ISIL or ISIS? What's up with this?

Richard Engel explains it here.

I have a friend from college that was a devout follower of Islam. He says ISIS.

This should make it clear (as mud).

Interesting and probably more informative.

In short, I would say that ISIS refers Syria as a region rather than the modern day state, so is a misnomer. “Islamic State” is too grandiose a name for the group.

@Buttonstc , you may already have enough info on this, but I’ll share this I read just today.

Related

Oops, ignore me. The Elephant beat me to it. Same link.

Um, I beat you both to it.

Holy crap. So it really is a total muddled mess.

Thanks everyone. Now I’m just as confused as everybody else in the world~~

Not that there’s really a best choice, but personally, I think Obama picked the worst one.

What about you?

I tend to be conservative, but I have to say that I agree with Obama’s choice.

ISIS muddies the issue in that the final S stands for Syria. Not the modern country of Syria, but a region known as “Greater Syria”.

“Islamic State” concedes something that ISIL is not, and a term a majority of Muslims find objectionable.

All that said, it’s non-credible to me that Obama is picking nits over an acronym while the world goes to hell in a handbasket.

I definitely agree with you on the nitpicking. It is pretty petty and that’s what prompted my Q initially. I mean, of all the things to take a stand on? Really?

The main reason I think his choice is poor is due to the fact that The Levant (the L) includes a whole bunch of territory that the group has no business including in its purview, most notably the state of Israel, among others.

I would assume that Obama making that choice is not regarded kindly by the Israelis.

I wonder how Israel refers to this group, just for curiosity.

Why don’t we all just start calling them “The Shitheads”? You , me, the media, the government, everyone. I mean how threatening would it be to hear “Today ‘The Shitheads’ tried to invade this pissant iraqi town….”

Yeah, I could get behind that with no problem. Why let them set the agenda?

What if your name is Isis?

@hominid my daughter has a cat named “Isis”. She has actually caught flak about it. (“Why would you name your cat that?” and “You need to change that name.”, crap like that). Her response is that her cat has had that name for over 12 years now. They can change their name.

It is definitely ISIS. ” ISIL” is as usual the White House and his cronies trying to be smart asses.
Not working this time.

I don’t understand why anyone cares. It’s just an abbreviation. Both forms are legitimate translations. Big deal.

We in Fort Kickass prefer ISIL for obvious reasons.

While everyone here is wondering what to call them these murders beheaded another person today on YouTube. A British Citizen. An aide worker who has been held prisoner for a year.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-haines-beheading-live-updates-4256832

^ If only we hadn’t been wondering what to call them…

Israelis call them daesh, an acronym. They are usually referred to as those terrorists who just beheaded another person.

@zenzen

Do the Israelis have any strong opinion one way or another about Obama’s preference for ISIL; considering that that version (the Levant) includes the State of Israel in it’s territorial implications?

ISIS, even tho a bit inaccurate regarding present day Syria, contains no such implication in the phrase “Greater Syria”.

I’m just curious about that. Or do Israelis just think the choice of acronyms is pointless considering the larger horror?