World Waving Flag

One of the most important factors in a revolution is the country's flag. When the rebels or the protesters don't seek to change it or to remove it, then the current regime had nothing to do with the placement of the flag. The flag will thus remain the same. However when the flag somehow refers to the regime, then it will be overthrown with it. An obvious example is the French revolution where the rebels replaced the white monarchy flag with the "drapeau tricolore"symbol of Paris and its uprising.

The Arab Spring also fits in. The Libyan rebels replaced the Jamahiriya (Colonel Gadhafi’s regime)'s green flag with the Libyan kingdom's flag. Same thing in syria: demonstrators were seen replacing the flag of the Baath Arab Syrian Republic with the 1936 French mandate flag. Lebanon’s Cedar revolution of 2005 however kept the original flag for a very good reason. The flag was the only symbol that could have united back then the18 Lebanese confessions and the multiple political parties. It was also one of the main symbols of Lebanon’s struggle for its independence in 1943. The “second independence" from Syria would thus require an excessive use of the flag so the crowds will appear united and patriotic. Using a new flag could have been misleading.

Another reason is that before the current flag was made the Lebanese republic was under the French mandate and the flag back then strongly illustrated it: three vertical blue, white and red straps (the French flag colors) with a cedar in the middle white rectangle. Such a flag will be more adequate to a French revolution, than a Lebanese one. If we go further in time we will notice that the Lebanese never had a patriotic flag before 1945.Both the Lebanese moutassarrifiat(1860-1914) and the ka'emmakamiyateyn(1840-1860) political systems used the Turkish ottoman flag or a variant of it.Before then, Lebanon was governed by the Chehabite dynasty. 'Why blue?' is a question that every Lebanese person asks himself when he sees the Tayyar el Moustaqbal(future movement)'s flag.

It does not have the pan-Arab colors (white, black,green, red), it does not contain the green Muslim color (most of the party's partisans are Sunni Muslims), and it doesn't have a cedar such as most of the Christian parties. It is simply blue, with a sun-like white logo on the left. A normal Lebanese citizen would have answered that it's referring to a sky enlightened by a sun, which reminds us with the famous phrase "wel sama zarka"( meaning "as long as the sky is blue" and widely used during the 2009 electoral campaign by the future movement). However, after taking a good look at the flag, you can find it very similar to the flag of the chehabist principality of Lebanon. The Chehabist Flag is blue with a white crescent in the middle. Like most of the Future Movement's supporters, the Chehab Dynasty, while supporting the Maronite Christians was officially a Sunni Muslim family.

If the crescent is flipped and aligned on the left of the flag you will practically have the future movement's flag (some rays still need tobe added to have the exact flag). While most of the Nasserite and Palestinian factions use pan-Arab colors (i.e. Baath, Fatah, Union Party), the vast majority of Christian parties is known for having the cedar on its flag (golden for the National Liberal Party, green for the Lebanese Social Democratic Party-Phalangists- and for the Marada and the Lebanese Forces, just to name a few).The Cedar along with the removal of the black pan-arab color is believed to be used by those parties in order to counter the Muslim-Arab influence and to prevent an affiliation of Lebanon to a United Arab country where Muslims will be the vast majority.

While the Amal movement's flag is known for its green Islamic flag containing the movement's initials, the other Shiite party Hezbollah has a flag very similar in design to the Iranian Pasdaran's flag. The colors may differ but the logo and the signs on the flag are practically the same. The mainly Druze but officially secular Progressive Socialist Party has a flag reflecting his socialist ideology and very similar to the soviet one. Speaking of ideological based parties, two other parties should be mentioned: The Phalangist Party ( The Lebanese Social Democratic Party) and The Syrian Social Nationalist Party(SSNP), who among other things common with the Nazi German party (the official name of the Nazi party is National Socialist German Workers' Party very similar to the SSNP, they both seek the creation of a"national" state, they both have the same financial and economic policies, they both had at some point a military wing, and they both praise socialism ) has the swastika and the red, white and black colors.

Both flags are thus very similar. Variants of he Phalangist flag reflects the phalangist's fascist origins. The presence of "Allah"(god),"Watan"(country) and "A'ila"(family) under the cedar suggests many principles of the fascism movement such as the birthrate encouraging policies(family), the close relation to the church (god) and the nationalist tendencies (country). The official phalangist name Lebanese Social Democratic Party indicates the party's socio economic views that converge with fascism's socialism. Not to mention that like other fascist parties, the phalangists had a militia (or armed wing) today known as the Lebanese Forces Party,China Lankey.