Middle-East crowds and waving hands in the air?

Factual Questions
1

I frequently see photos from the Middle East of crowds where everyone is waving their hands in the air, sometimes making gestures with their fingers. In this image from Gaza, for example, it seems like they are holding up two fingers and a thumb or something. I always see this hand-raising in pictures from Arab countries where there is a crowd, especially at funerals of terrorist leaders and at political rallies and things like that.

I’ve done google image searches for “irish rally,” “germany rally,” “japan rally,” “china rally” and several other countries trying to find pictures of mass rallies and demonstrations, and only “arab rally” gives me the images of the hand-waving. Is there something about the hand-raising that is a distinctly Arab phenomenon?

2

I am standing here with a guy I work with, who is from Pakistan. The picture you are looking at is at a funeral (note the casket). The hand gestures you see could mean one of three things…(1) God is Great, (2) Allah is one, and/or (3) Everyone dies, all returning to God.

Basically, they are all of the things in one, or however you want to view it. Straight from my Muslim friend!

Hope this helps.

3

Thanks. I did not know the hand gestures had such symbolism.