You know, it's interesting how one symbol or icon is sufficient to represent one particular group. The Christians have the cross, the Jews have the Star of David and the Muslims have .... did you say the crescent moon and the star?
It is surprising that the crescent moon and the star have become the Muslims' symbol. I remembered being taught when I was young and even now to stay away from the use of religious symbols or items as this may lead to some form of idol worship that could compromise the belief of the one true God. And yet despite Muslims being taught that, surprisingly the crescent moon and star is being accepted as the symbol of Islam.
According to history, the early Muslim community did not have any symbol and the Muslim armies fighting under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad SAW, simply use solid coloured flags generally green, but also black for identifying themselves. There were many tales of the bravery of many brave soldiers who fought to keep the flag flying as letting the flag falls means that the army has fallen. There was this brave man who despite losing both hands held on to the flag with the stumps of his hands. Despite the tales, there was really no mention whether the flag had any symbols on them.
How did the crescent moon and star became the symbols of Islam? It was the Ottoman Empire which made the world associate that symbol with the Muslim world when they conquered Istanbul and adopted the city's existing flag and symbol which was the crescent moon and the star. This ancient city originally called Byzantium had much earlier adopted the crescent moon symbol said either to honour a pagan Greek goddes called Diana or to commemorate the first day of the lunar month in which the Romans defeated the Goths. The crescent moon was already on the city's flag even before the birth of Christ.
Then in 330 CE, Constantine refounded Byzantium and renamed it Constantinoupolis after himself or Constantinople in Greek. He rededicated the city to the virgin Mary, whose star symbol was added to the previous crescent. By the time, Sultan Mehmet II led the Turks to conquer Constantinople in 1453 and renamed it Istanbul, the city's flag was already the crescent moon and the star. As the Ottoman Empire grew and ruled over the Muslim world, the crescent moon and star symbol became synonymous as the Muslim symbol. In fact the star within a crescent was a badge of Richard I, and his army quit using it when it became the banner of the Muslims.
There have been intense debate on the internet about the suitability of using the crescent moon and the star as the Islamic symbol. Some argued that since Islam never had any symbol historically and that to use what is essentially a pagan symbol as an Islamic symbol is certainly not right. Until I came across several articles on the internet about this matter, I have never really thought about the suitability of using the symbol. In most cases, practically all our Brunei mosques used the crescent moon and star as part of their decorative motifs. The Brunei crest has the crescent moon as part of the crest. A number of Muslim countries also have it as part of their national flags including Turkey, Malaysia, Algeria, Pakistan and Tunisia and also not forgetting the international Red Cross and Red Crescent organisation. Something to think about during this holy month of Ramadhan.