The United States Postal Service has recently issued stamps to celebrate some religious holidays including the "Eid" or one of the holy festivals of the Muslim world.  The Postal Service mentioned on its news release on December 3, 2009 that "This year's holiday stamps extend diverse greetings. The 44-cent First-Class stamps include Christmas: Madonna and Sleeping Child by Sassoferrato, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Holidays".  The Eid stamp was initially published in 2001 soon after the attacks of September 11.

It is important to observe that celebrating the Muslim Eid festival on a US stamp was a first when compared to celebrating other non-Judeo-Christian religious minorities. The Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Holidays stamps were first issued in the US in 1996, 1997, and 1993 respectively.  This makes the Muslim Eid as the first one to be issued in US compared to the other religious minorities. 

The stamp for the Eid was probably issued initially as an attempt to show outreach with the Muslim world after September 11. While there have been many diverse views expressed on the topic of outreach to the Muslim world, the following are a few points that have not received serious attention:

1-     Who was supposed to issue a stamp for reconciliation after September 11 - the US that was attacked or the Muslim world that produced, indoctrinated, and both actively and passively supported Bin Laden[1].

2-    Issuing the stamp only AFTER the US was attacked is seen by radical Islamists as a sign of weakness. This perception of weakness can actually encourage more radicalism as it proves the radical view that acts of terror can yield results.

3-    The message that the Muslim faith was the first religious minority to be respected in this way after September 11 and the fact that followers of other religions such as Hindus, Buddhists, or Baha'i were relatively ignored, may make some feel that faiths are not equally respected in the US and that they can get more respect if some of their followers commit terror acts against the US! Is this the message the US wants to convey to the world?

4-    In the spirit of "mutual respect and understanding", it was naturally expected that the Muslim countries should have also issued a stamp to celebrate Christmas to reciprocate the US celebration of the Eid on an US stamp. This simply has not happened. Reconciliation needs both sides to take active steps toward mutual understanding. It cannot be effective if it is only a unilateral act. 

5-   Even before September 11, the US has showed respect for Muslims and Islam. The average American-Muslim income is higher than the national average, and mosques and Islamic schools are permitted in the country irrespective of what they teach.  In addition, in full defense of religious freedoms, Muslims are allowed to preach Islam and convert others to it. This generous and very tolerant attitude toward Muslims was not reciprocated by many countries in the Muslim world. Converting people to Christianity is prohibited and illegal in many Muslim countries.  Having Bibles or other non-Islamic religious texts or building churches, temples and other houses of worship are not permitted in Saudi Arabia. The US should have requested that its generous attitudes toward Muslims and Islam be reciprocated in the Muslim world before issuing a stamp to celebrate Muslim religious festivals. The message that is conveyed by doing the former without asking for the latter or reciprocation is that the Muslim world feels that they do not need to do anything in improve their relationship with the West as the West seems to always show tolerance to Islam irrespective of what the Muslim world does. Showing the Muslim world that they should not take the tolerance of the West for granted is actually beneficial as it can encourage the Islamic world to start taking some active steps toward reconciliation. If the West will continue showing such levels of tolerance and giving advantages to Islam over other faiths irrespective of how the Muslim world is treating its non-Muslim minorities, there will be no incentive for the Muslim world to make any improvement for some of its discriminatory decisions against non-Muslims including freedom of conversion of Muslims to other faiths and the basic freedom of worship. 

In summary, the Eid stamp for Muslims would have been a great step in efforts of reconciliation between civilizations ONLY if the Muslim world reciprocated this by issuing a stamp for Christmas, allowed Muslims the freedom of conversion, and allowed non-Muslims to worship completely freely in any part of the Muslim world. Until these fundamental and basic human rights are respected all over the Muslim world, issuing stamps to celebrate Muslims' festivals may not be effective in bridging the gap between the West and Islam and, in fact, it could be counterproductive.   

 [1] Support in the sense that immediately after September 11, Bin Laden has not been denounced as an apostate by most (if not all) leading recognized authorities of the Sunni Islamic world.