The "Arab Revolt Flag"



Whoever fights under a "flag of blindness"…and gets killed fighting, dies the death of Jahiliyyah. -Prophet Muhammad (SAAW)


If a Muslim can love the flag of the nation-state he grew up in, then he probably doesn't understand what it represents. Official flag explanations put out by governments are full of lies that change regularly, depending on the political and ideological winds at the moment.

This is particularly true of the so-called Arab Revolt Flag that first appeared 1n 1916. The forces of Sharif Hussain, former Uthmani governor of the Hijaz who betrayed his old masters to the British, first carried it. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, in his Evolution of the Arab Flag, would have us believe that Hussain himself designed his flag, and set down the symbolism for each of its four colors.

The papers of Sir Mark Sykes, Sharif Hussain's paymaster and yes, the English half of Sykes-Picot, tell a different story. There, we discover that the young orientalist drew the design himself, while his Hashimite dupe only changed the shade of red used. The four "pan-Arab" colors were supposed to evoke the past glory of earlier Arab regimes and sell the idea that Hussain and his clan were going to bring it all back:

Red: Sykes associated this color with the Khawarij, a party that contributed considerably to the fitnah after the death of the Khalifah 'Uthman (RAAH), and Sharif Hussain as well.

Green: This represented the Fatimi Dynasty of Egypt and North Africa (909-1171), which wasn't Islamic at all, but Ismaili in its religion. Their rulers were anti-Khalifahs against the legitimate authority in Baghdad, a big reason why orientalists like Sykes admired them so much.

White: This was said to be the color of the 'Umawis of Damascus, who were opposed by both the Khawarij and the Abbasis (see below)

Black: The black stripe was the remnant of Ar-Raya, Prophet Muhammad's original battle flag. Sykes also associated it was the Abbasis of Baghdad, so they wouldn't be left out.

When he had finished, according to David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace, Sykes ordered the British military supply offices in Egypt to make copies of the flag he designed, and then ship them to Sharif Hussain. In later years, Hussain's descendents would dutifully adopt a modified version of the Arab Revolt Flag for their Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, as would the British protectorate of Kuwait, and even the "anti-colonial" PLO!

Of course, the Arab Revolt flag is also the basis for the flag that was Iraq's, long before Saddam Hussain. When the "Iraqi Governing Council" proposed a new white, yellow, and blue design, many Iraqis were up in arms about a banner forced upon them by American and British puppets. They pointed out that the actual designer was an Iraqi immigrant living in the United Kingdom. What would these same Iraqi "patriots" say were they to know that the old flag they loved so much was a British invention too?