The wrong flag

Whatever of misfortune striketh you,
it is what your right hands have earned..
As-Shura 30

A flag is a piece of cloth, usually rectangular, of characteristic color and design, which is used as a symbol, signal or emblem. The flag stands for an idea. People should identify with this idea and thereby show solidarity and mobilize, e.g. for a country, a soccer club or a political party.

Today, the Palestinian flag is primarily a symbol of resistance against the Zionist occupying power, which is stealing the Palestinians' land and mistreating them to the utmost. Palestine should be free from this ulcer and become its own country. And of course other Muslims should also show solidarity and do something against this great injustice, but should they really stand behind this flag and the idea on which it is based?

In Islam, it is essential to have the right intention. Only those who live and fight for Allah can hope for paradise and a martyr's death. If we live and fight for something else, e.g. for false self-made ideas or ideologies, we are like idolaters who also worship self-made images. Therefore, despite all our sympathy and empathy for our brothers and sisters, we should question this symbol once again. Where does it actually come from?

The origins of the flag

The roots of the Palestinian flag go back to the time of the Arab national movement on the eve of the First World War, in particular to the al-Fatat (Young Arab Society) founded in Paris in 1911 and the Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralization founded in Cairo in 1913. The leaders of these movements wanted to create a symbol and emblem that the Arab provinces could adopt when they broke away from Ottoman rule. It combines three colors: black, white and green, as explained in "The Third Cry", a statement by the Young Arab Society: "Peace be upon you, our nation, peace. May righteousness protect our nation in the blackness of night, the white of conscience and the green of sure hope."

When Sharif Hussein declared the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule in the Hijaz on 10 June 1916, the colour red appeared as a triangle on the flag. On the first anniversary of the declaration in 1917, it was decided that the flag of the new Hashemite state would have horizontal bands of black, green and white, with a vermilion triangle extending on the staff across the entire width of the flag and twice as far into the flag as its height. Although the flag stands for secular Arab nationalism, the choice of colours was subsequently explained by Islamic symbolism, according to Mahdi Abdul Hadi in ‘The Evolution of the Arab Flag’: black as the black standard of Muhammad, the Rashidun Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate, white as the flag of the Umayyad Caliphate, green as the flag of the Fatimid Caliphate and red as the flag of the Khawarij. This four-coloured flag was hoisted in place of the Ottoman flag when the Arab rebels marched into Damascus on 30 September 1918.

The flag therefore symbolised rebellion from the very beginning. However, a rebellion that was directed against the caliph of the Islamic world and was supported by the British, the enemies of Islam. The British, in turn, liberated Palestine from Ottoman rule in order to leave it to the Zionists for colonisation, as promised in the Balfourt Declaration.

What an irony! The struggle under this flag was therefore one of the main reasons why Palestine could be conquered by the Zionists in the first place! The Zionists were able to spread into Palestine because there was no common Muslim leader. And one of the reasons there was no longer one was because the Arabs hoisted this flag and fought together with the infidels against their fellow believers instead of together under the banner of Darul Islam! The revolution eats its children! And now the flag is again supposed to symbolise a rebellion to free themselves from what caused the first rebellion!

Whatever of good befalleth thee, it is from Allah,
and whatever of ill befalleth thee it is from thyself.
An-Nisa 79

The leaders of the Palestinian national movement, which became independent from the nationalist movement in Damascus at the end of 1920, adopted the flag of the Arab revolt as the flag of Palestine and as the symbol of the first national liberation movement in the Arab world and the first step towards Arab unity. The only change they made to the flag concerned the arrangement of the three horizontal stripes: they placed the black at the top, the white in the centre and the green at the bottom. After the end of the British Mandate, the Palestinian National Council, which met in Gaza on 30 September and 1 October 1948 at the invitation of the all-Palestinian government, proclaimed the independence of Palestine and declared the flag of the Arab Revolt to be the flag of Palestine.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) finally decided on the specifications for the final Palestinian flag. This flag became the flag of the Palestinian resistance when it began in 1965 and the flag of the State of Palestine, which was proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council in Algiers in November 1988. It then became the official emblem of the Palestinians and the official emblem of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was established in the self-governing territories in 1994.

On 22 December 2005, Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the Palestinian Authority, issued a law on the sanctity of the Palestinian flag, known as Law 22 of 2005, which specifies the colours and dimensions of the flag, how it should be respected, where it should be flown and the penalties for violating the flag law.

The law states that the flag must be flown on all PLO and Palestinian Authority (PA) buildings, as well as on the buildings of institutions belonging to the PA, its armed forces and its missions abroad, and on public holidays and all national occasions. No other flag may be flown on government buildings or institutions or in public places, and no other flag or sign in the form of a flag may be flown over the Palestinian flag in the same place. The law states that the flag must be respected and must not be abused or treated with contempt in word or deed. It must be kept clean and in a condition that corresponds to its symbolic status.

Mahmoud Abbas explained the symbolic status when the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 30 September 2015 alongside the flags of the UN member states: 'This is a historic moment in the struggle of our people. This flag represents our national identity and is dedicated to all those who were killed or imprisoned in the conflict'.On the same day, he decided to declare this day as Palestinian Flag Day.

Well, now let's ask the following:

1) If I fight and die in the struggle for an Arab nation state, am I a martyr in the eyes of Allah?

2) What would happen if, contrary to expectations, the Palestinians managed to free themselves from the Zionist yoke and finally get their longed-for state, would I then be granted a residence permit as a German Muslim?

3) Would Islamic law be introduced?

We can confidently answer the last two questions with 'no', at least as far as Fatah and the Autonomous Administration are concerned. The situation is somewhat different with Hamas, but since resistance to the occupying power has become so prominent, the ultimate goal is somewhat obscure. However, since Hamas emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood, one can assume that a Palestinian nation state is only a precursor to Darul Islam under a common caliph.

Hamas is currently waving both flags, that of the Arab nation state and the Islamic flag. Actually a contradiction. But the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, was quite pragmatic and believed that it would be impossible to head straight for the ultimate goal of the caliphate and preferred a decentralised step-by-step approach.

The Muslim Brotherhood

Al-Banna learnt of the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, when he was still a student. This event had a strong influence on him; although the caliphate had no power, he regarded its end as a 'misfortune'. He later called the events a 'declaration of war on all forms of Islam'.

Hassan al-Banna met many important thinkers in Cairo and was also in personal correspondence with Rashid Rida. Here, al-Banna developed an ideological framework that summarised the world view of earlier Islamic revivalist movements in Rashid Rida's interpretation. One of the most important ideas of the revivalist movement that Rida advocated was the establishment of an Islamic state that would rule according to Sharia law and return to a society modelled on the time of Muhammad s.a.w. and his companions. This idea of a revolutionary struggle based on Islamic principles would guide Hassan al-Banna in his later life and manifest itself in the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood was just one of many small Islamic organisations that existed at the time. Similar to the organisations that al-Banna himself had joined at a young age, these organisations aimed to promote personal piety and were dedicated to purely charitable activities. By the end of the 1930s, the Muslim Brotherhood had established branches in all Egyptian provinces. A decade later, the organisation counted 500,000 active members and just as many sympathisers in Egypt alone. Its appeal was not limited to Egypt; its popularity also grew in several other countries.

Al-Banna endeavoured to achieve reform through institution building, tireless grassroots activism and the use of mass communication. He built a complex mass movement characterised by sophisticated leadership structures, sections to promote the values of society among farmers, workers and professionals, units entrusted with key functions including message dissemination, liaison with the Islamic world and the press, and translation, and specialised committees for finance and legal affairs.

Al-Banna was not only a tireless worker who achieved an enormous amount in his short life, he also recognised that Muslims can only find unity if the following conditions, among others, are met:

1. Islam must be purified! Inspired by the early Salafi movement, he turned against all the un-Islamic things that had crept into Islam in the course of history (bid'a). However, he did not go to extremes. For example, he regarded tassauwuf as an essential part of Islam, but was very critical of tariqats and their practices.

2. He avoided debates on points on which many Muslims disagree and declared many of these discussions to be out of date and medieval.

3. Since it is impossible to unite all governments directly under one caliphate, enormous groundwork must be done, especially at the grassroots level, to generate the awareness that can eventually bring about change.

4. The organisation opened branches in various countries, but gave them a certain autonomy to decide how best to achieve the goal in each situation, be it through cooperation with the government, participation in elections or, using the example of Hamas, armed resistance.

All of these points should still be considered and implemented by Muslims today, because everyone should realise that ultimately only a caliphate can solve the problems of Muslims and the world and make an appropriate effort in this direction. However, the last point in particular requires extreme caution. Organisations of any kind can be undermined or corrupted, get lost in internal and external disputes and change direction (Muslim Brotherhood). They are also a hostile target for any nation state (Hizb ut-Tahrir) and are commonly vilified and banned as terrorist organisations (Hamas). Or they are even set up from the outset by the enemies of Islam in order to capture bona fide Muslims and have them fight for their agenda (ISIS).

That is why one should concentrate primarily on the third point, taking into account the first two points. The best way to do this nowadays is through personal dialogue and via the internet and social networks (while the fight against disinformation and hate speech on the internet is still in its infancy). Apart from that, one should dispense with obligations to a nation state as far as possible, emigrate to rural areas and become as self-sufficient as possible. You should raise the flag of Darul Islam for yourself and your family and see yourself as part of it, as part of the Ummah, and not as part of a particular group or nation state.

InshaAllah, soon the help of Allah will come and the black flags from the East will appear. It is not the Palestinian flag that will be hoisted in Jerusalem, but the black banners of the Mahdi! And those who will hoist them there will not have to queue at a Palestinian embassy for a visa and ask the Palestinian Authority for permission! Jerusalem will become the capital of the caliphate and not of another corrupt Arab nation state.

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