Reading to Write

My Path to Becoming an Author

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Today I received a forwarded message from a female acquaintance. My opinion of her shifted after reading it. I had thought her an intelligent, gentle, Christian lady. She probably thinks of herself that way. I am no longer sure we are right.

I won’t dignify the thing with a full quote, but it was another tirade against Obama and Muslims brought on by a new stamp supposedly being issued by Obama to honor one of their holidays. It starts out with saying that the government is trying to disguise the stamp by including hearts and butterflies on it, as if Muslims don’t have any connection with such things. Then it brings up all the times over the past 10 years or so that we’ve been attacked by “Muslims” and urges people, as an act of patriotism, to refuse to accept the stamp when it is offered by the post office.

This email may have been forwarded as a thoughtless, knee-jerk attempt at patriotism, although I’d call the reaction more one of nationalism than patriotism. If you don’t think there’s a difference, read George Orwell’s “Notes on Nationalism.” Even though it was written in 1945, the truth of it still applies today. Orwell defined patriotism as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people.” In other words, patriotism is simple pride in the good things about your country while Nationalism is “my country right or wrong.”

In part, he says about nationalism:

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral color when committed by ‘our’ side.… The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

I think it has been demonstrated several times over the past few years that we are as capable of atrocities as are Muslims even though some people are able to turn a blind eye to it.

Perhaps they have become victims of that Old Testament teaching of personal vengeance. Maybe the people who are supporting this attitude think they are supporting their religion. If so, they don’t really understand the basic precepts of Christianity. Branding all Muslims as terrorists because of the extremist group, Al Qaeda, is like saying all Christians are Pentecostal. Promoting hate of all Muslims because of the actions of a few is not a “Christian” act. The New Testament tells us to forgive our enemies and turn the other cheek when we are injured. Nowhere in Jesus’ teaching does He promote violence. He says vengeance belongs to God.

Our country claims to believe all people are create equal. Our forefathers came here searching for religious freedom. We need to understand that means all religions, not just Christianity. Like the Jews, the Muslim people worship the same God we do. Their path is different than ours, but most of them seek a way to peace just like we claim to do.

We need to be focusing our hatred on the acts of extremists, no matter what their religion, nationality, or political beliefs. Instead of modeling our own behavior after those extremists, we should be trying harder to be peacemakers.

The stamp this email claimed to be so incensed about isn’t even real. It was created at zazzle.com, probably just for use in this inflammatory email. The real stamp was issued in 2001 and has been renewed without alteration each year since. It isn’t automatically offered to the general public, you have to request it at the window. It celebrates two Muslim holidays. According to about.com:

In the summer of 2001, the U.S. Postal Service began sales of the first postage stamp honoring the country’s Muslims. There are nearly 7 million Muslims living in the United States, and this stamp was issued to commemorate the two main Islamic holidays. Thus, it is properly known as the “Eid Stamp.”

Eid is a generic Arabic term that means “holiday” or “festival.” Islam recognizes two holidays, specifically known as Eid al-Fitr (Festival of Fast-Breaking) and Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice). The Arabic script on the stamp says Eid Mubarak, or “Blessed Festival.” This greeting can apply to either of the two celebrations.

Intelligent, thinking people stopped sending chain letters a long time ago. Maybe today’s “chain letter” is more insidious. Sending chain emails is much easier and cheaper. However, they are no more reliable than that piece of paper claiming that “breaking the chain” would bring down disaster. Whenever we receive one of these things, we need to automatically search snopes.com before sending it on to our friends.

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