The back flag that is flown by Al Qaeda and frequently waved by supporters of Anjem Choudary at demonstrations is al-raya, the black flag of jihad, or Islamic battle flag. The text on the flag is the shahada, the Islamic testimony of faith.

Now al-raya is flying over the culturally enriched neighborhood of Grønland in Oslo. It’s not illegal to fly the black flag of jihad in Norway, so all the police can do is to politely ask the householder to take it down.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer, who translated the article, includes this note:

I have translated this article from TV2.no about the black flag of jihad which was flying from the wall of a building in Grønland in Oslo on Saturday evening. I’m sure that the owner of the flag and his comrades dream of the day when it will by flying from the top of the Norwegian parliament building — which isn’t all that far away. Actually, the people inhabiting said building probably believe that it already does.

The translated article:

Flag of Jihad flying in the middle of Oslo: “Scared the crap out of me”

The black flag is associated with terror, death and destruction. Saturday evening it was flying over the town square in Grønland, Oslo.

A black flag with Arabic inscriptions, the war banner of the jihadists.

The incident caused fear and loathing, and at around 7 pm someone finally contacted the police. The flag was flying from a building that houses a Meny-butikk [Norwegian supermarket chain] right next to the town square in Grønland

TV2.no received confirmation at 8:30 pm that the police had been in contact with the person who hung the flag on the wall of the large apartment complex facing the town square.

“It is an Islamic flag. Some neighbors felt uncomfortable seeing the flag, so the person who put it there has taken it down, “ says Tor Grøttum, the manager of operation at the Oslo Police.

“It scared the crap out of me”

Neighbors told police on Saturday evening that they thought that an Al Qaeda flag was flying from the wall of an apartment complex which can clearly be seen from the middle of the town square in Grønland.

“It scared the crap out of me,” says a neighbor to TV2.no.

The neighbor, who is a Muslim, noticed the flag and recognized the inscription that read, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger”

“I did some research and discovered that it was the same flag that Al-Qaeda uses,” says the neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous.

The neighbor says that she is considering moving away from the area out of fear for the extremist groups that are now establishing themselves in the neighborhood.

Not illegal

Although several neighbors reacted to the fact that the flag was allowed remain there for at least an hour and a half, there is nothing the police could have done if the person had refused to remove it.

“It’s not illegal to fly an Al-Qaeda flag, if that’s what it was, and we could not have instructed the person to remove it. But because of the unease of the neighbors the flag was removed by the very cooperative owner of the flag,” says Grøttum.

It took a few hours before the police responded to the incident on Saturday evening, due to a heavy bus fire in Bjørvika.

Grønland is situated just to the east of the city center. The area is mostly populated by people of Muslim background.

The distinctive flag has previously been carried by radical Islamists during demonstrations in Oslo.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.