Isis vs Daesh vs Isil vs Islamic State: What do the different names mean and why are there so many?

Downing Street announced on Wednesday that David Cameron and other Government ministers would start using the word "Daesh" when referring to Isis

Samuel Osborne
Thursday 03 December 2015 15:23 GMT
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A flag of the Islamic State (Isis) is seen on the the frontline of fighting in Iraq
A flag of the Islamic State (Isis) is seen on the the frontline of fighting in Iraq

As MPs debated whether to commit Britain to air strikes in Syria, the debate surrounding how to refer to Isis continued.

Downing Street announced on Wednesday that David Cameron and other Government ministers would start using the word "Daesh" when referring to the terror group.

If it were up to the militants themselves, the world would refer to them as "Islamic State" in recognition of the caliphate they have declared, but David Cameron asked the BBC to stop using the term in June.

The British and US Governments use the term Isil, while the name Isis is more commonly seen and is favoured by The Independent.

Last year, the French government announced their decision to use the Arabic-derived term "Daesh" to replace their previous name, EIIL ( L'Etat Islamique en Irak et en Syrie).

The four competing names are among a handful of those used by Isis, which emerged in 1999 when it was established by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who allegedly ran a terror training camp and orchestrated bombings and beheadings in Iraq.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has appointed himself caliph of the self-proclaimed Islamic State

His group was initially known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, before changing to the simpler al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) after pledging allegiance to Osama bin Laden's network in October 2004.

Since then, the group has operated under numerous guises until its current leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared it the Islamic State in Iraq (Isi) in 2006, adding the "and al-Sham" to make "Isis" in 2013.

So what do the different names mean?

Islamic State (IS)

In June 2014, the militants announced they were dropping the last two letters of their acronym and instead should be referred to as the Islamic State in recognition of their self-declared caliphate.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis)

The original name for the group in Arabic was Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham.

The first three words translate to the Islamic State of Iraq, while "al-Sham" refers to Syria and the wider surrounding area.

The group's stated goal is to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the entire region.

However, the acronym poses an issue for many companies and brands around the world already using the name Isis, often named after the ancient Egyptian goddess of the same name.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)

The undefined region around Syria is historically referred to as the Levant (an archaic French phrase for the "lands of the rising sun), including modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

Until Wednesday, this was the main name used by British Government ministers to refer to Isis.

The Obama administration has said it uses the acronym Isil as it believes the word "Levant" to be a more accurate translation from the Arabic name.

Daesh

Daesh, sometimes spelled DAIISH or Da'Esh, is short for Dawlat al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq wa al-Sham.

Many Arabic-speaking media organisations refer to the group as such.

There is an argument it is a pejorative term, deriving from a mixture of rough translations from the individual Arabic words, notably the Arabic verb دعس, which means to tread underfoot or crush.

However, several Arabic-speakers have criticised the Government's decision to refer to the terror group as Daesh.

Maajid Nawaz, chairman of the anti-extremist Quilliam foundation, described it as an "ignorant, embarassing and obsessively distracting political trend".

He argues Arabic-speakers use the word Daesh because it is "merely the exact Arabic equivalent to the English acronym Isis or the more technically accurate Isil".

He adds: "Daesh does not mean anything else in Arabic. It is merely the Arabic acronym for Isil."

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