Do you recall what was called Daesh, Al Nusra…now that this genocide in Gaza is on its 7th month and going stronger?
Posted on: May 15, 2024
From the start, there was the problematic of the colonial powers in how to label and call the extremist Islamist groups that terrorized people in Syria and Iraq.
Currently, there is another problematic of how to label the “genocide” on Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank.
At first, many called it the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or (a transliteration of an Arabic word (داعش), an acronym for al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام).
The colonial powers, especially the USA, were at a loss of how to spread a name to these “terrorist” groupuscules that they have created, funded and armed since 2009, before the colonial powers decided to launch a civil war on Syria in 2011.
In 2015, I posted an article referring to the Saudi Monarchy/Zionist Israel/USA as the real terror States in the region. Saudi Arabia Wahhabi monarchy: The real ISIS that has made It as a recognized State
The U.S. government) referred to them as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, meaning Syria, Jordan Lebanon and Palestine). The USA meant for ISIS to spread its extremist ideology in all these States.
The US preference for ISIL was in order to satisfy the wishes of their obscurantist Wahhabi Saudi monarchy that is scared to giving the ISIS any further expansion schemes into Arabian Peninsula, the hotbed of Wahhabism and their homeland. Wahhabism is the extreme Protestant counterpart in Islamic sects
To make matters more complicated, the group later announced that it should simply be called the “Islamic State” – a reference to the idea that the group was breaking down state borders to form a new caliphate. (The caliphate title is much thought after by the Saudi monarchy and Turkey)
A number of media groups, including The Post, the Associated Press and, eventually, the New York Times, adopted the Islamic State.
The French have added another complication.
On Monday, the French government released a statement that included a reference to the group under a different name: “Daesh.” Adam Taylor September 17 , 2014
An image made available on the jihadist Web site Welayat Salahuddin on June 11. The picture shows militants of the Islamic State posing with their trademark jihadist flag after they seized an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin. (Welayat Salahuddin/HO via AFP)
“This is a terrorist group and not a state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, a staunch Zionist Jew, 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.’”
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-Qaeda 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,” Ibrahim Negm, an adviser to Egyptian grand mufti Shawqi Allam, told al-Arabiya News.
And a group of British imams recently called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to stop calling the group “Islamic State,” making a request for a new moniker, “Un-Islamic State,” instead.
“We do not believe the terror group responsible should be given the credence and standing they seek by styling themselves Islamic State,” a letter sent from the imams to Cameron read, according to the Guardian.
“It is neither Islamic, nor is it a state. Despite the admirable French logic, Daesh comes with its own complications.)
There are a variety of different schools of transliteration of the Arabic acronym in Latin characters: The Washington Post uses DAIISH, but DAASH, DAIISH and DAISH are also used.
However, it’s spelled, there’s another big factor: The group is reported to hate the moniker. Recall that Erdogan hated the name Turkey and changed it to Türkiye
The Associated Press recently reported that the group were threatening to cut out the tongues of anyone who used the phrase publicly, and AFP have noted that the term “Daeshi” has been used a derogatory term in some parts of the Middle East.
Some analysts have suggested that the dislike of the term comes from its similarity to another Arabic word, دعس, or Da3ess.
That word means to trample down or crush.
Adam Taylor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Originally from London, he studied at the University of Manchester and Columbia University.
Note: this article was initially posted in September 21, 2014
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