The U.S. Post Office has issued its latest stamp to commemorate the Muslim religious holiday of Ramadan with its latest “Eid Stamp” — Eid meaning Holiday in Arabic. Despite social media racism claiming the stamp was issued by “Muslim President Barack Obama,” the first Eid Stamp was actually ordered by former President George W. Bush just before Sept. 11, 2001.
By Ray Hanania
covering Chicago
City Hall
(1976-1992)
People will go to any lengths to bash Muslims these days and the latest social media thread involves claims that “Muslim President Barack Hussein Obama has again ordered a new stamp to honor his religion.”
Well, we all know President Obama is not Muslim, he is a Christian. And while his middle name is a common Arab name, used often by Muslims but also by some Christian Arabs, too, President Obama did not order the first Stamp to recognize American Muslims and their holiday (Eid in Arabic) of Ramadan.
The first stamp to honor the Muslim Eid was ordered by President George W. Bush before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In fact, the issuance of the stamp had nothing to do with the terrorism and everything to do with the tradition of this nation recognizing major religious holidays.
With the increasing population of Muslims in the United States — as many as 7 million by last count — it’s no wonder that the United States Postal Service has issued the stamp in recognition of their religious beliefs.
Bush unveiled the first Eid Stamp on August 1, 2001, which was valued at 34 cents, the First Class stamp rate. The U.S. Postal Service has re-iussed the stamp to reflect the increasing stamp costs. When the costs of a First Class Stamp increased to 37 cents, new stamps including one for the Eid, were issued again on Oct. 10, 2002. And the costs of postage have continued to increase several more times, each time with new stamps, including a new Eid stamp, issued, too.
The increases were in 2006, with a 39-cent denomination; in 2007, at 41 cents; in 2008, at 42 cents; and on Sept. 3, 2009, at 44 cents. Soon after, the U.S. Postal Service decided to remove the value fro postage stamps calling them “Forever” stamps and the value of the stamp would increase regardless of how much you paid when you purchased the stamp.
The Eid Stamps commemorates the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
The most recent Eid Stamp was authorized in December 2015 and is listed on the U.S. Postal Service website as follows:
Eid Greetings
Featuring a design that evokes centuries of tradition, this stamp commemorates the two most important festivals—or eids—in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The gold-colored calligraphy on the Forever stamp was created by world-renowned calligrapher Mohamed Zakaria of Arlington, VA.
The script reads Eidukum mumbarak, “May your Eid be bountiful (or blessed).
As he has with all previous Eid stamps, Zakariya employed traditional methods to instruments to create the design. He used homemade black ink, and his pens were crafted from seasoned reeds from the Near East and Japanese Bamboo from Hawaii. The paper was specially prepared with a coating of starch and three coats of alum and egg-white varnish, then burnished with an agate stone and aged for more than a year. The black-and-white designed was then colorized by computer. Ethel Kessler was the art director.
Here is the 2013 Eid Stamp.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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