Call the Islamic State ‘Daesh’, Help Delegitimate the Terrorists

“The state of donkeys in Iraq and Syria”

Did you know that the term for ISIS or the Islamic State preferred by many of its Arabic-speaking victims is “Daesh” (pronounced “die-EESH”)? The reasons for this are complex, as explored at length by Alice Guthrie at Free Word, but the short version is that thanks to various connotations and cultural context in the Arabic-speaking world, calling the terrorist group “Daesh” delegitimates them by making them sound “little, silly, and powerless,” but also “implies they are monsters, and that they are made-up.”