-Caveat Lector-
www.sfgate.com Return to regular view Muslims try to boost sales of stamp with Arabic greeting Anastasia Hendrix, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, November 30, 2001 ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/11/30/MN133032.DTL Heading to prayer services at his Santa Clara mosque one recent Friday afternoon, Helal Omeira saw another Muslim near the entrance selling postage stamps to passers-by. Imams, or mosque leaders, have urged people to make extra trips to the post office. Mass e-mails from Muslim organizations encourage the same. And people are selling sheets of stamps to friends and at fund- raisers -- all in an attempt to increase the circulation of the new Eid stamp. The stamp, issued just 10 days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, features golden Arabic calligraphy on a blue background that says "Eid Mubarek" -- the greeting used to celebrate the two holiest Islamic holidays, Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan fasting, and Eid al- Adha, the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Several Muslim organizations are worried that bewilderment about the stamp's meaning and design might limit its popularity and future availability. "After Sept. 11, some people were confused about what it represented and shied away from it, but essentially, what it says is that 'We wish you the best in your festivities,' and it could be a universal message for anyone celebrating a religious holiday," said Ray Busch, director of government affairs for the American Muslim Council in Washington, D.C. The council's Web site urges users to "Make our Eid stamp permanent." Many Muslims were further upset after the U.S. Postal Service didn't include the Eid stamp on a poster promoting holiday stamps, but it has apologized and will republish the poster. Still, there is a lingering fear there might not be enough demand to warrant a reissue, "so there is a real word-of-mouth effort going on telling people to buy the stamps," said Amatullah Almarwani, director of community affairs for the Islamic Society of San Francisco. Omeira, executive director of the Northern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has sent hundreds of e-mail messages reminding organizations and individuals to buy the stamps. "I personally went out and bought a couple of hundred dollars worth and put them on all my letters and everything that leaves my office," Omeira said. Nasira Abdul-Aleem, a volunteer with the Islamic Networks Group in San Jose, said she bought $400 worth of stamps in Berkeley for the organization. "I share the concern because of what happened at my local post office," she said, explaining that the stamps weren't on display and had to be retrieved from a backroom safe after she asked for them. At San Francisco's Sutter Station in the Financial District, more than a dozen packages of Eid stamps hang beside the other holiday designs: Madonna and child, Santa Claus, Hanukkah candles and Kwanzaa. A postal clerk said the Eid stamps are outsold about 10 to 1, and a few people have put them back on the shelf after realizing they convey an Arabic greeting. The most popular stamp at the moment is the Statue of Liberty and the United We Stand American flag stamps, said the clerk, who would not give her name. At the Union Square post office in Macy's basement, a postal clerk said he gets very few requests for the Eid stamps and had none in his drawer. But when he checked in the back, he said 300 packages were available. Samir Laymoun of the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara said some talk-radio callers deem the stamp "unpatriotic," and a few even think it should be revoked. "Most of us really, really thought this was going to be a hit as a stamp because it's really a gorgeous piece of stamp work," said the stamp's designer, Mohamed Zakariya of Arlington, Va., an American convert to Islam. It wouldn't be the first time awkwardness has surrounded a stamp, said William R. Wallace of the San Francisco-Pacific Philatelic Society. In 1981, the post office issued an alcoholism awareness commemorative stamp that was far from popular, he said. "It said 'You can beat it,' and people didn't want to use that to send letters to people because it implied that the person might have a problem," he said. Don Smeraldi, a spokesman for the post office in Washington, D.C., said about 35 million Eid stamps are left in distribution warehouses. Because the stamp was released as part of the holiday series and not as a one-time commemorative, Smeraldi said, the reissuing process is more flexible and will depend largely on whether postal rates change and whether the stamps sell out. E-mail Anastasia Hendrix at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. 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