Saddam's scrawl to be dropped from Iraqi flag

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Saddam Hussein's handwritten praise to God will be dropped from the Iraqi flag and the symbolism behind its three green stars will be changed, according to a bill presented to parliament on Saturday.

The Iraqi flag still bears the ousted dictator's handwritten Allahu Akhbar" (God is Greater) while the three stars officially symbolise unity, freedom and socialism -- the slogan of Saddam's Baath party.

Under the new flag law, given its first reading by parliament on Saturday, the praise to God will be printed -- in yellow -- in the Kufi form of Arabic script while the stars will now represent peace, tolerance and justice.

"The Iraqi parliament read the Iraqi flag law for the first time in its session on Saturday," said Naseer al-Isawi, a...