Someone who knows Arabic here, here’s the wrap:
-ISIS: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
The common name, and the more sinister sounding one, so it is the one that sticks with most people.
-ISIL: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
a more literal translation of the Arabic version of the name, since “ash-Sham” is the Arabic name for the Levant (Israel,Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon). It is not a bad version just because Obama used it, and carries no special meaning. In fact, I prefer this name to ISIS, though it doesn’t trigger me or anything XD
-Daesh
the best version to use in my opinion, since ISIS hates being called Daesh. This is because “Daesh” is the acronym for ISIL in Arabic, and it implies that it is not the “Islamic State” and it is only another militia in the area. ISIS wants to be the only “Islamic State” in the world and not just one of the ones from Iraq and Syria, so they hate the name. All Arabs use this name that are against ISIS, and it is used as an insult in many cases.
I hope this helps.
Good post.
Daesh-nozzle by any other name...
That post was very informative, thanks for putting it up.
To add though, once one says “Levant” what they are doing is discretely referring to a region without Israel. I believe that Obama and his ilk used the term to poke Israel in the eye.
It’s not really trigger worthy - but it’s like when I call fancy new Nissans “Datsuns” (The Datsun Skyline, for instance) the owners get kinda ticked. I do that on purpose.
Or calling an expensive Lexus a Toyota. It just gets on people’s nerves.
Your argument is well thought out and sensible. However lefty politicians also prefer deash too but for a different reason: because ISLAMIC is not part of it. I care more about westerners be reminded who their enemy actually is than making the ISIS scum irritated that you called them a name they don't like.