Recognition for Ramadan : Muslims Aim to Bring Islamic Holiday Out of Christmas’ Shadow

The cultural weight of Christianity is apparent everywhere to those of other faiths during December. The trappings of Christmas prevail, while minority religions like Islam and Judaism receive less attention, even though Ramadan and Hanukkah celebrations often fall in December.

Some in the Muslim community want to make Ramadan more visible.

The Anaheim chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, for example, is organizing local Muslims to urge their congressional representatives to back the issue of a postage stamp recognizing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as others mark Christmas and Hanukkah.

“An Islamic stamp would introduce a mainstream Muslim holiday to fellow Americans,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the group’s Anaheim chapter. “We have probably stamps for every kind of flower, every kind of tree, but not a single stamp recognizing Islam. It just shows the underrepresentation of Islam in levels of life in America.”

The U.S. Postal Service offers two Christmas stamps every year; one is traditional, usually the Madonna and baby Jesus, and one contemporary, this year a reindeer.

It’s the second year that both a Hanukkah and a Kwanzaa stamp have been issued, according to Jeff Peterson, supervisor in customer service at the Costa Mesa branch of the U.S. Postal Service.

He said that once a stamp is recommended to a committee in Washington, it usually takes two years before it is available in post offices.

Ramadan celebrates the revelation of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, to the prophet Muhammad. It’s the holiest of the Islamic holidays and is marked by daytime fasting. The holy month begins next week and ends in January with a joyous breaking of the fast, called Eid al-Fitr.

It’s estimated that 1 billion Muslims around the world will take part by refusing all food and water from sunup to sundown to help teach them self-restraint.

It takes a lot of that self-restraint sometimes to keep Carol Brunetti of Anaheim from getting angry about the lack of knowledge and information about Islam in American culture.

“A Ramadan stamp would be wonderful,” she said. “It’s about time!”

Brunetti, who converted to Islam before she got married, gets frustrated shopping for cards in mainstream stores during December. There are hundreds of Christmas cards and even a healthy section of Hanukkah cards, but nary a Ramadan card to be found.

“We’re excluded from pretty much everything,” she said. “I went looking all around just to find decorations for Ramadan. You can’t find anything. I wound up buying Christmas stuff and trying to make do with that.”

She also has to shop at Jewish stores for things like marshmallows, which usually contain a pork derivative. She buys the kosher variety to make sure they’re pork-free.

The one place where Brunetti said she’s seen progress is the public libraries.

“There was virtually nothing acknowledging Muslims except some books at the library that slandered Islam,” she said of her quest to educate herself when she converted 10 years ago. “I didn’t find anything that said anything good about it. But little by little, the library system is starting to at least get some children’s books about Islam in stock.”

Ayloush said that during Ramadan the Council on American-Islamic Relations has worked with local public libraries to set up tables and distribute brochures about Islam.

He adds that the Internet has brought about a rise in recognition of Islamic holidays, especially with electronic cards.

“Most electronic card sites now have special cards for Ramadan,” he said. “That’s a peek of what’s going to happen in the near future.”

He said that he doesn’t ever expect Ramadan to get the attention that Christmas does, but that he just wants to spread a positive image of Muslims.

“Some groups want to limit and minimize the visibility of Muslims in America,” he said. “Those people sometimes wrongly perceive Islam as a threat to their political monopoly or as a threat to the Judeo-Christian civilization.”