shouldn’t write off the idea.

I’ve seen the fancy script but have no clue what it’s about, other than EID, which I thought was some Irish thing. . .

(3) The Kwanzaa thing. . . I remember reading Arthur Ashe (the tennis player)'s biography, and he was a student at UCLA in the late 60s; for a time he was a roommate and friend with a fellow UCLA graduate student, who was studying sociology. As Ashe put it, it was always tough for him to “celebrate” Kwanzaa since the “holiday” was invented by his friend using a smorgasbord of African tribal customs!

So Kwanzaa has similarly never felt quite legitimate to me, since it’s a recent invention.

 

[tee_eff_em]

What “holiday” do muslims celebrate between 12/3 (1st day of Advent this year) and 1/6?

It’s not a Christmas-time related stamp, but it is a holiday stamp (cf. Snopes: Stamping Grounds). I don’t know when Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha fall this year.

“If you read it in Snopes, it’s so”
tee

 

[St_John]

The thing that I find the most irritating about this stamp is that the writing is in Arabic. I think it’s totally wrong for a United States postage stamp to be written in a foreign language.

I think this is an example of politically correct appeasement.

 

[Mirdath]

The thing that I find the most irritating about this stamp is that the writing is in Arabic. I think it’s totally wrong for a United States postage stamp to be written in a foreign language.

I think this is an example of politically correct appeasement.

Do you have problems with Hanukkah stamps too? I seem to remember some a while back with Hebrew writing on them. Some holiday stamps are beautiful, most are wretchedly tacky. I think this one’s lovely (really, what’s not to appreciate about Arabic calligraphy and design?), I’ll probably pick up a book at the post office next time I’m there.

 

[tee_eff_em]

The thing that I find the most irritating about this stamp is that the writing is in Arabic. I think it’s totally wrong for a United States postage stamp to be written in a foreign language.

According to Snopes, the writing transliterates to “Eid mubarak”; literally: “blessed festival”, more loosely: “May your religious holiday be blessed”.

What I find interesting/odd is that the $0.39 stamp on the USPS site looks otherwise identical to the $0.34 stamp (as it was introduced) on the Snopes page – I thought the post office tries really hard to make stamps of different values look dissimilar? (Hmmm, and the whitehouse shows an otherwise identical $0.37 stamp…?)

tee

 

[tee_eff_em]

If it makes anyone feel any “better”, the conspiracy theorist in me says:

“…I wonder how difficult it would be for the post office to keep a database of addresses from and to which mail bearing these stamps is sent…?”


tee

 

[Damascus]

If it makes anyone feel any “better”, the conspiracy theorist in me says:

“…I wonder how difficult it would be for the post office to keep a database of addresses from and to which mail bearing these stamps is sent…?”


tee

There ya go St. John! Let them use em. Its a tracking device for the government to seek out radical Islam!

 

[Lance]

If you don’t like the stamp just do what I do, tell the postal clerk that you don’t want that stamp. They will be glad to give you another stamp of your choice and there are lots of choices.

 

[Damascus]

I say buy them! I say buy them and send them out to the aclu and …

I think this could be fun! Go with it!

 

[St_John]

There ya go St. John! Let them use em. Its a tracking device for the government to seek out radical Islam!

Ha! Thanks tee eff em! It must be part of the War on Terror! I feel better now.

I cannot believe the the United States of America is so darned nice to everyone! I liked it better before all this multiculturalism. I don’t have a problem with Chanukah stamps, Jews don’t blow people up.

The family and I watched “The Best Of Lassie” the other day. We got it from Netflix. Those were the days! June Lockhart was so wholesome, and life was simpler. Little Timmy was such a good boy and his Dad was so understanding. They were like the Holy Family.

 

[Damascus]

Ha! Thanks tee eff em! It must be part of the War on Terror! I feel better now.

I cannot believe the the United States of America is so darned nice to everyone! I liked it better before all this multiculturalism. I don’t have a problem with Chanukah stamps, Jews don’t blow people up.

The family and I watched “The Best Of Lassie” the other day. We got it from Netflix. Those were the days! June Lockhart was so wholesome, and life was simpler. Little Timmy was such a good boy and his Dad was so understanding. They were like the Holy Family.

Dont forget Peyton Place.

Jesus was born in a horrible time. Herod. And more horror.

We need to buck up St John, and not think of heaven on earth-
Its pure hell here lets face it.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

Jews don’t blow people up.

No? So what happened at the King David Hotel?

On a similar note, I was just im’ing my friend about a visit to the Post Office I had today. I went there to mail a package off to my sister for Christmas and used the automatic teller thingy… where it lets you weigh it yourself and purchase the postage with your debit/credit card. What irked me was it was in English and Spanish. Excuse me, Mr Postmaster, but isn’t the flag outside the American flag and isn’t the name of this place the United States Post Office?

 

[Damascus]

No? So what happened at the King David Hotel?

King David is being compared here? How do you connect the dots to that one prey tell?

Yes, he killed. Many. Tell me how it parallels here? Or to Islam?

 

[Eden]

King David is being compared here? How do you connect the dots to that one prey tell?

Yes, he killed. Many. Tell me how it parallels here? Or to Islam?

He’s referring to this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

It’s in response to the poster who said Jews don’t bomb people.

“On 22 July 22 1946, one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in recorded history took place. We refer to the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety-two persons lost their lives in that stealthy attack, 45 were injured, among whom there were many high officials, junior officers and office personnel, both men and women. The King David Hotel was used as an office housing the Secretariat of the Palestine Government and British Army Headquarters. The attack was made on 22 July at about 12 o’clock noon when offices are usually in full swing. The attackers (Jewish), disguised as Arabs, carried the explosives in milk containers, placed them in the basement of the Hotel and walked away.”

 

[Damascus]

Yikes!!!

thanks Eden! O Mary, Mother of God pray for us!

 

[St_John]

That’s the “one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in recorded history took place”? Isn’t that a bit of an exageration? Anyways, Jews in the United States are for the most part good citizens, and generally aren’t prone to terroristic acts of violence. They aren’t trying to undermine the foundations of our society. Not that all Muslims are, but anyways this was a thread about a postage stamp that was in Arabic.

I don’t think the United States should have it’s postage stamps in another language, and especially in a language spoken by people that are mostly hostile to us and our values. The Arab world is mostly against us. The Muslim world celebrated 911, or at least was sympathetic it’s cause.

I think that the Muslim world is mostly against us. Of all the people in the whole world, I think the Muslims view the United States as their enemy. And, WE are the tolerant ones. WE are the ones who tolerate many religions. Orthodox Muslim nations oppress other religions. The heart of Islam, Saudi Arabia, bans Bibles and will not allow ANY expression of the Christian faith. Yet WE continue to be inclusive and even to the point of printing a Muslim stamp in ARABIC! What more do these people want?

 

[St_John]

And, if the best example of Jewish terrorism you can come up with is from the 1940’s, then I’d say that that you have a weak case, especially in light of the fact that the Jewish people were just reeling from being practically wiped off the face of Europe by the Holocaust. Good Lord, these people were probably Holocaust survivors at that time!

 

[Mirdath]

That’s the “one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in recorded history took place”? Isn’t that a bit of an exageration? Anyways, Jews in the United States are for the most part good citizens, and generally aren’t prone to terroristic acts of violence. They aren’t trying to undermine the foundations of our society. Not that all Muslims are, but anyways this was a thread about a postage stamp that was in Arabic.

Muslims in the United States are also for the most part good citizens, and generally aren’t prone to terroristic acts of violence. They’re just as human, just as moral, and just as noble as any other group of people. This is all kind of like some bizarre modern-day Merchant of Venice except Shylock’s Muslim – I thought society was past all that!

I don’t think the United States should have it’s postage stamps in another language, and especially in a language spoken by people that are mostly hostile to us and our values. The Arab world is mostly against us. The Muslim world celebrated 911, or at least was sympathetic it’s cause.

See above, in that the ‘Muslim world’ is not a huge hive-mind bloc. Some members of it did celebrate the bombings. Most didn’t. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church celebrated Sept. 11 – still do, in fact. And they’re Christian, or at least claim to be. And they speak English. Guess we’ll have to switch to Esperanto now?

I think that the Muslim world is mostly against us. Of all the people in the whole world, I think the Muslims view the United States as their enemy. And, WE are the tolerant ones. WE are the ones who tolerate many religions. Orthodox Muslim nations oppress other religions. The heart of Islam, Saudi Arabia, bans Bibles and will not allow ANY expression of the Christian faith. Yet WE continue to be inclusive and even to the point of printing a Muslim stamp in ARABIC! What more do these people want?

No, crazy fanatics view the United States as their enemy. Others may not like the US, but then that’s their prerogative – and honestly, given this country’s behavior internationally both current and past, it’s hard for me to find fault with that attitude.

As to orthodox Muslim government – yes, I realize that, and yes, I wouldn’t want to live in Saudi Arabia. I have major problems with theocracies of all stripes. But don’t make the mistake of conflating religion and hard-line theocracies; if Israel were ruled by the Mosaic Law, there’d hardly be anyone left to stone the next guy!

The United States should be inclusive and should be tolerant of all religions because that is one of the founding principles of this nation. It’s not a question of ‘what more do they want?’ at all – all religions should be on an equal footing as far as the government is concerned (also, outside it). Christians get a Christmas stamp – great, let the Jews have a Hanukkah one, the Muslims one for Eid, Kwanzaa for whoever celebrates that, even Solstice for pagans, and just let us non-religious people have our snowflakes or whatever. I happen to love the design of the Eid one, as I said I’m planning to get a book of those. They’re beautiful, even if they hold no sacred meaning for me.

And, if the best example of Jewish terrorism you can come up with is from the 1940’s, then I’d say that that you have a weak case, especially in light of the fact that the Jewish people were just reeling from being practically wiped off the face of Europe by the Holocaust. Good Lord, these people were probably Holocaust survivors at that time!

One could make a perfectly arguable case that Israel’s current/recent actions toward Palestine and its other neighbors constitute terrorism on a nationalized scale – particularly, that the war in Lebanon was a war between two nationally organized terrorist groups. I’m not going to do that here. Let’s argue about postage stamps.