Why do Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to pledge allegiance or salute the flag? I have heard that Jehovah's Witnesses are forbidden to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (to the  United States flag) or even to salute it.

What is the basis for this prohibition?  I'm wondering what is so wrong to have a secondary allegiance to one's country, after one's allegiance to God.
Q. Why do Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to pledge allegiance or salute the flag?

A. The answer is found in the very definition of what the words "pledge" and "allegiance" mean and on what God's word the Bible states / shows to Whom we are to pledge our allegiance.


  pledge
  noun \ˈplej\
  
  
  a serious promise or agreement  
  a promise to give money  
  something that you leave with another person as a way to show that you will keep your promise
  


~ Above definition taken directly from Merriam Webster online dictionary.


  al·le·giance
  noun \ə-ˈlē-jən(t)s\  
  
  
  
  the obligation of a feudal vassal to his liege lord
  (1) :  the fidelity owed by a subject or citizen to a sovereign or government
   (2) :  the obligation of an alien to the government under which the alien resides 
  
  devotion or loyalty to a person, group, or cause"
  


~ Above definition taken directly from Merriam Webster online dictionary.


  “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. 5 You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting EXCLUSIVE devotion"
  ~ Exodus 20:4, 5
  
  So he brought him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time; 6 and the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me, and to whomever I wish I give it. 7 You, therefore, if you do an act of worship before me, it will all be yours.” 8 In reply Jesus said to him: “It is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’”
  ~ Luke 4:5-8


Therefore, we who are members of the worldwide unified Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses will ONLY pledge our allegiance to the One who as the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth exacts EXCLUSIVE devotion / allegiance... JEHOVAH God (the Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ).

If we had an official pledge it would probably be recited in the following way:

I pledge allegiance to JEHOVAH GOD, the Almighty Creator and Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth. And to His Kingdom of which Christ stands, holiness under God indivisible with righteousness and justice for all.

Furthermore, on the subject of allegiance to one's country, Jehovah directed ancient Israel to use warfare to take possession of the land that He himself as the Sovereign Lord of the universe designated as their inheritance and to execute people whose depraved practices and defiance of the true God caused Jehovah to view them as being no longer fit to receive His gift of life and continue to live. (Deut. 7:1, 2, 5; 9:5; Lev. 18:24, 25) Nevertheless, mercy was shown to Rahab and to the Gibeonites (who were not Jehovah's Witnesses / members of the nation of Israel) because they demonstrated faith in Jehovah. (Josh. 2:9-13; 9:24-27) 

In the Law covenant given through Moses, God laid down very specific rules for warfare that He Himself would approve, stipulating exemptions and the manner in which this warfare was to be carried out. Such were truly HOLY WARS OF JEHOVAH. That IS NOT true of the carnal warfare of ANY nation (including the United States of America) today.

With the establishing of the 1st century Christian congregation, a NEW situation came into existence. True Christians ARE NOT under the Mosaic Law. Christ’s followers were to make disciples of people of all nations; so worshipers of the true God would in time be found in all those nations. However, what is the motive of those nations when they go to war? Is it to carry out the will of the Creator of all the earth or is it to further some nationalistic interest? 

We all know the answer.

If true Christians in one nation were to go to war against another nation, they would be fighting against fellow believers, against people who prayed for help to the same God that they did. Such an action as that is utterly unacceptable and chaotic, being that true Christians are in fact part of the same worldwide spiritual family.

Appropriately, Christ directed his true followers to lay down the sword at Matt. 26:52. He himself, glorified in the heavens, would henceforth carry out the execution of those who showed defiance of the true God and His will as recorded at —2 Thess. 1:6-8 and Rev. 19:11-21.