Subject: Fw: (no subject)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:34:03 -0800
From: (I'm going to leave her name out of this, because I have always highly respected her and I can't imagine that she actually agrees with this crap! I suspect that somebody else passed it on using her computer.)

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!
Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class holiday postage stamp.
REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when 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. REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know.

I have to admit that I don't really "get" this, but I believe the idea here is that the sender(s) want me to "boycott" a commemorative USPS stamp that honors the Muslim holiday season (specifically, the Feast of Sacrifice), for reasons that are just plain silly!

Maybe it's just because I'm old and senile, but I'm confused.

How does one "boycott" a stamp? Does that mean "don't buy it?" Damn! I've been "boycotting" ladies' underwear for a long time! I've never bought any! Doesn't seem to have done much to the ladies' underwear industry.

Exactly what good does "boycotting" do, anyway?

Back in 2001, a black south Mississippi radio commentator began complaining about the design of the Mississippi state flag, which contains an inset of the Confederate battle flag. Thousands of black people rallied to her cause and began demonstrating against the Mississippi, Georgia, Confederate, and any other flag which has a similar design. They claimed that this was a "symbol of slavery" which filled black people, none of whom had ever been slaves or lived in the Confederacy, with fear and loathing. They threatened an economic "boycott" of any business which displayed anything resembling the Rebel flag.

Virtually overnight, Rebel flags sprang up in restaurants all across south Mississippi. One garrison-sized Rebel flag could be seen over 5 miles away along US Highway 49. Black customers stayed away in droves and the "Rebel" restaurants went back to serving only white patrons and keeping the blacks out. Apparently this is "good" segregation, as opposed to the "bad" segregation when blacks were kept out of the exact same restaurants because the white patrons didn't want to eat with them.

Apparently "boycotting" businesses works. I don't know about stamps.

As I understand it (and someone please educate me if I am wrong), there is supposedly some good to be gained by "boycotting" (whatever that means) a stamp which honors a religion that preaches peace, responsibility, and self-control. The purpose of all of this is apparently because some people who did bad things pretended to be members of that religion, even though anyone who knows anything about Islam knows that they actually weren't.

Let's see where this leads.....

All these nasty things were done by people who were darker than me. Should I hate everyone whose skin is a different color than mine? They were all younger than me. Obviously I should hate anyone younger than 63! Or maybe it's just Islamic things I should hate. Don't use Arabic numbers, they're Muslim inventions. Do your arithmetic in Roman numerals! Get rid of all the telescopes and Star Trek merchandise; astronomy is a Muslim invention. Smash your computer! It works on digital logic; ones and zeros, and "zero" is a Muslim word. Don't go to the doctor; most modern medical practices were invented by Muslims. And if you are lost in the wilderness without a compass, you better damn well stay lost, because celestial navigation was developed by Muslims!

And don't even get me started on the Nation of Islam, Black Muslims, for God's sake!

Let me tell you about real Muslims.

Real Muslims are good citizens. They discharge their civic duties, pay their taxes, and obey the law. Real Muslims don't go on welfare, or steal, or lie or cheat or use fake ID's to buy liquor. They don't rape people or mistreat little children or manufacture crystal meth. Real Muslims don't have to worry about STD's, because they only have sex with people they're married to. They don't drink alcohol or use illegal drugs or get grossly fat. They don't get tattoos, or "body jewelry" except pierced earrings. They don't run around in public in their night clothes or dress like low class whores or vagrants. Real Muslims eat healthy and exercise and stay clean and well-groomed because they know that the human body is a holy creature of God, and profaning it is a sin. They have only as many children as they can afford, and raise them in a family with a loving father and mothers who teach them to be well-mannered and respectful and devout. And real Muslims would never even think of talking or laughing or using a cell phone in a place of worship, because they have much more respect for the House of God!

In the words of my Muslim daughter:

"Muslims have to tell the truth, do charity, be kind, do not hurt people, and lots of things which you know... Islam means you believe on God with your whole heart!"

There is a word for such a war, "jihad." Jihad is not merely a just war, or a holy war, or a war in which Allah (the Arabic word for "the Most High God," for which not even Christianity has an equivalent) is on "our" side. It is total, absolute, uncompromising war; against insuperable odds; one that involves not only the body, but the mind, the spirit, every resource and faculty of one's being, and which can be won only by the support and intervention of the One, Almighty, all merciful God.

Fasting is one of the Five Pillars. It is essentially a means by which a Muslim fights jihad against his baser self. It is a war against selfishness and laziness and licentiousness and evil inclinations. Muslims recognize that God condemns no one to hell, for His mercy is ten times as great as his infinite justice. Anyone who forsakes salvation condemns himself, by his own, voluntary action, and the best way to insure that one never takes such action is to constantly discipline the body, heart and mind to forsake the ways of the devil and instead surrender oneself to follow the path to perfection.

When Muslims discipline themselves by fasting, they do it with a passion! The quest is not for holiness, it is for perfection! Nothing less is appropriate to acknowledge a perfect God. There is none of this eating only certain things or taking only one full meal and two smaller meals to maintain strength or only drinking water for an hour before communion. Devout Muslims eat or drink nothing, not even water, for the entire season of Ramadan, sometimes while enduring hard physical labor in the scorching heat of the world's largest desert. They would certainly all die were it not for the fact that they can eat and drink at night, for fasting for "40 days," says nothing about the nights. This is not seen as a loophole, but as a certification of God's love for mankind, for He does not impose any requirement that man cannot bear. His laws are for instruction, not a burden. Over and over again, for the 40 days of Ramadan, each day of discipline is rewarded by the "ishtar" at sundown, when once again each Muslim is reassured of the reality of God's tender mercy and love.

Muslims also avoid the ingesting of unclean things, including pork, not merely as a ritual of their faith, but as part of the ongoing struggle to keep themselves pure, to be holy in body as well as spirit. They also avoid uncleanliness, fornication, adultery, drug abuse and alcohol, all of which pollute the body and present it as a less than perfect gift of self to God.

The third Pillar is contribution to charity, It is sometimes translated as "almsgiving," but this falls far short of the mark. Contribution to charity is a social responsibility not only for caring for the poor, but also of the sick and the ignorant, of insuring a healthy community for one's dealings with his fellow citizens, and of living up to one's social and civic duties and responsibilities. Muslims are required by their religion to give special comfort to the wounded and captured, and to welcome the stranger with open arms and generous hospitality. It is much more than lack of charity, it is a sin against God to turn one's back on one's neighbor in need.

The social responsibility required of Muslims includes helping each other to perfection. Successful men are enjoined to raise successful children, by as many as four wives if they can. They are required to protect and defend their families with the sacrifice of their lives if necessary. Women are required to deport themselves chastely in public, and not tempt the men by provocation or immodesty or suggestive behavior, whether they intend anything immoral or not. Muslim communities help each other to keep and practice their faith, and stand steadfast together in the face of the common threat of evil, heresy or persecution.

Small wonder then, that many Muslims see the western world as the enclave of Satan. They are shocked and appalled by our open displays of sinfulness and sexuality, of our disparity between rich and poor, our enchantment with senseless competition, our habit of climbing to success on the backs of others, of single-parent families. They are deeply suspicious of democracy, which they often see as mob rule by an undisciplined rabble, motivated only by unbridled lack of self control. They are very conscious of the fact that, less than a thousand years ago, their ancestors were brutalized and slaughtered by illiterate western invaders who claimed their homeland as the spoils awarded to the followers of a Christian God.

Islam admits of no possibility of negotiated truce with evil. Muslims do not backslide, they are not excused for unlawful behavior because they didn't mean it or they were disadvantaged children or because they are poor or misunderstood or unhappy or frustrated or because their ancestors were slaves. When a Muslim violates a law, especially a law of God, he commits a sin and jeopardizes his immortal soul, and both God and his fellow Muslims hold him, and him alone, accountable for his choice of act or omission. Only God's mercy can save the sinner and restore him to his initial state of holiness. God surely punishes the evildoer, but His mercy is ten times as great as His infinite justice.

There was a time not long ago in the United States when many ignorant and impoverished black people, long the subjects of racial persecution, sought salvation in the teachings of Islam. These Black Muslims took responsibility for their own destiny, and recognized that it was they themselves, not "whitey" or "the establishment" who determined whether they were successful and prosperous, or remained victims of a social structure dead before their parents were even born. Black Muslims were clean, neat, modest and well-groomed. They worked hard and took every advantage to better themselves through education, acquisition of skills, respect for the wisdom of their elders, and avoidance of degrading or harmful behavior. If they had little love for "blue-eyed devils," they also had little respect for their lazy, ignorant, dissipated brothers and sisters who considered it an essential exercise of their civil rights to spend their waking hours drinking, shooting up and fornicating rather than getting a job or going to school.

Today, the Black Muslims have become members of the worldwide Muslim community, and pursue their quest for perfection along with their brothers and sisters of other nations and races. Their "Nation of Islam" itself has become little more than a political party and advocate for black rights and social welfare, to the great detriment of its members. Real Black Muslims keep the Commandments and practice charity and self discipline, and they would never, never condemn an entire race for the actions of a few, even if the few were actually members of it.

The Fourth Pillar of Islam is prayer. Muslims pray to the same "Most High God" that Christians and Jews do, but they do it somewhat differently. Compared to Muslim liturgy, most Christian and Jewish prayer services are more like Sunday school or amateur entertainment. Muslims pray formally every day, from three to five times. They stop what they are doing, face Mecca, and repeat over and over the phrase, "God is great!" There is no excuse for missing prayers. If one is sick, one says his prayers from his hospital bed. Muslims do not attend services to be saved, or to feel good, or to learn about Scripture or to commune with their neighbors, although those are frequently their reward. They pray and attend formal services because it is an obligation of every creature to acknowledge the greatness of God.

The Muslim concept of God differs in some respects from other religions. Missing from Islam is the possessive concept of "our God" of ancient Judaism, and certainly the "brotherhood of Christ" which unites Christians. Muslims worship God as the supreme, all knowing, all merciful, all just, all wise, almighty, unending, creator and sustainer of all things and all peoples, infinitely perfect. They prostrate their unworthy selves and cover their faces in humble awe of His limitless majesty, splendor and goodness.

The hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, is the fifth Pillar of Islam. Every adult Muslim is required to make the hajj at least once in his lifetime "if he is able," the determination of his ability being left up to him. It is a visit to Jerusalem, Rome, Lourdes, Washington and the battlefield at Gettysburg all rolled into one. But this is not a sightseeing trip or simply a learning experience. By making the hajj, a Muslim unites himself with his fellow Muslims, ratifies his lifetime contract to honor God, and personally participates in the historical events of his faith.

On the hajj, the Muslim replaces his suit or kimono or dashiki or burnoose or loin cloth with a simple white garment, dressing the same as his fellow Muslims whatever his income or station. This garment symbolizes purity, and is a constant reminder to abstain from worldly things and keep his attention on spiritual matters. The entire hajj is a formal ceremony, where the participant runs with Hagar to find water for herself and her son, Ishmael, the father of all Arab peoples. The pilgrim visits the home of the Prophet, walks round a temple built by Abraham himself, and throws stones at Satan. At Mecca, a single Muslim can look around him and see literally millions of friendly faces, of every race under heaven, and come to know the immensity of God's love, which cares for each and every one of them.

A Muslim who has made the hajj receives the title "Hajji" (or "Haga" for women). It is a title of respect and honor for one who has perhaps spent his life savings to fulfill his duty to God. Muslims are rightly offended when this term is used for all Muslims, or for Arabs in general. It is like calling an orderly in a hospital "doctor" or a sailor on a ship "admiral." Those who have made the hajj expect and deserve the honor associated with this lofty title.

The source for all Muslim worship and tradition is, of course, the Holy Koran, or (Qu'ran). Muslims believe that the contents were revealed verbatim to the Prophet Mohammed directly from God by the Angel Gabriel, the same angel who spoke to Mary and Zechariah in Christian Scripture. Unlike Jewish and Christian scriptures, there is no chronology and no differences in perspective, authorship or intended audience. The entire work was dictated by the Prophet, as it was given to him by Gabriel, for the instruction and edification of all mankind. He himself was overwhelmed by its immensity, truth, weight, and power. That it is difficult to understand is due to the inability of fallible man to comprehend the entire teaching of God. No study or interpretation by man, now or in the future, can exhaust the totality of its riches.

Unlike the Bible, which was compiled over about 1500 years of war, peace, victory, defeat, empire, subjugation, and various forms of government, the Koran was written during the adult lifetime of a single individual, during which Islam evolved as a popular religion. Muslims were persecuted and ostracized during this time. Small wonder, then, that the entire book deals with adversity, prejudice, struggle, warfare, exhortations to bravery, steadfastness, and devotion to God to the extent, if necessary, of sacrificing one's life to defend his beliefs and right to worship. Compare the Koran to the Book of Joshua for a similar viewpoint.

The Koran is written in Arabic, the language used by God Himself. Although it has been translated into every language of the world, there is no "official" Muslim translation, for the simple fact that any such translation would lose some of the meaning of the original text. For this reason, each copy of the Koran itself is holy, and is decorated and protected with the respect that the literal word of God deserves. If one desires truly to know the teachings of the Prophet, he must learn to read Arabic.

Muslims accept the Bible as well, although there is disagreement over which books are canonical and the correct translation of much of the text. For example, it is common Muslim belief that it was his son Ishmael, not Isaac, whom God commanded Abraham to sacrifice and then saved. The Holy Koran explains and clarifies much of the Old and New Testaments, by virtue of which Muslims, Jews and Christians often interpret the same passages of the Bible differently. There is also difference of opinion regarding the meaning of some parts of the Koran itself, so that what it means continues to provide food for discussion for Islamic scholars and teachers.

It is a sad fact of human nature that people do not always practice what they preach, and this is true of some Muslims as it is of some Christians and Jews. It is not easy to be a Muslim, and there are some people who say they are Muslims but act otherwise. There are also some Muslims who, through ignorance or strong emotion, misinterpret their Scriptures and use them to condone un-Islamic behavior. But Islam, and its teachings as set forth in the Holy Koran, is a noble religion, worthy of respect and admiration by all persons of good will.

Some Christians are so ignorant they think that the Ten Commandments are the basis of Christianity or of civil law. A lot of them are the same ones who think that the United States is a Christian country or a Christian society, in spite of the First Amendment and numerous Supreme Court decisions to the contrary, and the anti Christian behavior of hundreds of millions of Americans. But the Ten Commandments are no more Christian than yarmulkes are, and neither are inherently American. There is one Commandment of Christianity, that we love one another (John 13:34, 35; 15:12, 17). If anyone doesn't do that, he is no more a true Christian than the people who did all those bad things are true Muslims, regardless of what anybody believes!

If you have ever once put something else before your duty to God, or sworn falsely, or stayed home from church on the Sabbath (which happens to be Saturday), you do not deserve to condemn other people who don't practice what they preach, either. If you have ever dishonored your parents, or killed any person or anything or had sex with someone else's wife or husband or taken anything that didn't belong to you or told a lie or desired anything that belonged to another, you have no business condemning anyone's religion. And if you believe that Islam, the Muslim religion, teaches that one should kill innocent people, then the best that can be said of you is that you are an ignorant bigot and would do well to avoid speaking up and displaying your lack of education. Condemning Islam because the terrorists claim to be Muslims is equally as stupid as condemning Christianity because the Ku Klux Klan claims to be Christian.

And while I'm on the subject, the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the military barracks in Saudi Arabia and the USS Cole were all legitimate military targets. Their commanders should have had better security! If you want to condemn the bombing of military barracks, you can start with the attack on the Japanese Second Army headquarters in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, or castigate those who sank the Bismarck! The fact that war is hell does not make criminals out of warriors, even if they happen to be our enemies.

I have some naturalized American citizen friends who are Muslims. They were all born in Iran. Unlike me, they deserve to be Americans, because they gave up everything; their culture, their history, the land that contained the sweat and blood and tears of the countless generations of their ancestors who walked on it and cultivated it and drew from it all the material necessities of their lives, and contains all that now remains of them, their bones and the results of all the things they accomplished. They gave up the country that created them and nurtured them and gave them all that they had and all that they are, to become my neighbors, the people Jesus Christ commanded me to love as myself. If you call yourself a Christian and do not love these people as much as you love yourself, you are a despicable hypocrite and liar! Jesus couldn't stand people like that!

Unlike me, who became a citizen only through the unmerited blessing of Almighty God, they have earned the right to be counted as part of our country, because they love it and support it and do what is necessary to make it strong and right and just and holy. They pay its taxes. They obey its laws. They respect its customs, even though they are different from the ones they learned as children.

They have always treated me with courtesy and respect. They are kind, caring people, and I am proud and honored to consider myself their friend. They deal honestly with their fellows and they tell the truth and they keep themselves healthy, because that is what their God and their adopted country expects from them. They keep themselves informed of its needs for maintenance and improvement, and they do what they personally can to bring those things about. They read and they discuss and they listen and they learn and they vote.

What they do not do is advertise that they are Muslims, because they know that there are too many racist bigots in their adopted country who will hate them no matter what they do, simply because of what they are! And a lot of those racist bigots aren't even real Americans. They are "something else"-Americans. If that!

In an effort to find out what was so repugnant about the EID stamp, I visited my local post office. There I found that this is one of the "holiday collection" commemorative issue. One of these is a Christmas stamp. It is a reproduction of the Lorenzo Monaco painting of the Madonna and Child in the National Gallery of Art. Another shows a Christmas tree ornament shaped like Santa Claus. A third shows a Hanukkah dradle. A fourth says "KWANZAA" and shows what looks to me like seven black people in colorful costumes. I don't know what Kwanzaa has to do with Christmas holidays; my understanding is that it is a pagan celebration only for Africans and people of African ancestry. But, hey, I'm an equal opportunity stamp buyer. I bought a sheet of each.

The EID stamp says "Greetings" in English and Arabic. The Arabic word is shaped like a Christmas tree. I wonder, what kind of person could possibly object to "Greetings?" Maybe we ought to issue a "Bah! Humbug!" stamp just for him.

I am no one's enemy. If anyone considers himself my enemy, that's his problem. As an American, and member of the military, I didn't have to hate anybody, I didn't have to belittle his religion. Hell, I didn't have to dislike him. All I had to do was shoot him, and maybe afterward say a prayer for his immortal soul.

Brothers and sisters, now, more than ever before in the history of mankind, we are seeing firsthand what is meant by "Salvation through Jesus Christ." It was he who gave mankind the single commandment to love each other. (Matthew 5:43-47; 19:19, Mark 12:31, Luke 6:27-33, John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17). We now have the means to bring about the consequences of following or ignoring this sacred admonition, to make this little blue planet a paradise for everyone by obeying it, or to create of it a flaming nuclear hell otherwise! The war is not between Christianity and Islam; it is between good and evil. The Muslims are commanded to wage uncompromising war against the evil of oppression and bigotry, and they are doing their part. We are commanded to overcome evil by love of our neighbors, even our enemies. If we do not convert the world by the good of loving all our neighbors, it will be converted to the evil of hate, and it will be our fault, because we know better!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we Christians could put aside our racism and hatred and bigotry and hypocrisy for just one day and really celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, the Savior of all mankind, who proved that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to bring peace on earth, not to just Christians, or just Jews, or just Semitic peoples, but to all men of good will? Wouldn't that be great?

In an effort toward that end, I did what I could to bring that day about. No one, not a single soul, will be able to "boycott" any EID stamps at my post office.

I bought all they had!

John Lindorfer