Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Frederick Denny, An Introduction to 

Islam (New York: Macmillan, 1994); Sachiko Murata 

and William C. Chittick, The Vision of Islam (St. Paul, 

Minn.: Paragon House, 1994).

flag

All modern countries use flags as national symbols, 

and many of these national flags—including those 

of secular nations—display designs that have a rec-

ognized connection with a religious tradition. The 

Friday prayer at al-Husayn Mosque in Cairo, Egypt  

(Juan E. Campo)

flag

  

243  J

---

flags of the United Kingdom (Britain), Switzer-

land, Sweden, Denmark, and Greece, for example, 

have crosses on them, which links them with the 

Christian religion. The i

sraeli

 flag has the Star 

of  d

avid

, who was an ancient Israelite king and 

has traditionally been regarded as the composer 

of the biblical book of Psalms. The flag of Japan 

has a sun disk, which is a symbol of the sun god-

dess Amaterasu, ancestor of the Japanese imperial 

household. Flags and banners have been used 

to rally Muslims since the days of m

Uhammad

 in 

the seventh century. Today, among the countries 

with Muslim-majority populations, several have 

flags with features that link them to the religion 

of Islam. s

aUdi

  a

rabia

’s flag combines the Arabic 

shahada

 (the declaration “There is no god but God 

and Muhammad is his messenger”) and a sword 

on a field of green. The sword stands for the Saudi 

royal dynasty that established the country, while 

green is regarded as a holy Islamic color. The flag 

of the Islamic Republic of i

ran

 consists of the name 

of  a

llah

 artfully presented as a flower or juxta-

posed crescent moons in the center, framed by two 

horizontal bands containing repeated geometric 

renderings of the expression Allah akbar, “God is 

greater.” The use of red in the flag represents the 

Shii virtue of martyrdom. In 1990, the Iraqi leader 

s

addam

  h

Usayn

 added the same phrase to the 

K  244  

flag

---

flag of his country, and it remained on Iraq’s flag 

even after the fall of his government in 2003. The 

new flag of a

Fghanistan

 consists of the shahada

inscribed over a mosque. The flags of 11 countries 

with Muslim-majority populations contain a form 

of the new 

moon

 (hilal) and star design, including 

a

lgeria

, Azerbaijan, p

akistan

, and t

Urkey

. This 

symbol has traditionally been used to represent 

states governed by Muslims, especially since the 

18th century, but it is not seen as an aspect of 

Islamic worship, unlike the shahada.

See also 

government

,  i

slamic

; 

politics

 

and

i

slam

.