According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the email-which had a subject line of “DO NOT BUY THIS STAMP”-falsely claims the stamp is new and that its creation was ordered by President Obama.
The email also said, “REMEMBER to adamantly & vocally BOYCOTT this stamp, when you are 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.”
Contrary to what the circulated email stated, the Eid stamp was originally issued in 2001 and was re-issued several times as prices increased. The most recent 44-cent version was issued last September. While it was issued during the Bush Administration, politicians no longer decide what stamps will be issued, as Franklin Roosevelt used to do. For a third of century, the Postal Service has been a corporation divorced from elected officials.
The email circulated by staffers of the Seminole County sheriiff’s office was actually an old one that has popped up periodically over the years.
Sheriff Donald F. Eslinger last week assured CAIR that the anti-Islam message was not reflective of his entire department, and said the staffers who had circulated the message had been reminded of the policy barring such actions.
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper thanked Eslinger for what he called a “prompt and professional” response and sent the sheriff a copy of the Qoran. “We thank Sheriff Eslinger for his prompt and professional response to this incident and for his rejection of intolerance,” Hooper said.
Hooper said he sent the Qoran as part of the Islamic advocacy organization’s “Explore the Quran” campaign, which is distributing free copies of the Qoran to 100,000 local, state and national leaders. Last year, CAIR sent a copy of the Qoran to a Tennessee mayor who circulated the same e-mail calling for a protest of the Eid stamp.
The Eid stamp is part of the Postal Service’s series of holiday stamps marking Christmas, Chanukkah and Kwanzaa as well as the two eids.
