The Progressive Name Game: Daesh

While everyone’s heard of ISIS or ISIL, there is a new name for the group gaining popularity and supposedly the radical Islamic terror group hates it. This new name — Daesh — is already starting to be used by governments officials.

“In less than three months, the international community has come together to form a coalition that is already taking important steps to degrade and defeat ISIL, or Daesh,” SOS John Kerry said from NATO headquarters in Brussels in December 2014.

Say what?

Daesh, pronounced Die-esh, apparently comes from the Arabic name with which ISIL refer to themselves, “al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham.”  The claimed hate at being called Daesh is that its supposedly like the verb ‘Daes,’ which means “one who crushes something underfoot.” It also sounds like ‘Dahes,’ or “one who sows discord.”

On the surface, this is yet another Progressive ploy at word play as revealed by France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius: “This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims and Islamists.”

We need to stop trying to reinvent the enemy by altering its name to avoid offending the very people who’re dedicated to destroying us.