@boroda: Sure - here we go
This new flag is maybe nice for a Alladdin-Hollywood-Film but it has no meaning for the iraquis or Arabs.
Arabs used the following colors in their flags:
RED:
The Khawarij were the first Islamic group to emerge after the assassination of Caliph Uthman III, forming the first republican party in the early days of Islam. Their symbol was the red flag. Arab tribes who participated in the conquest of North Africa and Andalusia carried the red flag, which became the symbol of the Islamic rulers of Andalusia (756-1355).
In modern times, red symbolizes the Ashrafs [ie. Sharifians] of the Hijaz and the Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet.
GREEN:
The Fatimid Dynasty (909-1171), North Africa
The Fatimid Dynasty was founded in Morocco by Abdullah Al-Mahdi, and went on rule all of North Africa. They took green as their color, to symbolize their allegiance to Ali, the Prophet's cousin, who was once wrapped in a green coverlet in place of the Prophet in order to thwart an assassination attempt.
WHITE:
The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750), Damascus
The Umayyads ruled for ninety years, taking white as their symbolic color as a reminder of the Prophet's first battle at Badr, and to distinguish themselves from the Abbasids, by using white, rather than black, as their color of mourning. Mu'awia Ibn Abi Sufian (661-750), founder of the Umayyad state, proclaimed himself Caliph of Jerusalem.
BLACK
BlThe Prophet Mohammad (570-632)
In the seventh century, with the rise of Islam and subsequent liberation of Mecca, two flags - one white, one black - were carried. On the white flag was written, "There is no god but God (Allah) and Mohammad is the Prophet of God."
In pre-Islamic times, the black flag was a sign of revenge. It was the color of the headdress worn when leading troops into battle. Both black and white flags were placed in the mosque during Friday prayers.
The Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258), ruling from Baghdad, took black as a symbol of mourning for the assassination of relatives of the Prophet and in remembrance of the Battle of Karbala.
Look at the the old iraqi flags:
The Kingdom of Iraq had the colours green, black, red and white
Then 1953 Egypt gave birth to the "Arab Liberation Flag" - 3-stripes-horizontally: Red - White - Black with green 5-pointed stars or a golden hawk in the center.
The following countries changed to this flag design to symbolize their union:
Syri , Iraq , Yemen, Libya (later changed flag to green to symbolize Ghaddafis so called "green revolution") and Egypt.
So Iraq had this flag until the end of Saddam:
red-white-black with 3 green 5 pointed stars in the center.
Thats NOT Saddams flag - it was the iraqi flag before Saddam who only added the words "God is great" in the center of the flag
So - Iraq - with its relativly short history always had the described colours and design.
And now they get this dumb flag design which look more like the israeli design with 2 blue stripes and a blue religious symbol (islamic-half-moon / 6-pointed-jew-star) in the center.
Yes - officially the 2 blue stripes should symbolize the 2 rivers (thank god Iraq has only 2 big rivers - otherwise the design would be worser than it is) and teh yellow or brown stripe at the bottom should symbolize the kurd minority.
But whats with the turkish minority ? Or the sunnite minority ? Why not putting some other funny stripes in the designs ?
And I can understand that the iraqis are angry about this flag design and are burning this "symbol of the puppet regime" (how they said yesterday in te TV report).
The Iraqi flag should be a red - white - black design with a new symbol in the center - but not this baby-blue ridiculous Disneyland-version.
I would feel the same anger if the iranian flag would loose the traditional green - white - red design it had during all its history.
