Crescent ≠ Islam
When most of us look at a crescent on a flag, we generally think of one thing: is it waxing or waning? .... ok, not that. We generally think of something other than that: Islam. A great many nations use the crescent in their national flag. Algeria, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey are just a handful. This is flag for the Republic of Turkey. Although a republic now, Turkey is still very heavily Islamic, with over 97% of its population considering itself Islamic. The same could be said of other countries using the crescent–Algeria (99% Muslim), Azerbaijan (99%), Tunisia (99%), Pakistan (97%), and so on. So the Christians have the cross and the Muslims have the crescent, right? Not exactly. The history of the crescent predates Islam and even Christianity. The city of Byzantium, which later became Constantinople and then Istanbul, adopted the crescent flag before the birth of Christ. No one knows for sure why the flag was used. Some speculate that it was adopted after the Romans defea...