loading…
Flags of Muslim-majority countries that use the moon and star logos. Photo/Facebook/United Muslims of Brisbane
JAKARTA – The moon and star are often considered symbols of Islam in general, and both have been used on the flags of Muslim-majority countries.
Islam basically has nothing to do with any symbols. Even if there is an argument in Islamic teachings that mentions the moon and stars, that does not include an order to be used as a symbol or logo for the state flag.
Moreover, there are non-Muslim majority countries that use the moon and stars as their flag logos—for example, Singapore, where the majority of the population is Buddhist.
The moon and star logo on Singapore’s national flag represents a young nation on the rise with aspirations of justice, democracy, equality, progress and peace.
Muslim-majority countries with crescent moon flags include; Algeria, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The Turkish flag uses the moon and star logo due to the legacy of the Ottoman Empire which was used in the Middle Ages.
The initial purpose of this symbol is political and has nothing to do with religious teachings. At the height of its glory, the Ottoman government succeeded in expanding, including conquering the city of Constantinople in the era of Sultan Muhammad II in 1453.
Just to note, Constantinople or now called Istanbul was once the seat of government of the East Roman (Byazantium)–a superpower that established Christianity as the official state religion.
The symbol of the City of Constantinople at that time was a crescent and a star. The crescent moon signifies that Constantinople is a region between three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe).
While the star in the center represents the position of the capital city of Constantinople.
However, according to a Pew Research study, a third of the 196 countries in the world currently have national flags that include religious symbols.
Of the 64 countries in this category, about half have Christian symbols (48%) and about a third include Islamic religious symbols (33%), with images of the flags of the world’s two largest religious groups appearing in some regions.
(but)
