Intolerance and Hatred
"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
-G.W. Bush
Someone forwarded me an email this morning spreading more hatred and intolerance against Muslims. On top of that, this email message is just a recirculation of a nasty email that went out in 2002. While the facts are basically correct, they are definitely arguable.
This mailing falls under the category “urban legends and folklore”.
The mailing goes along the line:
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.
I strongly urge you to REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your holiday 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.
I also strongly urge you to pass this along to every Patriotic AMERICAN you know, whether by email or otherwise.
Comments:
The U.S. Postal Service issued the Eid stamp commemorating the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr (marking the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (marking the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca) as part of its multicultural Holiday Celebrations series on September 1, 2001. Evidently it was the reissuing of this popular postage stamp a year later in October 2002, barely a month after the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, that prompted the angry email protest above.
The assertion that buying this stamp is "a slap in the face" to victims of terrorism is arguable, to say the least. While the specific allegations are factually accurate — all the terrorist acts listed in the email have been attributed to avowed Muslims — it's rather a large leap from there to blaming all Muslims and the Islamic faith in general for those atrocities. There are pundits, granted, who claim that violence and terrorism are endemic to Islam (notably conservative Christians such as Jerry Falwell and Paul M. Weyrich), but theirs is a minority view staunchly rejected by experts in comparative religion, not to mention the U.S. government and President George W. Bush himself. "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," Bush has stated publicly. "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
President Bush issues yearly proclamations commemorating the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. We have yet to hear anyone question his patriotism or condemn his statements on Islam as "a slap in the face" to victims of terrorism.
If you receive this email, feel free to direct the sender (and all recipients, if you wish) to this posting.
-G.W. Bush
Someone forwarded me an email this morning spreading more hatred and intolerance against Muslims. On top of that, this email message is just a recirculation of a nasty email that went out in 2002. While the facts are basically correct, they are definitely arguable.
This mailing falls under the category “urban legends and folklore”.
The mailing goes along the line:
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.
I strongly urge you to REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your holiday 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.
I also strongly urge you to pass this along to every Patriotic AMERICAN you know, whether by email or otherwise.
Comments:
The U.S. Postal Service issued the Eid stamp commemorating the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr (marking the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (marking the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca) as part of its multicultural Holiday Celebrations series on September 1, 2001. Evidently it was the reissuing of this popular postage stamp a year later in October 2002, barely a month after the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, that prompted the angry email protest above.
The assertion that buying this stamp is "a slap in the face" to victims of terrorism is arguable, to say the least. While the specific allegations are factually accurate — all the terrorist acts listed in the email have been attributed to avowed Muslims — it's rather a large leap from there to blaming all Muslims and the Islamic faith in general for those atrocities. There are pundits, granted, who claim that violence and terrorism are endemic to Islam (notably conservative Christians such as Jerry Falwell and Paul M. Weyrich), but theirs is a minority view staunchly rejected by experts in comparative religion, not to mention the U.S. government and President George W. Bush himself. "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," Bush has stated publicly. "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
President Bush issues yearly proclamations commemorating the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. We have yet to hear anyone question his patriotism or condemn his statements on Islam as "a slap in the face" to victims of terrorism.
If you receive this email, feel free to direct the sender (and all recipients, if you wish) to this posting.
Comments