30/10/2015 Green and Yellow Flags the Symbolism of Shi'a Islamist Flags : syriancivilwar https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3qgazn/green_and_yellow_flags_the_symbolism_of_shia/ 1/44 remember me reset password login search this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2015 136 points (86% upvoted) shortlink: https://redd.it/3qgazn username password subscribe 23,470 readers 211 users here now About us News, analysis, discussion and investigative journalism of the conflict in Syria along with the regional and global ramifications. TAKE NOTE: Formal warnings can now carry with them 24 hour bans, at moderator's discretion. Moderators enforce civility, not ideological compliance. Visit our sister community, /r/MENAConflicts, for indepth coverage of the conflicts throughout the broader Middle East and North Africa. Verified Charities, Relief Organizations and NGOs [+] SyrianCivilWar Rules [+] SyrianCivilWar Exclusives Submit a new link Submit a new text post SYRIANCIVILWAR 136 Informative Green and Yellow Flags the Symbolism of Shi'a Islamist Flags (self.syriancivilwar) submitted 2 days ago * by [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015] LiesAboutKnowingYou stickied post With my last writeup on the Black and White flags of Sunni Salafist groups in mind, I'm hoping to tackle the subject of green and yellow flags within the context of Shi'a Islamist groups. For the sake of clarity and in the interest of, hopefully, reestablishing the actual meaning of "Islamist" I want to preface this writeup with the definition that I will be using for that term, and I certainly hope you'll take the time to determine if you're using that term correctly or just as a blanket term for Sunni militant groups. I will principally be focusing on groups in Syria and Iraq, but within that context are groups that originate outside of those nations, including Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon (all nations with large Shi'a populations). Islamism is: "doctrines, beliefs and values as the foundation of a political structure that supporters of that ideology have called 'the Islamic State.' "[1]. Islamism, also called Political Islam, is the belief that Islam should, in either Chat with the members of this community | List of translators | Archive | Encyclopedia | Get a flair FRONT ALL RANDOM | GADGETS SPORTS GAMING PICS WORLDNEWS VIDEOS ASKREDDIT AWW MUSIC FUNNY MY SUBREDDITS MORE » comments related Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds. | English Twitter Live Chat
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30/10/2015 Green and Yellow Flags the Symbolism of Shi'a Islamist Flags : syriancivilwar
News, analysis, discussion and investigativejournalism of the conflict in Syria along withthe regional and global ramifications.TAKE NOTE: Formal warnings can now carrywith them 24 hour bans, at moderator'sdiscretion.Moderators enforce civility, not ideologicalcompliance.Visit our sister community, /r/MENAConflicts,for indepth coverage of the conflictsthroughout the broader Middle East and NorthAfrica.Verified Charities, Relief Organizations andNGOs
[+] SyrianCivilWar Rules
[+] SyrianCivilWar Exclusives
Submit a new link
Submit a new text post
SYRIANCIVILWAR
136Informative Green andYellow Flags theSymbolism of Shi'aIslamist Flags (self.syriancivilwar)submitted 2 days ago * by [Voted Best andWorst Mod of 2015] LiesAboutKnowingYou stickied post
With my last writeup on theBlack and White flags of SunniSalafist groups in mind, I'mhoping to tackle the subject ofgreen and yellow flags withinthe context of Shi'a Islamistgroups. For the sake of clarityand in the interest of,hopefully, reestablishing theactual meaning of "Islamist" Iwant to preface this writeupwith the definition that I willbe using for that term, and Icertainly hope you'll take thetime to determine if you'reusing that term correctly orjust as a blanket term forSunni militant groups. I willprincipally be focusing ongroups in Syria and Iraq, butwithin that context are groupsthat originate outside of thosenations, including Yemen, Iran,and Lebanon (all nations withlarge Shi'a populations).
Islamism is: "doctrines, beliefsand values as the foundation ofa political structure thatsupporters of that ideologyhave called 'the Islamic State.'"[1]. Islamism, also calledPolitical Islam, is the beliefthat Islam should, in either
Chat with the members of thiscommunity | List of translators | Archive| Encyclopedia | Get a flair
FRONT ALL RANDOM | GADGETS SPORTS GAMING PICS WORLDNEWS VIDEOS ASKREDDIT AWW MUSIC FUNNY MY SUBREDDITS MORE »
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Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds. | English
part or total, guide the politicalsystem and help to removenonIslamic influences that areincompatible with Islam.Within this definition fits atremendous host of groups:Hezbollah, the Islamic State,the Houthi movement, alQaeda, the Islamic Republic ofIran, the Muslim Brotherhood,alWefaq (in Bahrain), Hamasand a host of others. It is not abyword for "Muslim terrorgroup" and should not be usedas such. Many Muslim terrorgroups are Islamist, but mostIslamists are not Muslimterrorists.
Just as my previous writeupacknowledged that white andblack banners are not theexclusive domain of SunniIslam, neither are green andyellow flags the exclusivedomain of Shi'a Islam. All fourof those colors have their rootsin mainstream Islam and canbe traced back to the time ofthe Prophet (PBUH). Inaddition to white and black,green and yellow arereferenced numerous times inthe Qu'ran and in the hadiths.The Prophet's (PBUH) personalbanners have included thewhite and black previouslyreferenced, but it appears healso occasionally used a yellowbanner, represented by both aweak (da'if) hadith:
Uqbah bin Mukramnarrated: I saw “the flag ofProphet Mohammadsallalahu alaihi wassalamyellow.” [2]
and another hadith:
“The Prophet صلى هللا عليه وسلمhas knotted the flags of al
49 points · 61 commentsSectarianism: A History of the ShiaSunniDivide
Whether the hadith are corrector not, the inclusion of yellowas an Islamic color has been amainstay of color choices fordepicting Islam and the designof Islamic banners forcenturies. Similarly, while theProphet (PBUH) is not recordedto have ever carried a greenflag, there are several Qu'ranicreferences to it as a favoredcolor. It is the opinion of manyIslamic scholars that green wasthe favorite color of theProphet (PBUH) and its usewould become associated withIslam at large. Describing theinhabitants of paradise theQu'ran says:
"Reclining on greenCushions and rich Carpetsof beauty" Surah 55,verse 76
and
"Upon them will be greengarments of fine silk andheavy brocade, and theywill be adorned withbracelets of silver; and theirLord will give to them todrink of a Water Pure andHoly." Surah 76, verse 21
The Fatamid caliphate woulduse an empty green banner asthe flag of the caliphate, whichbegan a long chain of usinggreen in flags to representtheir Islamic roots, including atremendous number of modernnations, both Sunni and Shi'amajority nations, either as partof the flag like in Iran (upperbar), Iraq (both thestars/takbir and then only thetakbir), Syria (stars),
Afghanistan (right bar), or thebackground of the flag likeSaudi Arabia, Pakistan, orLibya (until Gaddafi'soverthrow). An overwhelmingnumber of predominantlyMuslim nations' flag bearsgreen in some manner oranother.
Having established that greenis a predominant color in thevexillology of Islamic nations,but before moving into thepurview of its use by Shi'aIslamists, it should beunderstood that green is alsofeatured prominently in SunniIslamist imagery as well.Palestinian group Hamas usesa green background with awhite shahadah for their partyflag. The Muslim Brotherhooduses a variety of symbolincluding an emblem ofcrossed Mamaluke sabersbeneath a Qu'ran on a greenfield, or a similar image on agreen background flag. InSyria, the Sunni Islamist groupJabhat alIslamiyah uses greenimagery in both their parentflag.svg/2000pxLogoof_the_Islamic_Front(Syria).svg.png) and in theemblems of their membergroups like Jaish alIslam orAhrar alSham. The color greenis certainly not exclusive toeither Sunni or Shi'a Islamistgroups.
With all that in mind andknowing that green and yellowimagery and flags do notimmediately indicate a Shi'aIslamist group, it is primarilythese groups who combine thetwo in their flags and imagery.Perhaps the best known of the
Shi'a Islamist flags is theIranian sponsored LebaneseHezbollah whose flag sports ayellow background, green Kuficscript, and red text (red is alsoan important color in Islam,present on many flags as well).This design has spawned quitea few imitators as well asaffiliated groups like the Iraqimilitia Kata'ib Hezbollah(Hezbollah Brigades) who use(among other designs) a yellowbackground with greenpendant and an arm graspingan AK similar to the LebaneseHezbollah design. TheHezbollah style flag appears inthe emblems of several dozenIraq based Shi'a militias, manyof which are depicted in thisinfographic of fifty Iraqi militiaemblems.
Beyond the Hezbollah styleyellow/green imagery, the IraqiShi'a Islamist political partythe Islamic Supreme Council ofIraq uses green imagery on ayellow flag. A previous part ofthe aforementioned groupbefore breaking off into it'sown independent organization,the Badr Brigades eschews thegreen in their battle flag butretains the Hezbollah styleoutstretched hand clutching anAK on a yellow background.Not limited to Syria and Iraq,the Iranian funded andorganized Liwa alFatemiyoun[4], an Afghan Shi'a militiafighting in Syria using abanner that depicts a greenand yellow globe with"Hezbollah" in green script andred script below that.Similarly, the logo of theHouthi movement in Yemen
(and reputed to have limitednumbers in Syria) is a whitebanner with green and red text(reading from top to bottom:"God is the Greatest/ Death toAmerica/ Death to Israel/ ACurse on the Jews/ Victory toIslam").
As with most things, there areexceptions. The Syrian Shi'amilitia and (believed to be)Lebanese Hezbollah proxy inSyria, Liwa alSayyida alRuqayya [5] uses a blackbanner featuring yellow textand an image of SayyidaRuqayya shrine. However thisgroup routinely uses the flagsand imagery of both LebaneseHezbollah and Damascus basedIraqi militia Kata'ib Sayyid alShuhada, whose yellow andgreen flags bring it full circle.
As established earlier, be itgreen, red, black, yellow, orwhite, no color is exclusive toone group or another. And yetwe come to associate black andwhite with Salafi Islamistgroups, purely green withSunni Islamist politicalmovements, and yellow andgreen together with Shi'aIslamist groups. Whetherintentional to differentiatefrom other strains of Islamistmovements, as a means ofhighlighting one denominationover another, or anunintentional gravitationtowards community colors, adefinite branding by way of thecolor and imagery of the flags,banners, and emblems ofIslamist groups has occurred.One should certainly not hopeto glean political or sectarianallegiance from flag colors
The ahadeeth of Abu Dawud andBayhaqi رحمهم هللا would not beaccepted by the Shi'a as they are
alone, but to the student ofIslamic conflict, the colors ofthe flags give a unique insightinto probable ideological beliefsof the group.
RESOURCES USED:
[1] Soage, Ana Belén."Introduction to PoliticalIslam." Religion Compass3.5 (2009): 887896.[2] Hadith of Abu Dawudand alBaihaqi[3] Hadith of alTabaranialMuʿjam alKabīr[4] Institute for theStudy of War[5] Joshua Landis, "LiwaalSayyida alRuqayya:Recruiting the Shi'a ofDamascus", SyriaComment.
Sunni narrators, although it's a mootpoint since they have a narrationfrom alTabarani
In a long tradition reported on theauthority of alMufaddal ibn'Umar, one of the most eminentand close associates of the ImamsalSadiq and alKazim, it is relatedthat alMufaddal had once askedalSadiq to inform him about theqiyam of alQa'im alMahdi. Thesixth Imam said: "I see him thathe entered the city of Meccawearing the apparel of the Prophetand a yellow turban on his head"
[Seyyed Hossein Nasr, HamidDabashi, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr,Expectation of the Millennium:Shi'ism in History, 33]
Keeping the above quote in mind, theyellow color has an eschatologicalsignificance for the Shi'a who believetheir 12th Imam will wear yellow,thus, my assumption is the color is insolidarity with the narration as well.permalink
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 5 points 2days ago
Solid. This is the kind offeedback I needed. Thank you!permalink parent
[–] Citizyen 3 points 2 daysago*
I'm glad to be of use :)
The narration of alMufaddal can be foundin Bihar ulAnwar byMuhammad Baqir Majlisiin Kitab alGhaibahpermalink parent
It took six months, but my questionhas been answered
Found this image on twitter, showingthe clear dominance of green andyellow among Shia militia groups inIraq.permalink
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 6 points 2days ago
I actually meant to do thissooner but I really didn't wantto have to search throughhadiths and the Qu'ran. Afriend helped me locatehadiths I needed (all two ofthem) and that kinda got meoff my ass.
Very much open to corrections.I tried to keep this hyperspecific to the use of imageryas I really don't have a goodknowledge base on Shi'aIslamism, so if I made a majorerror, please let me know.permalink parent
[–] NeverFapAgain547 1 point 6 hoursago
But a Sunni militant groupjundellah in Iran still usesgreen and yellow, seems moreregionalpermalink parent
[–] tyrroi 6 points 2 days ago*
/r/vexillology Yo, PS I am alsoworking on that map I promisedawhile ago.permalink
Excellent write up LAKY. You have tokeep in mind that Shia don't believethe Sunni Hadith to be authenticTaqleed, so your sources are notaccurately describing Shia views onthe subject and even if they dosupport and align with the subject,the influence is fairly insignificant
from a Shia view. It would be moretelling if you can find quotes from thefour recognized books, or Nahj alBalagha or other Taqleed books bythe Imams.permalink
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 4 points 2days ago
Solid and thank you. Someoneelse listed a more relevanthadith I'll edit it when I gethome.permalink parent
[–] heelfan 5 points 2 days ago
Any particular reason for having AK47s on a large number of the Shiaflags? From what I understand it is amark of Iranian influence.permalink
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 6 points 2days ago*
Edit: I'm wrong. It originatedwith the IRGC.permalink parent
[–] rotateclockwise 3points 2 days ago
Originated with IRGCflag, Hezbollah adopteda similar logo, and Iraqigroups adoptedHezbollah logo.permalink parent
well as a reminder of theirstruggle against colonialism.permalink parent
[–] CaeruleusPisces 5 points 1 day ago*
the use of green in modern daystates has nothing to do with islamicheritage but rather to a verse ofpoetry that makes use of the 4colours red, black, white and greenthe ones used in most of arab flags ora combination of them it goes likethis.
سل الرمآح العوالي عن معالينا واستشهد البيضهل خاب الرجا فينا
لما سعينا فما رقت عزائمنا عما نروم وما خابتمساعينا
قوم اذا استخصموا كانو فراعنة يوما وان حكمواكانوا موازينا
تدرعوا العقل جلبابا فإن حميت نار الوغى خلتهمفيها مجانينا
ان إدعوا جائت الدنيا مصدقة وان دعوا قالت االيآمآمينا
انا لقوم ابت اخالقنا شرفا ان نبتدي باالذى منليس يؤذينا
بيض صفائحنا سود وقائعنا خضر مرابعنا حمرمواضيناال يظهر العجز منا دون نيل المنى وان رايناالموت في امانينا
the line in bold translates to: whiteare our pages (meaning what peoplesay about us is good +ve) black areour battles (meaning how fierce theywere) green are our pastures(meaning rich and prosperous theland is) red is our past (meaning thatit was filled with loss and death)
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 3 points 2days ago
Thanks, brother. It's beenbothering me for a while tryingto figure out why groups usethe colors that they use. Wasan interesting thoughtexperiment.permalink parent
[–] saybel 2 points 2 days ago*
Wow I had no idea there wasmeaning behind the colors in somecases. Thanks for the write up Imissed your previous post linked inthis one I will go back and read it.Thanks again these kind of posts arewhat makes this sub so good.
Edit: after dumb question Tuesday isover maybe you can sticky this postso others who may have missed itcould take a look?permalink
[–] [Voted Best and Worst Mod of 2015]LiesAboutKnowingYou [S] 4 points 2days ago
As a rule I don't sticky my ownposts unless it's a megathreador an administrative matter.permalink parent
[–] StrangeSemiticLatin2 3 points 2 days ago
Could any Turk explain to me whythe Ottomans adopted red?permalink
alQa'dah and Dhu alHijjah) and it's beenHaraam for Arab tribesto fight against eachother in these fourmonths.
So if two Arab tribeswere in a battle, at thebeginning of thesemonths they would havesuspended the war andraise a red flag on thedome of thecommander's marqueeto show that.
It was also an Arabtradition to raise a redflag on the tomb of theone who had been killedunjustly, until his deathis revenged."
So the Shia view thedeath of Hussain as notavenged.
Hussain tomb flagnormally
http://i.imgur.com/8MNDKrb.jpg
Hussain tomb flagduring Ashura
http://i.imgur.com/ACgTCTl.jpg
Hezbollah will evenchange the color of theirflag for the occasion