Egypt’s flag was not made with any consideration for the Copts. In fact it alienates them from the Egyptian state. It refers to Arab identity, and in this sense it is difficult to accept that it represents the Copts as it represents the Arabs of Egypt.
Egypt’s current flag goes back in its basic structure to the coup of Colonel Nasser on 23 July 1952, the so-called July Egyptian Revolution. It is called the Egyptian revolutionary and liberation flag. Its current form was adopted in 1984. The coup’s Arabism is largely symbolised in it. It is a tricolour made of the three equal horizontal bars in red, white, and black, and it bears in its centre (in the white bar) the eagle of Saladin (Al-Nasir Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi), the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty in 1171, who has been taken by the Egyptian Muslims as their national hero because he managed to defeat the Crusaders and recapture the city of Jerusalem in the 12th century. Saladin’s eagle has become Egypt’s national emblem.
It is said that the red bar symbolizes the Egyptians’ blood in the war against colonization; the white bar the purity of the Egyptian’s heart; the black bar, below the white, the manner in which darkness is overcome. This seems to be a new interpretation: the original interpretation is that red refers to bloodshed in numerous wars, white to abolition of the monarchy, and black should commemorate the monarchy and the period of British colonialism. Saladin’s eagle faces the hoist-side, and it is represented holding a shield composed of three parts on his chest: the side ones are black while the central one is yellow. And for good measure, the eagle is made to stands above a panel that reads “جمهورية مصر العربية”, which means “The Arab Republic of Egypt”.
Its heavy tinge of Arabic nationalism was not lost to other Arab countries, and so many adopted its basic structure, including Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan, with little differences.
This is through and through a flag by the Arabs of Egypt for the Arabs of Egypt, and is in complete denial of the existence of the Copts and the Nuba who do not share in Arab identity or nationalism, who do not like the adjective Arab attached to the Republic of Egypt, and who do not necessarily celebrate Saladin or his eagle. It is rude to say the least, and it cannot but alienate the Copts. A country’s flag must represent all and not one nationality within the multi-national state. Better still to use symbols that are do not alienate some of the country’s major components.