Whatever you call the jihadist group known for killing dozens of people at a time, carrying out public executions, beheadings, crucifixions and other brutal acts, there is no denying they have captured the world’s attention.
On the eve of President Barack Obama’s speech outlining Washington’s strategy against the group, in which he will likely refer to it as ISIL, we ask: What’s in a name?
It all started in 2004 when the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formed an al Qaeda splinter group in Iraq. Within two years, al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to fuel a sectarian war against the majority Shiite community.
In June 2006, al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. strike. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, his successor, several months later announced the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI).
In April 2013, Islamic State in Iraq absorbed the al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front. Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Since then, the English-speaking world seems to have had a hard time settling on a name for them.
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DAIISH
Finally, a lesser-known acronym to Western readers: DAIISH. It is the straight Arabic shorthand for the group known as: al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham, commonly used in the Arab world and among many Arab media outlets and politicians.
When people in the Arab world, use the term DAIISH, it’s derogatory, according to Columbia’s Khalidi.
“Those who disagree with them, call them DAIISH,” Khalidi said, adding that the jihadists have objected to the name.
