What Is The Significance of the ISISL Flag?

What Is The Significance of the ISIS Flag?

Sep 11, 2014, 10:36AM | Rachel Avraham

The fearsome black and white flag of the fearsome Sunni extremist organization that threatens the Middle East and the world provides an illustration for how ISIS is viewed. “The flag displays a lot of things that looking from the outside one does not understand,” the experts stated.  The world saw last month the black flag of ISIS, with Arabic inscriptions and rifles symbolizing the downfall of the Middle East by the hands of the Sunni extremist organization.  The flag appears throughout Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and in many websites, as well as on twitter and facebook.

Experts told Time Magazine that the flag represents the values, history and future from the terror organization’s perspective. The flag itself is black and the words “there is no God but Allah” is written on it. In a white circle in the center of the flag, the inscription “Muhammed is the messenger of God” and also an Islamic declaration of faith calling for martyrdom is written.

The words written in the circle on the flag are supposed to be a copy of what is considered the signature of Muhammed. This signature, according to Islamic belief, Muhammed made use of during his lifetime when he sent letters to foreign leaders with requests or demands to join forces.

“The power of this flag is in the fact that the word Allah appears, which in the eyes of many Muslims sanctifies him,” explained Haider El Roi, a scholar on Islam from a college in London. Leaders of the Arab world, including opponents of ISIS, don’t call to burn the flag because of the mention of Allah. “It is a very strange situation for Muslims because ISIS is an evil terrorist organization with a flag that is sacred,” Roi stated.

According to Time Magazine, the flag was not invented by ISIS. In the past, Al Qaeda and other jihadists in Iraq, Somalia and Yemen used it. Even the colors black and white have meaning: for jihadist organizations, different colors are used because they express local aspirations (green for Hamas, yellow for Hezbollah), while the flag of ISIS is global.

“The colors are very important,” Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish expert on the Islamist threat, stated. “The flag without the words is the flag of war of Muhammed. It’s not just about the colors of jihad. It is considered to be for the last battle, the Day of Judgment.”

“The flag displays a lot of things that looking from the outside one does not understand,” he added. “Only people from the Middle East recognize the importance of the indignations that desire to break the current world order. These symbols tell us where they come from and what exactly they want. They want an alternative.”