Hey, pinheads! I've got the proof that Muslims are ecstatic that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America and are taking the opportunity to rub your noses in it. Nyah, nyah, nyah! Check out this year's Eid stamp, and read the fine print.
This year, the United States Postal Service has reissued the Eid stamp that it first issued in 2001, just before the September 11 tragedy. Over the years, I've noticed that discussions of the stamp rarely say exactly what the Arabic language text says. They are too caught up in hysteria over seeing "Muslim writing" on U.S. postage. As a student of the Arabic language, I happen to know a little about this topic. I've taken great pains to explain that just because words in the Arabic language are rendered in its own alphabet does not necessarily mean that the words have anything to do with Islam. Arabic text may not have anything to do with religion at all, and certainly cannot be construed as being intrinsically anti-anything. For all most Americans know, any random bit of Arabic text could be a list of ingredients from a package of food, or a sign that says, "This way to trains." It's just writing.
I had forgotten about this stamp and the controversy in past years until today, when I saw the flier from the USPS for holiday stamps. It's there again, along with the Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stamps, as well as the classic Botticelli Madonna and Child and the oddly frightening Christmas toy stamps.
I gazed again in affectionate wonder at the lyrical calligraphy of the script, surely one of the most beautiful written alphabets in the world. (My favorite is Tamil, which is so interestingly florid that it looks like it might be fake, like Joseph Smith's samples of the original text of the Book of Mormon he found on the golden tablets loaned to him by the angel Moroni. But, I digress.) Any example of this wondrous calligraphy causes me to pore over it, straining to recognize the actual words hidden within its convoluted rendering. I wandered for hours around the Alhambra, the Moorish palace in Granada, Spain, deciphering bits of the Koranic verses carved into its alabaster walls. (I'm always trying to read various arabesques used in ornamentation, mainly to out fatuous, gratuitous use of fake Arabic script by pretentious artisans. But, I digress.)
Looking at the ad for this year's stamp, I again silently intoned the words in the text in Arabic, eyd mubarak. Those words mean exactly what the USPS says they mean, "blessed festival," which is a greeting exchanged by Muslims. It doesn't mean anything about religion per se, but its use is associated mainly with two religious festivals, Eid al-Adha (عيد الأضحى ‘Īd ul-’Aḍḥā) and the holy month of Ramadan. I didn't see anything topical in this for a few moments, then it hit me.
Eid mu-what!?!? My studies decades ago had taught me that the prefix "mu" can mean "the thing that is" or "that which is for" or "having the quality of". Then, I remembered that barak means "blessing". (Arab speakers: Please correct if I have any of this wrong.) It's the same word in Hebrew, more or less, which is usually transliterated in Roman characters as baruch. Jewish prayers start with that word.
Now, I don't really think this coincidence has anything to do with the election. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere in the depths of of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, some scholar of Near Eastern languages isn't having a chuckle, just as I have. Yes, it has been a "Barack" festival for the past couple of weeks, hasn't it?