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 israeli flag has the Star
of david, 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 mUhammad 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. saUdi arabia’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 iran consists of the name
of allah 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
saddam hUsayn added the same phrase to theK 244 flag