Stamp Honors Islamic Holidays
 Muslim organizations are struggling to encourage use of the recently issued U.S. postage stamp honoring Islamic holidays. The dark blue stamp with gold calligraphy went on sale 10 days before the Sept. 11 attacks. Activists now fear a public backlash could condemn the stamp - the product of a five-year lobbying effort - to oblivion.
The stamp carries English text saying ``Eid Greetings'' plus Arabic script that reads "Eid mubarak," a phrase Muslims use to wish each other well during major festivals.
Amineh Assilimi of Taylor Mill, Kentucky, who is a member of the International Union of Muslim Women. led the campaign to get the stamp issued. She started the effort after a Muslim fifth-grader who collected stamps saw the 1996 Hanukkah (the jewish festival) issue and asked her what OUR stamp looked like.
"I told him there wasn't one and he said: 'You can get one for us,' '' she recalled.
The result was more than 10,000 letters to the postmaster general, 8,000 proposed designs from school children, a mile-long banner and a postcard drive that culminated in release of the Eid stamp.
Most stamps in the U.S. are sold for on a limited period of time. Special stamps such as those for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Cinco de Mayo can become permanent and be reissued annually if they sell well enough.
Postal Service spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky said the Eid stamp seems to be popular but it is too early to have accurate sales numbers. About 75 million of the stamps were printed.
Matters were complicated when the stamp was left off a lobby poster printed by the postal service to encourage sales of holiday stamps. The agency quickly apologized and said it is having the poster reprinted.
Since the terrorist attacks, there have been complaints about having an Islamic-related stamp on sale. Conservative Paul Weyrich even urged that the stamp be withdrawn and the image of the World Trade Centers printed over it.
Assilmi said having a stamp honoring their faith made Muslim children feel more strongly as Americans.
The stamp commemorates the two most important festivals, or eids, in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Fitr is the feast of breaking the fast and marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Eid al-Adha takes place just over two months later, at the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy city Mecca. It will occur on Feb. 23.
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Khorsheed.com - Jan 2002
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