My First Look at Malaysia's Flag Made Me Do A Double-Take

Malaysia's national flag, displayed widely and proudly in celebration of Malaysian Independence Day on August 31.

 The national flag of Malaysia bears a remarkable resemblance to the U.S. national flag, though the similarities are not mentioned in the articles I perused to write this.
There are 14 alternating  read-and-white stripes on the Malaysia flag, representing the nation's states and territories, while the U.S. flag has 13 similar stripes representing the original 13 colonies.
The blue field in the upper left also is similar, though of course the U.S. flag displays a star for each of the 50 states, while the Malaysia flag has a crescent representing the state religion of Islam, and a 14-point star representing unity among the nation's states and territories. The crescent and the star are yellow,  representing the traditional royal color of  Malaysia's rulers.
Malaysia first raised its national flag in 1963, while the U.S. flag dates back to the legend of seamstress Betsy Ross and America's Declaration of Independence in 1776.