Anouar Majid's column on Morocco's flag published by Morocco Board News Service

Anouar Majid, Ph.D., associate provost for global initiatives and director of the 91AV Center for Global Humanities, wrote a column on the history of Morocco's Flag for the Feb. 24, 2011.

In citing scholarly articles and political issues in his outline of the changes in the design of the flag over several centuries, Majid notes that in the period prior to 1917, "the Moroccan flag sported not the five-pointed star (pentagram), but the Star of David (the hexagram known in Arabic as Khatam Suleyman and in Judaism as the Seal of Solomon). Morocco’s Semitic heritage, which it shares with Jews, was acknowledged on the most visible symbol of the nation," until French colonialists changed the design.

"Scholars have long known that identities are often more imagined than not. Not a bad thing to keep in mind as many nations around the world are ready to annihilate their neighbors in the name of an elusive principle. The only protection we have against such tragedies is to remember that concrete humans are far more real than the ideologies that lead us to love or hate them."  Majid's most recent book is We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities (University of Minnesota Press),

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