Postal Service Reissues Muslim Stamp
Some Had Protested Image Honoring Eid Feast Days
By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 18, 2002; Page B03
A postage stamp that commemorates Muslim feast days known as Eid, issued first by the U.S. Postal Service last year and created by an Arlington artist, has been reprinted this year, despite requests for its retraction immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Thirty-five million blue and gold stamps that acknowledge the holidays, celebrated just after Ramadan and after the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, were reissued Oct. 10, a sign of the stamp's popularity and the Postal Service's commitment to including Muslim feasts in the pantheon of holiday celebrations that include Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas, officials said this week. About 75 million stamps were printed last year when the design was unveiled Sept. 1, 2001, an official said.
"Anecdotally, we got all kinds of responses from customers saying how beautiful the stamps were and asking where they could get more," said Cathy Yarosky, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service.
The stamp's immediate future was in doubt last year, however, after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which fueled pockets of anti-Muslim sentiment.
Mekeel's and Stamps Magazine, a weekly philatelic newsletter, ran editorials against using the stamp, citing the terrorist attacks. The publication urged Muslims and others to support a stamp that depicted a U.S. flag instead. Meanwhile, the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative policy group, asked Republican congressional leaders to retract the stamp. There have been no such efforts this year, postal officials said.
Designed by Arlington calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, 60, the stamp features the Arabic words "Eid Mubarak," which mean "Have a Happy Eid" or "May your Eid be blessed," Zakariya said.
"Eid" refers to the two major feasts of the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The first holiday, a three-day feast, celebrates the end of fasting during the month of Ramadan, which this year starts Nov. 6 and ends Dec. 5. The second feast, a four-day holiday, marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and will begin Feb. 11.
Zakariya said this week that he was unaware that the stamp had been reissued until he walked into his local post office this week and was able to buy several books. He has received nothing but compliments on his design, he said, adding that last year's efforts to discontinue the stamp had been troubling. Zakariya, who moved to Arlington from Los Angeles in 1971, works out of a home studio, creating book jackets and various Arabic designs. He said that the stamp design was a high point of his artistic career.
But he modestly played down the stamp's reissue, saying that he was just proud to have his work displayed nationally.
"I don't think you need a lot of trumpets announcing its printing," said the lifelong calligrapher. "But it's a solid gesture, and there are a lot of people out there who enjoy the design and the stamp."
National Muslim groups had lobbied the Postal Service for five years to have the feast included in the holiday series. The stamp is exactly the same as it was last year, postal officials said, except that it now costs 37 cents.
"By reissuing the stamp, the Postal Service is supporting the American Muslim community in a small but important way," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the several organizations that lobbied to print the stamp initially.
Note: © 2002 The Washington Post Company
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