Baghdad Pact flags poster FI-M-2 (English and Arabic, Karachi)
A green poster with a white crescent and star, four national flags (Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq) stacked inside the crescent, and a Quranic verse in Arabic with an English rendering, 'And hold fast, all of you together, to the line of Allah, and do not separate'. The text says 130,000,000 free people in the four Muslim nations of the Baghdad Pact are united in faith for security and progress. The tell is transfer: a religious verse and crescent symbol are attached to a defence pact.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- February 16, 1958
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Forces Information Section, ISPR Directorate (sheet FI-M-2); distributed via U.S. Information Agency, Asia/Latin America/Middle East series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Religion, War and the military
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, February 16, 1958. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6948822, 306-PPB-37).
Text on the object
وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا (پ - رکوع ۲ - آیت ۲) AND HOLD FAST, ALL OF YOU TOGETHER, TO THE LINE OF ALLAH, AND DO NOT SEPARATE In the four Muslim Nations of the Baghdad Pact 130,000,000 free people are United IN FAITH FOR SECURITY AND PROGRESS FI-M-2 FORCES INFORMATION SECTION I S P R DIRECTORATE M. G. HAFIZ.
The English text is as printed. The Arabic line is the same verse as the English line above it: 'And hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of Allah, and do not separate' (the English on the sheet reads 'line'). The Urdu-script citation reads: (Para, section 2, verse 2).
Arabic vocalisation reproduced as best read from the print.
