I recently got a forwarded mass email about the Eid stamp letter. Yes, I disagree with many positions that Islam takes, and sure, some members of this group behave in ways that unabashedly despicable. (Of course, we could say that about any demographic, and yes, that includes some I am members of.)
Here is the text:
REMEMBER 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 Lebonan! 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 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 EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class Holiday postage stamp. Bull! 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!!!!!
I disagreed with this because it just assumes that all Muslims are a singular monolithic block of people. No group of people is entirely homogenous. Here is the response I sent:
I am afraid that I am going to have to disagree here. I also remember my friend, Mary Al-Hasnawi, who has never been anything other than kind and gracious. I also remember her telling me about someone calling in a bomb threat to the Islamic Cultural Center a few days after 9/11 when there were women and children there. I also recall the Sikh man who was murdered (in Arizona, I think) at about the same time. The jackasses who committed the crime were too dumb to realize that not everyone who has brown skin and wears a turban belongs to the same faith tradition. I have known other Muslims who are good, kind and decent folks. Not all Christians are like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or the crazies who bomb abortion clinics in the name of being pro-life. It would be really crappy for me to assume that all Christians are vile nasty bigots. (And I could also try to argue that since Muslims, Jews, and Christians are all Abrahamic faiths that the atrocities committed by some of the adherents of each is the same sort of "proof" that Abrahamic faiths are barbaric.) Furthermore, nothing is more vexing to extremists that NOT dividing the world into black and white. If I really am worthy of respect, then I need to extend that to others. Recognizing that a religious holiday is important to a minority that already lives and pays taxes in this country is appropriate in my opinion. Sorry to blather on.
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