The pros and cons of not calling Islamic State Muslims

What does it translate to? Islamic somethinh?

No idea - I'm sure an Arabic speaker could translate for us.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria...

No idea - I'm sure an Arabic speaker could translate for us.

Well what is the point of calling them Daish then - it's the same effing thing in Arabic?

I've always wondered, what does Daesh actually mean and why do they hate being called it so much? I googled it, but couldn't come across a decent definition.

What does it translate to? Islamic somethinh?

'Daesh' is the pronounciation of the Arabic abbreviation for 'Islamic State', 'D.I.' (for Dawlah al-Islamiyah), because those letters are called 'Da' and 'Ish' in the Arabic alphabet. So 'da ish' is the equivalent of the English 'I.S.'.
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IS are Muslims, the vast majority of the population know this and keep quiet while the left spit out their dummy and complain it is not true

Basically a group of bigots who impose their will on others,that's the meaning ,that's why they don't want to be referred to as daesh at all

Their official name is:

ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī'l-ʿIrāq wa'sh-Shām

which means:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria


'Daesh' is the pronounciation of the Arabic abbreviation for 'Islamic State', 'D.I.' (for Dawlah al-Islamiyah), because those letters are called 'Da' and 'Ish' in the Arabic alphabet. So 'da ish' is the equivalent of the English 'I.S.'.

But the word 'daesh', which is pronounced almost identically to 'D.I.' (da ish) means 'to trample'. So the implication is that ISIS are oppressors who 'trample' their fellow Muslims, or perhaps should be 'trampled'. It's like how people call Tony Blair 'Tony B-liar'. And IS hate being called 'Daesh' for the same reason that the Tories hate 'English votes for English laws' being called 'EVEL', and the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party hate being called 'CCRAP'.

Ah i get it now cheers guys. I suppose thats a name that was coined by the locals opposing IS.

From an external viewpoint, IS are Muslims, that's a fact. They might be bad Muslims who aren't following the Quran properly, they might even spend eternity in Hell because of their crimes according to majority Islamic opinion, but they're still Muslims, they follow an extreme version of Islamic doctrine and everything they do is justifiable according to an interpretation of the Quran: not because the Quran mandates the slaughter of thousands of people including men women and children in the name of Allah, but because it promotes an ingroup mentality among Muslims and legitimises the often brutal and amoral application of the cultural system of ancient Arabia in the modern day.

Let's not be under any illusions: violent people will always be violent no matter which ideology they follow, but it certainly doesn't help if their ideology is inherently warlike. Buddhists and Hindus commit murder in the name of their religion often enough, but not because their religion encourages them to. There would still be terrorism in the Middle East and in the West without Islam because of Israel, oil and strategic geopolitics, but would it be committed by Pakistanis and Moroccans whose countries have not recently been invaded by Western powers? Even among Christians there is little in the way of group identity between Christian countries, except in charity works. Muslim charity groups do a lot to help their fellow Muslims and others, but it's difficult to imagine Canadian or Irish people getting inflamed to travel to fight in the Central African Republic to protect the Christians there, in the way that Brits and Malaysians and Indonesians travel thousands of miles to fight for ISIS.

So in short, we should call IS Muslims because Islam needs more diversity and less homogenous group identity. If Muslims can admit that it's possible to follow Islam in more than one way, Shia or Sunni, Ahmadi or Alawite, Ismaili or Sufi, then they can engage each other in dialogue and have a more productive relationship, rather than denouncing everyone who does not follow their own doctrine as 'kuffar', which only produces an opposite 'kuffar' appelation in reaction and makes dialogue impossible.

Ah i get it now cheers guys. I suppose thats a name that was coined by the locals opposing IS.

Right. Islamic State don't call themselves D.I. (Da Ish), they usually call themselves 'ad-Dawlah' informally = 'the state', or 'al-khilafa' = 'the caliphate', or often the entire thing ('Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiya' etc) in formal communications. The word 'Daesh' was actually invented by a guy call Khaled Salih, a Syrian activist, a couple of years ago.

Abbreviations are not common in Arabic, because the Arabic alphabet tends to change sounds and meanings if you mess with it and it gets very confusing. I actually got my explanation slightly wrong but the gist is the same. (Here's a more accurate explanation for anyone who is interested, but it requires a small explanation of Arabic linguistics

Right. Islamic State don't call themselves D.I. (Da Ish), they usually call themselves 'ad-Dawlah' informally = 'the state', or 'al-khilafa' = 'the caliphate', or often the entire thing ('Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiya' etc) in formal communications. The word 'Daesh' was actually invented by a guy call Khaled Salih, a Syrian activist, a couple of years ago.

Abbreviations are not common in Arabic, because the Arabic alphabet tends to change sounds and meanings if you mess with it and it gets very confusing. I actually got my explanation slightly wrong but the gist is the same. (Here's a more accurate explanation for anyone who is interested, but it requires a small explanation of Arabic linguistics

Fatah?