Friday, May 26, 2017

"Decoding Daesh" And why i.s.i.s. doesn't like it...so why don't we use it!

Over the past few years, with all the focus on isis, its recruitment techniques, and actions, I had heard them called Daesh, and knew that this name was an insult to them. I had no idea why it was insulting, but it was insulting enough to make them change it... and I didn't really understand why, if it was "insulting", we weren't using it instead of Isis!?
I found this article by linguist Alice Guthrie, " Decoding Daesh: Why is the new name for ISIS so hard to  understand?"Decoding Daesh: Why Is The New Name For ISIS So Hard To Understand?ecoding Daesh: Why 
She explains, in great depth, the Arabic and English translations and why isis members HATE the term Daesh. This article was scribed in 2015 but the information remains relevant and the idea of insulting isis, just as attractive. Below are some highlights from this article and the link to it so you can read it all, as my summary does not do it justice!

 https://www.freewordcentre.com/explore/daesh-isis-media-alice-guthrie

"Over the last few months, there has been a concerted effort by several senior global politicians to give a new name to the group known as ISIS, or Islamic State, IS or ISIL. That new name is ‘Daesh’. If you’ve followed coverage of this attempted official linguistic sea change, you’ll have gathered that the new name, although it’s just an Arabic acronym equivalent to the English ‘ISIS’, apparently delegitimises the organisation, mocks them, and thus drives them to threaten taking violent retribution on anyone who uses it."

"So the insult picked up on by Daesh is not just that the name makes them sound little, silly, and powerless, but that it implies they are monsters, and that they are made-up." ( they are "monsters" but unfortunately not made up although their interpretation of Islam IS made up)

The article is long and sometimes confusing since I am not a linguist and not familiar with Arabic. In 
summary what I understand is that Daesh, in Arabic, sends a negative impression of isis.  So again why don't we all call them by this name...I know President Obama used this term on occasion but not consistently....why? It's not as if they're going to murder people more heinously if we call them Daesh...they're pretty well maxed out in that department!
What do you think?

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