Are Islamist flags being waved in pro-Palestine protests? Not exactly

Many people took to X (formerly Twitter) to share videos of people brandishing black and white banners along with Palestinian flags at recent protests in support of the Palestinian people in London, Copenhagen and in several cities in Germany. These same users said that the banners belonged to terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Although today, terrorist organisations, such as the Taliban or al Qaeda, have appropriated the symbol on their flags, it was originally a neutral symbol of Islam. The calligraphy inscribed on the banner is the Islamic profession of faith, known as the Shahada.

“The phrase reads ‘There is no god but God and Mohammed is the Messenger of God,’” says Aurélie Daher, a researcher and professor in the sociology of conflicts at the University of Dauphine-PSL. This phrase doesn’t have political connotations and it is common to find it all over daily life in majority Muslim countries.

“By the way, this same profession of faith is written on the Saudi Arabian flag and that doesn’t mean that the country is akin to the Islamic State group,” the researcher added. The terrorist group known as the Islamic State doesn’t use the same graphic: their flag has a black background, and the profession of faith is written within a white circle.

‘Political provocation’

However, Asiem El Difraoui, founder of the German think tank Candid Foundation, says that it is necessary to differentiate between the use of this flag in Europe and within countries that are majority Islam.  “In the context of the current demonstrations in support of Palestine in Europe, this flag is a symbol of Islamism, used by radical groups,” he says.

FRANCE 24 journalist Wassim Nasr, who specialises in studying jihadist movements, says, “The people who carry these banners are doing it as a form of political provocation.” The result is that it blurs the message of support for Palestine.

The people who carried the Shahada banners during marches in support of the Palestinian people in Europe over the past few weeks seem to be members of an extremist group called Hizb ut-Tahrir or movements that have developed from this organisation.

This photo of a protest in Essen, Germany on November 3, shows men at the head of the procession waving this flag that the Hizb ut-Tahrir group uses as its symbol, according to German TV channel WDR.

This post on X shows people at a protest held in London on October 21. They are holding banners that say “Muslim armies! Rescue the People of Palestine”. The Hizb ut-Tahrir movement claims this slogan on their website “Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain”.

Statements posted on the group’s website also claim to have organised the rallies in the UK, in Germany and in other European countries.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has a presence in more than 40 countries, was created in Jerusalem in the early 1950s. The movement, rooted in political Islam, is centred on the fight for the liberation of Palestine. Its members don’t believe that the nation of Israel has the right to exist. The group has been banned in most majority Muslim countries. In 2003, it was banned in Germany after the head of a local branch made anti-Semitic remarks during a speech.

‘Insta Islamists’

However, the group continues to be active in Europe, mostly through its websites and on social media. 

Some of its members have created sub-groups like “Reality Islam” and “Generation Islam”, organisations invested in the recruitment of young followers. 

“It’s a case of networks that are very present on social media, the Germans call them ‘Insta Islamists,’” says Anne Maillet, FRANCE 24 correspondent in Germany. They speak to young people in German and can connect with people whose parents or grandparents immigrated from Turkey or Palestine but who can’t read the Koran in Arabic.  

Asiem el Difraoui says that this group is brandishing this symbol of Islam at these protests in a bid to woo future supporters.

“Islamists in Europe are trying to use this horrible conflict to recruit new members,” he says. 

Around 3,000 people took part in a protest organized by members of offshoots of the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement on November 3 in Essen, Germany – in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which has been a centre of radicalisation for the past decade or so. Officially, the demonstration was organised by a person and not by an identified ideological group, which enabled it to get authorisation from the German government.

Anne Maillet said that the authorities “didn’t realize the group that they were dealing with and were overwhelmed by the size of the event”.

Investigations by German and British authorities

There was an outcry on social media about the Essen march, especially in response to one sign that read, “The caliphate is the solution.”

The office of Essen’s chief attorney analysed the slogans at the rally to make sure that they weren’t anti-Semitic or illegal. According to German media outlet Tagesschau, the German judicial system is also looking at a speech given by the organiser during the protest. He is suspected of speaking in an ambiguous and provocative manner that could amount to hate speech directed at Jewish people.

German authorities are considering banning the groups “Generation Islam”, “Reality Islam” and “Muslim Interaktiv”, which were all descended from the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement.

Similar rallies were held in Hamburg on October 28, as well as in Denmark on October 15 and London on October 21.

In the United Kingdom, the group is allowed to operate but does so under intense surveillance. The group kicked off a protest brandishing the black and white symbol of Islam with the police’s authorisation.

After a number of posts online claiming that protesters had been carrying the flags of the Islamic State group or of the Taliban, London’s Metropolitan Police took to X to explain the historical significance of this symbol. 

“They are the ‘shahada’ which is a declaration of faith in Islam. ISIS flags may appear similar but are not the same. We have specialist officers with knowledge of flags working on this operation to assist with these assessments,” the police said in the statement. 

London police also said in a statement that anti-terrorist agents had examined the photos and videos of the protests, especially those where protesters chanted “jihad” or where people carried signs reading “Muslim armies”. After examination, no illegal signs or banners were identified, according to police.

Ultimately, there were no reports of laws broken by members of Hizb ut-Tahrir.