The Obama Administration should switch to this nomenclature and require all media outlets to do so also because words matter. How we talk about this group is central to defeating them. ISIS and ISIL are not Islamic and certainly do not constitute a state. By using the militants’ preferred names, the US government implicitly gives them legitimacy. Referring to the group as Daesh doesn’t just withhold validity, it also might help the United States craft better policy. Changing how we refer to them would also be a sign of real respect for true Muslims.
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
