The image is the top banner on the group’s site. A number of elements in it combine to provide a jihadi context to the image, including: the black banner bearing the shahada (Islamic testimony of faith holding that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger), the mountainous background, the armed fighters and the reddish tint of the sky.
According to prophetic tradition (hadith), the black flag was the battle flag of the Prophet Muhammad and it was carried into battle by many of his companions. The image of the black flag has been used as a symbol of religious revolt and engagement in battle (i.e., jihad). In the contemporary Islamist movement, the black flag with the shahada is used to evoke notions of jihad and of reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate. Images of mountains are a common motif in jihadi visual propaganda that may allude to regions with completed or ongoing operations, such as Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. More generally, however, mountains evoke divine omnipotence, eternity and grandeur.
