Black Flags Of Jihad are regularly used by ISIS, Al Qaeda, and a handful of other Islamic
Militant groups, as a rallying cry and symbol of war.
And they’ve certainly been effective at instilling fear in outsiders.
But the flag’s writing, symbols, literal translation, and even color - don’t have
malicious origins.
They’ve just been co-opted by terrorist groups, and twisted for their own benefit.
It’s similar to how the Klu Klux Klan co-opted Christian Symbolism in early 1900’s America,
to falsely identify their group as righteous and instill fear in the people they were terrorizing.
One way to take the power out of the Black Flags Of Jihad is to demystify them.
First off, these flags aren’t actually “black flags Of Jihad”.
That’s just what western media is calling them.
The people who rally around these flags, call them the Black Standard or the Flag Of The
Eagle, or simply the Banner.
The flags are modeled after the Black Flag that Muhammad used for his military banner.
By using black, Militant groups are simply harkening back to Muhammad’s times.
And they aren’t the only ones that use black to reference Muhammad.
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and many other Muslim nations use black in their flags to
indicate the same thing - and there’s nothing overtly negative about it.
It just means they follow the teachings of Muhammad.
The other symbols on the black flag of jihad are equally innocuous.
The symbol at the top is a Shahadah - which is an Islamic testament to the groups’ faith
in Islam.
The full Shahadah, as it reads on the flag of Al Qaeda, translates to, “There is no
God, but Allah; and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah’”.
Which is a common and important testament for Muslims everywhere, and in no way directly
refers to terrorism or fundamentalism.
Normally it’s used as an affirmation of faith - not a rallying cry.
The ISIS flag itself is one big Shahadah.
The top reads “There is no God, but Allah”, followed by the seal of Muhammad which roughly
translates to “Muhammad, messenger of Allah.”
And the seal itself is an innocuous and fairly common symbol in Islam.
It’s the actual seal that Muhammad would use on official correspondence.
Terrorist groups will also use symbols like crossed swords, which do symbolize militancy,
but they also symbolize historic Islam.
Sometimes, they’ll use cryptic phrases cherry-picked from the Koran.
The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, uses the phrase “Be Prepared”, which is a reference
to a verse in the Koran about preparing to fight the enemies of God.
But the verse in the Koran obviously doesn’t condone terrorist acts, or even refer to who
those enemies actually are.
All of these things, from the flags’ color to the verses in the Koran, are generally
innocuous by themselves and can be used with good intentions in other settings.
But when it’s all put together on a flag by a terrorist group and waved in the name
of war, it takes on a new sinister meaning.
Otherwise, these symbols are generally used as an affirmation of faith in a positive way.
To find out more about Islam and possible misconceptions about it, please check out
our video on what the word Jihad really means.
It is much less scary than you might think.
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