The owner of Albenyahya Enterprise, the company that was alleged to have been selling flags related to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has denied the allegations of his links to ISIS, which has surfaced online.
An earlier media report indicated that Mr Syed Mohammad Faisal BenYahya, owner of Albenyahya Enterprise, has ordered about 20 flags in July, during the month of Ramadan, and sold them online at S$17 each.
He has also added that the sale was a “one-off thing due to customer requests”.
Mr BenYahya has earlier lodged a police report about the allegations made against him and his company by “an unfortunate post on a website” that link the business and the owners as “supporters of terrorism”, which he has termed “baseless accusations”.
The flag in question is the Black Standard, or more specifically, the black flag of Jihad as sold by Albenyahya Enterprise. The design is a simple black background with the Shahada printed on it, the Arabic translation which reads “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”.
The most basic translation of “Jihad” is “struggle” or “resisting”, which has both violent (e.g. holy war) and non-violent (e.g. self-purification) forms. However, various Muslim armed groups have use the black flags inscribed with the Shahada in white since 2001. Most recently, the flag has been adopted by ISIS.
The police has yet to respond to TOC’s queries about whether they are aware of the sale of the flags, and if it is allowed to be sold in Singapore. TOC has published an earlier report on the incident.
Earlier in August this year, the United Kingdom has called for the arrest of those who display the ISIS flag.
