– Mohammed Azam (B.Tech. CSE, AMU)
Recently, there has been an increase in things of everyday use with certain marks of Blue, White, and Red stripes or colors (Sometimes Black, White, and Red). These color combinations can be found on things like shirts, jackets, slippers, shoes, spectacles, bikes, etc. One may be wondering why he is seeing this sign and some may even be assigning some special importance to this sign. Let’s try to learn in this article what this sign means and why are some companies (of course) promoting this.
First of all, let me tell you that these 3 stripes are used in the flag of France. The color combination is found also in the UK Flag, American Flag, Russian Flag, Pepsi logo, Tommy Hilfiger Logo, Captain America’s Shield, etc. This can thus be generalized as a symbol of the West. An interesting thing to note here is that France was the place where Modern western ideologies started spreading out.
BUT WHY?
These signs are being promoted (generally) by western companies in their merchandise. They are promoting such things in the public so that it becomes popular. This is advertising the west.
SIGN OF ACCEPTANCE
One other thing that I want to bring to your notice is that we have T-Shirts, Caps, etc. with things written on them like ‘US Army’, ‘New York’, ‘Paris’, etc. Just imagine if someone walks in a street in India with something written on his shirt like ‘Chinese Army’ or ‘Islamabad’, will he be able to wear it? No! But did he suddenly start to belong to the Chinese Army or come from Islamabad? Again no! The thing is that we do not want to even think about the things we don’t like.
COLOURS MATTER
The color codes in themselves are quite interesting to note. Red Green and Blue are the basic colors from which all other colors can be made. Green is an Islamic color. It is not included in the flags and signs signifying the absence of Islam. Green is the color of Nature; it signifies naturalness. It is also interesting to note that green comes in the middle of the visible light spectrum whereas red and blue come near the ends of the spectrum of visible light. Thus green also signifies balance i.e. not diverging towards the two extremes.
ADVANTAGES
There are many advantages of doing it this way for the companies. Some are:-
- Advertisement by your money: – Generally when you see some poster advertisement on some walls, the advertiser’s money is spent on that. If you don’t like it and tear it, then it leads to damage to his money and the advertisement is lost. But that shirt with mysterious signs that you or someone else bought is your own money and you cannot just tear it apart when you realize it.
- Lack of communicability: – Even when you may realize what it stands for, you may still be hesitant to tell others because you may fear that they will tell you that you are paranoid or just a fool. This prevents collective action against the signs by the people.
OTHERS ARE IN THE LINE
Just now, if you may be thinking that this is a trivial thing, then let me tell you that this is not the only symbol that is getting popular. The other symbol is the eye symbol, supposedly signifying the Anti-Christ (Dajjal). This is often seen on women’s clothing, supposedly because they wear clothing on which there is already a lot of design so including some eye-like symbols between them is easy.
Here a new reason for spreading these also becomes clear and that is instilling fear. It gives a message of ‘We are everywhere so fear us’. The other symbol which is being promoted is the LGBTQ+ flag. This is generally found on mobile covers but may extend to other things in the future when LGBTQ+ acceptance increases in society.
LASTLY
It is now up to us what we want to accept and reject. I hope that I have conveyed the point as clearly as can be understood by a common person. If you ignore these signs then, know that these signs will become bigger and clearer. Then you would not be able to object as it will be said- “If you knew, then why didn’t you oppose it before?”. It should become clear to us that if we can’t oppose the signs of the Anti-Christ then how can we oppose him when he comes?
Well in fact these are signs from Allah that he is showing us to warn us. Let us not be like those for whom it will be said:-
“Yes indeed! But My Signs came to you and you rejected them as lies, and waxed arrogant and were among those who disbelieved.” 39:59
