Eid Stamp: Why A Tiny Stamp Deserves A Huge Protest

Recently, a newspaper reporter called the Free Congress Foundation to inquire about our efforts against the Eid Stamp. The story has not been printed yet, but the interviewer appeared to believe that the Free Congress Foundation had made a huge commotion last year over the issuance of a tiny 34-cent stamp.

The U.S. Post Office decided to issue the stamp last year after an intensive lobbying campaign by the well-funded Islamic lobby in Washington and their allies within the Republican Party. The stamp's purpose is to honor the two primary festivals of the Islamic calendar. It was issued just before September 11th.

Since then, the Post Office has decided to reissue the Eid Stamp and the price has risen by three cents, an increase that has been applied to other postage stamps as well.

I will have to trust the basic fairness that should be expected of the journalist who called and spoke to Free Congress staff members to ensure this story receives the serious treatment that it deserves. As you and I both know, that does not always prove to be the case. But there is a serious story occurring that many in the establishment news media are unwilling to recognize. As a matter of fact, if more in the news media did their jobs right and reported the real story, then we would be talking about much more than the stamp.

The story is this: We are not at war with a gang of terrorists. Al Qaeda is not the Jesse James gang with Arabic surnames. It is not even that we are at war with Islam. Rather, Islam is at war against us.

The sooner Americans recognize this fact then the safer we will be as a nation.

I have had much good to say about President Bush in recent months. But one thing that concerned me before September 11th and concerns me even more now is his administration's constant promotion of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance just like Judaism or Christianity.

It is neither. That is why my colleague, Bill Lind, and I decided to urge the leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives to have the stamp be withdrawn from circulation, overprinted with the image of the World Trade Towers, and then reissued. The effort went nowhere, but the case for doing so remains clear in my mind because symbols matter.

Would our country have issued a swastika flag stamp in 1941? Would our country have issued a hammer and sickle stamp in 1955?

The answer is no on both counts. Actually, a flag stamp issued by our government featuring Nazi Germany's swastika or the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle would have been unthinkable.

That is why we raised the issue of the Eid. We wanted to encourage debate about what Islam really stands for and why we have good reason not to honor the religion. As a nation, we still need to have that debate.

This is very hard for most Americans to understand, but it needs to be said over and over again.

Islam at its core is hostile to the West and the values that comprise the Judeo-Christian tradition, including the emphasis on tolerance and peace that many in the establishment are now so eager to promote as being the true values of Islam.

There are many Muslims who are peaceful, but the fact is that the core of the religion itself is not peaceful.

Free Congress Foundation has issued several monographs that make this very point including the one that I co-authored with Bill Lind: Why Islam is a Threat to America and the West. We use actual quotes from the Qur'an and other Islamic documents to demonstrate the hostility of the religion toward what it considers "unbelievers," which include Christians and Jews.

Here are some of those quotes from the Qur'an:

Sura 9:1-6: ...fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem (of war).

Sura 9:29-31: Forbid those who believe not in God nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle (Mohammed), nor acknowledge the religion of truth (Islam), (even if they are) of the people of the Book (Christians and Jews), until they pay the jizya (poll tax on non-Islamics) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Sura 5:36-38: The punishment of those who wage war against God and his Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land.

Our adjunct scholar, Robert Spencer, has noted in the monographs he has written for Free Congress Foundation (An Introduction to the Qur'an; Women and Islam; An Islamic Primer; and Islam and the West) that the Judeo-Christian tradition as it has evolved does not sanction violence and intolerance in the manner that important Islamic texts do, including the Qur'an, which Muslims take to be the literal words of Allah himself. Spencer has said that many Muslims are not violent, but as long as those texts are to be taken literally by believers, then there will be violence committed by Islamics against non-believers.

That hostility against Christians and Jews is taking place in the world today, not just with 9/11 and Bali, but in the Sudan, in Nigeria, and on the West Bank. Our own State Department describes the area where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil intersect as a "focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America."

All those nations are discovering how widespread among Muslims is the opinion expressed long ago by the ambassador to the United Nations from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sa'id Raja'I-Khorassani: that the idea of universal human rights was "a Judeo-Christian invention," foreign to Islam.

President Bush and too many in our government have it wrong. Because Rev. Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson are willing to challenge popular misconceptions about what Islam is about, they should not be on the receiving end of verbal brickbats from Secretary of State Colin Powell. It should be the enemy that receives the opprobrium of the President and Secretary of State. Make no mistake: that enemy is Islam, and it is hard to believe that the United States government is honoring our foremost adversary in the world today with a stamp.

If we can't recognize the folly of that, then are we really prepared to face the future?

(Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.)

Copyright 2002, Free Congress Foundation

>Many Muslims come to America because they want to live in a secular society, away from religious oppression.

Many come to America because they are radicals who are actually suppressed in their home countries. They come to America because they want to destroy it.

see www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,71036,00.html below

Hezbollah murderers swearing allegiance to the group's secretary general with chants of "Death to America, death to Israel" and other scenes from a Hezbollah training video would seemingly be found in a far-off land.

But the never-before-seen video -- recorded four years ago -- was seized from Charlotte, N.C., residents, arrested more than a year before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"You wouldn't ordinarily expect Charlotte to be the focal point of Hezbollah activities, would you?" said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on methods of combating terror financing.

Many Muslims come to America because they want to live in a secular society, away from religious oppression. I don't think they would be in favor of imposing Islamic law in America.,

I believe this may be true. Of course many people confuse Arabs with Muslims, when in fact many Arabs are not Muslims, and many Muslims are not Arabs, in fact there are more non-Arab Muslims than Arab Muslims.

The one question I have is this, if Muslims come here because they wish to live in a secular society, and really know what that means, since, part of what that means, is defying what their religion teaches, why do they stay Muslims? I do know part of the answer, by the way. There is a death sentence for giving up the Muslim religion.

So what happens when the Mullah says, "we must act now, and all Muslims who do not act with us, are rejecting Islam, and are sentenced to death?"

(By the way, the Muslims will never take over America. There are much worse dangers. Mostly they will be a source of great trouble only.)

Hank

When they become Muslim Americans instead of American Muslims, then maybe we can talk.

No. When they become Americans and Christian we can talk. By command of their holy book all muslims are terrorists. Every last one. Either they are a terrorist or they are not a muslim. It's written in their own scriptures for crying out loud.

The plague of islam must be eradicated before this war ends.

God (Jehovah, Yahweh, Jesus) Save America (Please)

Yes, I am upset that there has not been issued a stamp to celebrate Satanism. Hundreds of loyal Americans in places like El Paso, Las Cruces, NM, and San Fancisco are Satanists, and they take their lack of faith very seriously. Maybe a stamp with a pentagram would be nice, or an upside-down cross.

Satanism has played just as much a role in the underlying philosophies that have built this nation as the values of Mohammad.

Everyone knows, too, that the thinkers that gave us our Constitution, system of government, and the American hope and imaginantion were strongly influenced by Hindu and Bhuddist philosophies. "Everything is just a dream," said George Washington. "I hope I come back as a horse," said Thomas Jefferson.

Was it James Madison that often quoted the Koran: "Praise God, that he has no begotten son?"

Atheism was also very prominent in the founding of our culture. Yes, all these worldviews are equal, and by God, er, I mean, by everything and nothing, they ought to be celebrated! All cultures and all thinking and all ideas are as good as any other culture, thought, or idea. It is all one, big, wonderful bowl of mush!

No. When they become Americans and Christian we can talk.

You know, if I was a Democratic strategist, one of my top goals would be alienating the Muslim voters from the GOP that 70% of them reputedly support. There may not be many of them, but they are concentrated in key states like Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Florida. One good way might be by posing as a conservative and spouting anti-Islamic bigotry.

-Eric

You are right. I have a friend from Egypt who pretends to be a Muslim whenever he is with Muslims. When he is alone with me or other American friends, he expresses more of a disdain for Islam than any of us. I always thought this was rather ignoble of him, but then I realized the pressure he is under in the Muslim community here, and I cut him some slack for his two-facedness.

He does not see yet the influence that a certain school of Christianity had on the success of this country (as well as literacy levels, thought, and success in some other historically Protestant countries), and he thinks my faith in Christ is ridiculous, but he is every bit as hardline a Constitutional conservative, and patriot as I am. I agree with few people more about politics, and I am considered a far right-winger by most.

On the other hand, I have never known a devout Muslim (and I have known several well, and even had good, jovial conversation with them) who have any love or gratitude for this country. The teachings of Mohammad (taken as a whole)are completely at odds with the underpinning philosophies, and historical philosophies, of this nation.

the Muslim voters from the GOP that 70% of them reputedly support

You must be polling in Bizzaro World. Either that or I missed all the conservative, pro-Republican acticles on the Web sites of the "moderate" Islamic orgaizations you cited.

The bottom line is that the job is not done until Islam becomes a minor religious abberation like the Church of Bob. Seriously, though: Until people in what are now Islamic countries have the well-protected right to choose to leave Islam, Islam will continue to be a malignant tumor on the world.

YOur Post#54 Facts! Facts! We don't want no steeenking fax! Don't you know we are peaceful. Even your President said so. If you don't stop, we'll behead you in the name of peace.

#55 - Can you imagine the uproar if the stamp was cancelled.
Why, the Saudis would have to retaliate by burning their Xmas stamps.

"...most American Muslims move here to get away from "Sharia" government"

Many American Muslims probably did move here to get away from repressive Islamic laws and governments and to enjoy the mall, movies and all the comforts of life the West has to offer.

However, I personally believe that such Muslims, however benevolent, are not truly embracing the tenets of Islam. And I am thankful that they don't! If one is truly honest, the radical jihadists of the world are reading and following their Qur'an in the footsteps of Mohammad, and the peaceful, patriotic American Muslims are not. It would be anathema for hardcore Muslims to come here for any purpose other than to convert America to Islam, or to conquer us.

Sorry if I don't buy off on the religion of peace theory. I just can't equate flag-burning, throat-slitting, slave-taking, bus-bombing chauvinistic moon god worshippers with Jews and Christians. Call it my own personal weakness.

Okay, I see your deal. Never mind. Have a nice day.

Bwahahahahaha. Why don't you take one of my quotes out of context, will you? I'm the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor, much of my family is in Israel, and my point was to counter a frequent argument of American anti-Semites, you dolt.

Yeah, you see my deal...

my point was to counter a frequent argument of American anti-Semites

If you mean that American Jews have divided sympathies, that is almost certainly correct, but only among a minority of them. And it isn't a problem since U.S. and Israeli interests are mostly aligned - at least as much as with any other important ally. You are making an elaborate and oblique argument that rests on American Jews being directly comparable to American Moslems. If you can't tell the differnce, what can you be told?

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