Stamp of Disapproval?

The email from my old Catholic school classmate surprised me.

“Look at what they’re doing now! After all the attacks on us by Moslems all over the world, the U.S. Government is issuing a stamp to celebrate Eid, the Moslem holiday! We need to boycott and protest loudly our own government supporting terrorists…”

Why she thought that I, a former public defender and solo practitioner would subscribe to this American Jihad, is a puzzle to me. Here’s what I emailed her back:

It is true that there are extremists in this world who hate us and have attacked us. In this day and age, most of those who hate America subscribe to an extremist version of Islam which mainstream Moslems do not agree with.

But some of those who have attacked us on our own soil called themselves Christians--remember the Oklahoma bombings? Those fools thought they were doing God's work every bit as much as the cowards who planned 9/11.

I have known and represented many Americans who are Moslem. I've served with them in the military; questioned them as an attorney when they showed to do their civic duty in jury venire panels; worked with them as businessmen and women in the community.

I also was stationed in Turkey in my youth, a country which is predominantly Moslem but which has remained a reliable ally of the United States in the Middle East. As are the Moslem countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan.

Our country was founded on religious tolerance, though we’ve followed that ideal with varying degrees of success. Those of us who are Catholics remember that it wasn't too long ago that our own faith was seen as suspect by other "patriotic" Americans--and that the Klu Klux Klan went after Catholics as much as they did African Americans or Jewish families. Remember the outcry over whether Jack Kennedy could be a loyal American president if he was "taking orders from the Pope?"

I, for one, welcome the diversity represented by the Eid stamp. The more we show the Moslem world that we respect their religion, the more that true believers in Islam will see our country as one of tolerance and freedom, one which should be emulated, not feared.

But hey, Merry Christmas, my friend.