"DAESH" Write That Down

So here’s the thing: using the term “ISIS” was bad enough, but at some point while I wasn’t paying attention, the media (and most specifically Global BC, which is on in my household every morning) seems to have moved on to the much more direct and generalizing phrase “The Islamic State.” This term is not only technically incorrect, but it also both legitimates the group’s control of the areas it has attacked and oppressed, and contributes to the already rampant Islamophobia plaguing the West.

First, let me explain why this term is awful and needs to die as soon as possible:

1. The violent group of militants who like to call themselves “The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” aren’t actually leaders of any recognized state. Not one single national or international governing body has recognized their claim to statehood (1). Yet, the widespread and vastly incorrect use of the term “Islamic State” to describe this group actually serves to legitimate its purported statehood—something we must begin to consciously avoid at every opportunity.

2. The already generalized and totalizing use of the term “Islamic” to describe this group, its practices and aims is further compounded by the presence of the determiner “the”, which implies absoluteness. The group calling itself “ISIS” claims to represent all of Islam, and by agreeing to call it “The Islamic State,” we are supporting this claim.

• Firstly, this an insult to nearly all of the 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide who would prefer to have no association with a group using the name of their religion for purposes of violence and terror. It also diminishes the suffering of 2 million Muslims currently living under the control of the so-called “Islamic State,” and ignores the tens of thousands of Muslims lives lost to its violence and brutality (it’s estimated that anywhere between 82 and 97% of victims of terror attacks are Muslim) (2).

• Furthermore, the widespread use of the totalizing term “Islamic State” to describe this group and its activities by Western media serves to promote and affirm the idea that terror attacks, suicide bombings and so-called “shari’a law” (don’t even get me started on the Western use of this term) are the sum total of “Islam”. The very use of the term “The Islamic State” to describe this group is adhering to an Islamophobic agenda promoting fear and divisiveness. It has to stop now.

“But we have to call them something! What other terms can we use?”

1. In the Arabic-speaking world and beyond, the term “Daesh” has become popular. The so-called “Islamic State” has reportedly said it would “cut out the tongues” of anyone using this term. Why? “Daesh” is technically an acronym of the Arabic phrase “al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham” (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), but it sounds very similar to the Arabic words “Daes”, meaning “one who crushes something underfoot” and “Dahes”, meaning “one who sows discord” (3). Using this term undermines the group’s claims to statehood and representation of Islam and instead calls it exactly what it is—a violent, destructive group of murderers.

2. But it doesn’t even have to get as complicated as switching to an entirely different name! All we really need to do is add qualifiers to the terms “ISIS” and “The Islamic State.” Throughout this post I’ve been putting quotation marks around these terms, and using qualifiers like “so-called” to describe them. These kinds of qualifying techniques allow us to use widely recognized terms like “ISIS” and “Islamic State” without legitimating them, by acknowledging that the group using these names is neither a real “state” nor a true representation of Islam. In doing so, we avoid promoting harmful ideas and providing legitimation to a violent and evil group.

Language has power. Words have weight. The descriptive language we hear shapes our opinions, and the terms we choose to use influence others’ in turn. The way we use words tells the world who we are, what we think, and which values we hold. Now more than ever, with the extreme right wing on the rise worldwide and U.S. President-elect Trump preparing to take office a month from now, we must be diligent, responsible, and self-reflective about the words we hear in the media, and the words we ourselves choose to use. There may come a time when our words are the very last thing we have.

Sources:

(1) Eli Bernstein, “Is the Islamic State a ‘State’ in International Law,” University of Western Australia (2015), http://www.academia.edu/17570619/Is_the_Islamic_State_a_State_in_International_Law.

(2) Ruth Alexander and Hannah Moore, “Are most victims of terrorism Muslim?” BBC News (20 January, 2015), http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30883058.

(3) Nicola Oakley and Suchandrika Chakrabarti, “What does Daesh mean? ISIS ‘threatens to cut out the tongues’ of anyone using this word,” The Daily Mirror (26 July, 2016), http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/what-daesh-mean-isis-threatens-6841468.

(4) I wrote two honours theses on the operation of power through language so I kind of know what I’m talking about.

#SienceBitch