Dubai: In an effort to put an end to the confusion over the name change from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) to Daesh, the following is an explanation for Gulf News’ decision.
Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the group which calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). In Arabic, it is called ‘Al Dawla Al Islamiya Fil Iraq Wal Sham’.
The group, who self-proclaimed the creation of an Islamic state, has been widely condemned by Muslim clerics and scholars and rejected by the over 1 billion Muslims in the world.
Their savage, bloody actions have no actual basis in the religion of Islam, which US President Barack Obama described as a peaceful religion during his speech on Wednesday at the UN General Assembly.
Therefore, Gulf News wishes to not give credibility to their outrageous claim that they represent an Islamic state or Islamic values.
Last week, the French government released a statement that included a reference to the group under a different name: “Daesh” which is what it is called in the Arab world.
“This is a terrorist group and not a state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters last week, according to France 24.
“I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims and Islamists. The Arabs call it ‘Daesh’ and I will be calling them the ‘Daesh cutthroats'."
That logic is certainly understandable, and the French aren’t alone in bristling at the idea that an extremist group gets to take the moniker “Islamic State.”
Last month, Egypt’s leading Islamic authority, Dar Al Ifta, called on the world’s media to stop using the term, instead suggesting a new term: “Al Qaida Separatists in Iraq and Syria” or QSIS.
“The initiative by Dar Al Ifta came to express the institution’s rejection of many stereotypes that attach the name of Islam to bloody and violent acts committed by such groups,” Ebrahim Negm, an adviser to Egyptian grand mufti Shawqi Allam said.
Various international media have been using different acronyms for the group, ranging from Islamic State (IS), to Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) to Isil.
