Jamaat-e-Islami And Its Thinking
I visited the JI's website to do some research for a paper I'm writing and was immediately struck by their banner. Check it out:
Look at the Pakistan flag. For one thing, the JI has the kalma atop the star and crescent, similar to the Saudi flag. For those unaware, please allow me to tell you that the real Pakistan flag has no such thing on it. Evidently the leaders (and/or webmasters) of the JI feel the kalma is something we might forget, and thus feel it necessary that our flag carry it.
The second thing to note about the flag is that the white third of the flag, representing minorities, has been cut to about one quarter its old size. It has been forcibly taken over by sky blue, which, once again, does not exist on the actual flag. I have absolutely no idea what the blue is supposed to represent (Islamic ideology meets aquamarine biology?) but I do know that the slashing of the minorities' share of the flag, as it were, is no accident.
Update: I was completely wrong. This is JI's party flag, not their designs for the Pakistan flag, as anyone with an IQ of over 75 should have surmised. Read the interesting and informed comments to this post for more.
Look at the Pakistan flag. For one thing, the JI has the kalma atop the star and crescent, similar to the Saudi flag. For those unaware, please allow me to tell you that the real Pakistan flag has no such thing on it. Evidently the leaders (and/or webmasters) of the JI feel the kalma is something we might forget, and thus feel it necessary that our flag carry it.
The second thing to note about the flag is that the white third of the flag, representing minorities, has been cut to about one quarter its old size. It has been forcibly taken over by sky blue, which, once again, does not exist on the actual flag. I have absolutely no idea what the blue is supposed to represent (Islamic ideology meets aquamarine biology?) but I do know that the slashing of the minorities' share of the flag, as it were, is no accident.
Update: I was completely wrong. This is JI's party flag, not their designs for the Pakistan flag, as anyone with an IQ of over 75 should have surmised. Read the interesting and informed comments to this post for more.
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Pakistan
9 comments:
could it be their party flag?
It's also interesting to note that the direction of the crescent and star are reversed, like in the Turkish flag....
actually thats how a real flag would look if you saw it from the other side...
it is indeed the JI's flag, not their version of the Pakistan flag.
Check out: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/pk%7D.html
even if it is their party flag, is it not disturbing that they seek to cut minorities out?
i actually think they had no clue it stood for minorities to begin with...
Sorry to disappoint you, Ahsan. It is not the Pakistan flag. it is JI's party flag that has been around since 1941, long before the Pakistan flag was designed in 1947. (ironically, the Pakistan flag too started out as the All India Muslim League flag. A white stripe was added to the AIML flag to make the Pakistan national flag).
Among ohter things, it shows how those of us who have grown up in non-political neighborhoods (Defence, Clifton in Karachi; Gulberg, Model Town in Lahore; all of Islamabad) do not recognize the party flags of our major political parties!
You foten do a good blog, friend, but this time you simply dropped the ball on your research.
I just read the JI's own explanation of their flag in a 1970 book: It does have a white stripe between the blue stripe next to the mast and the green main area. The blue is supposed to symbolize the universality of islam's message. The white signifies the protection of minorities. The green, with kalima and the crescent and star reflects the JI's commitment to Sharia rule.
Now, why are you surprised by any of this? After all, the JI stands for Sharia rule and I am glad they are honest and upfront about it. At least people know what to expect.
Much better than the PML, which under nawaz Sharif became an advocate of Sharia to declare NS as Amirul Momineen and then changed its mind.
thanks anonymous 655 and anonymous 700 for your informative comments. i'm hoping more and more people who know their stuff start (reading and) commenting on this blog to make the final product better than the sum of mine, aks' and nb's efforts.
btw, i do recognize the ppp amd mqm flags (being from khi, i see them all the time) but you're right 655, i dropped the ball on this one.
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