Greene King, which runs 3,000 pubs, had to remove the Saudi Arabia flag from World Cup buntings from its pubs following complaints from customers that it was inappropriate to display it where alcohol is sold. The Saudi flag carries the Shahadah - the Muslim profession of faith, and drinking alcohol is against the Islamic religion. The brewery has removed all the Saudi flags from its buntings but has still retained those of other Islamic nations because they do not include the text. These countries include Iran, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and Tunisia.
Brewery Greene King, which supplied its pubs with decorations featuring the national flags of all 32 teams playing in Russia this summer, said in context of the removal of Saudi flag that the removal "was not a comment on any nation". The decorations initially included the flag, which carries the Shahada. The sacred text reads: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”. A spokesman for the pub chain said: "Following feedback from some customers in London about displaying the Saudi Arabia flag in a pub, we understand it was inappropriate as it contains the religiously-significant Islam Shahada in Arabic and so we have removed it”.
