Flagged for criticism: Wheeling symbol among those called into question

The city flag was adopted in 2018 as part of the Wheeling 250 celebration. It features navy blue horizontal bars or stripes on the top and bottom, representing the Ohio River and other waterways. There are three total bars representing three major modes of transportation — river, road and rail. A white bar in the middle features five gold stars — each containing eight points.

While the eight-point star is intended to resemble a navigation star, the growing conspiracy theory targeting Wheeling’s flag and others across the country contends that “a prominent symbol of Islam is suddenly flying across the nation.”

A watch list of state and municipal flags observed as containing images of “Islamic-style” eight-point stars is being shared among the alarmists. Included on the list are not only the new Minnesota state flag and the Wheeling city flag, but also recent redesigns of flags for Hutchinson, Kansas; Aberdeen, South Dakota; Kent, Ohio; Norman, Oklahoma; Springfield, Missouri; Reno, Nevada; and Pocatello, Idaho.

Conservative political figure Steve Bannon — former Breitbart News executive chairman and former Trump White House chief strategist — speaking recently on the assertions about the new prevalence of eight-point stars described the list of cities with these flags as being “about as MAGA as you can get.” He had on his show Jacqueline Toboroff, who published the original story on her Substack.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, when asked about it, could hardly believe such a misinterpretation or blatant mischaracterization of the symbolism on the city flag could be taken seriously.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous to assert that anything about Wheeling’s flag symbolizes anything beyond the history of Wheeling,” Elliott said, adding that it was “disappointing to see such an effort to drag” divisive narratives into what is intended to be a unifying symbol of pride.

In fact, The Wheeling city flag received national recognition for its design. The North American Vexillological Association — an organization with more than 1,000 flag aficionados and scholars — conducted a survey in late 2022 about the design of flags from U.S. cities and towns that were known to have adopted new flags or redesigned the flags for their communities since 2015. Wheeling’s design was selected as one of the very best in the country.

Each star on the flag is meant to represent an era in Wheeling’s past: an indigenous star for the native tribes from which the city’s name was derived, a frontier star representing the area’s settlement and early U.S. history, a transportation star marking the city’s rise as an important crossroads of major travel arteries, a statehood star signifying its unique status as the only U.S. state born of the Civil War, and an industrial star boasting Wheeling’s history as a significant labor and manufacturing center.

Those “sounding the alarm” about eight-point stars assert that the “traditional five-point American star is being erased” and replaced with the eight-point star that is “commonly viewed as an Islamic symbol.”

These stars appear on city and state flags all over the country — including a number of more recently developed or updated flags, leading to an interpretation that a “cultural coup d’etat” is underway.

The undercurrent observed in the wake of the prevalent use of eight-point stars on flags gained traction recently as Minnesota officials approved a redesign of its flag, which will officially be adopted on May 11 in conjunction with its statehood celebration. The new state flag boasts a single eight-point star to echo the Minnesota state motto — “Star of the North.”

Minnesota adopted its new flag because its previous flag was not only deemed to be “too busy” by flag experts, but was also considered by some to be offensive and even racist. The previous flag had been used since 1957 and was an updated version of an original flag from 1893. It included the old state seal – which was also redesigned.

The former seal depicted a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plowed his field with his rifle leaning on a nearby stump. Critics contended that the imagery suggested that indigenous people were defeated and sent away, while white settlers won the battle for the land and were here to stay.

Yet this negative interpretation of flag symbolism is being replaced by what some are construing to be “offensive” symbolism, as well.

Those in Wheeling have a different take.

The mayor applauded local historian Jay Frey, who spearheaded the Wheeling 250 celebration, and Erin Rothenbeuhler, who led the project to redesign the city flag, along with their teams for their efforts.

“It was designed by a committee that was as apolitical as you could possibly get,” Elliott said. “The stars have nothing to do with anything controversial or political and everything to do with our westward migration across the country. They are navigational stars, period.”

More flags with eight-pointed stars are also reportedly being proposed for Albany, New York; Evansville, Indiana; Lowell, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Toledo, Ohio; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Washington State.

Opponents of this increasingly common use of the eight-pointed star in flag designs contend that this is a “nefarious trend” that “cannot be coincidental.”

Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom in Wheeling noted that many different kinds of stars are utilized in artistic designs and religious symbolism all around the world — from two overlapping squares as seen in the traditional Islamic star, two overlapping triangles to create the six-pointed Jewish star of David and the many different designs seen with depictions of the Christmas star in popular Christian symbolism.

“The wonderful thing about art is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; so too is meaning in the eye of the interpreter,” Lief said. “I’m pretty sure that religious coercion wasn’t the intent of our Wheeling 250 friends, mostly because they told us all explicitly that the stars on our Wheeling flag represent navigation, in honor of our city’s long history in connection to the river.

“While one can imagine that nefarious plots exist in the world, I choose to believe in the good will and good faith of my neighbors, and I take them at their word.”