BAGHDAD, 27 October 2003 — Iraq will soon have a new flag and national anthem as part of efforts to sever all links with the era of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party, a member of the US-installed Government Council told AFP yesterday.
“We have created a committee within the council to chose between different proposals to change the flag and the national anthem,” Muwaffak Al-Rubai said.
“For the national anthem, there is a consensus to go back to the one which existed before the early 1980s and which was called: ‘My homeland, my homeland,’” he said.
Saddam brought in a new song glorifying his former ruling Baath Party, entitled: “A country that has spread its wings to the horizon.”
“I also think that we will go back to the old emblem from the time of Abdul Karim Kassem which had a cogwheel with wheat in the center instead of the eagle now in use,” he said, referring to the ruler of Iraq between 1958 and 1963.
Rubai also said “the majority of Council members, and I am one of them, want to maintain the current flag, but want to change the calligraphy of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great) which is written in the middle.”
“Instead of Saddam Hussein’s handwriting, we want to use the calligraphy of the Qur’an,” he explained.
The Iraqi flag is made up of three stripes — red, white and black — with three green stars. After the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam added the phrase “Allahu Akbar” — apparently to present himself as a true believer.
“Everything that shows the original Iraq, its historical heritage and culture, we will keep and everything that reminds us of the former regime, we will change,” Rubai said.
