Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said he prefers to use the Arabic acronym Daesh when referring to to ISIS because he said it “stands for Islamic state. They are neither Islamic nor are they a state.”
Host Andrea Mitchell said, “You refer to Daesh. It’s an acronym to ISIS. You prefer that over ISIS, ISIL or the Islamic State. Give our viewers a better understanding of why.”
Ellison said, “Because ISIL stands for Islamic state. They are neither Islamic nor are they a state. Daesh is a acronym as well, but it is interpreted by many people as meaning they once trampled on others or they are bigots that are excluding other people and press down other people. And Daesh says they said they will cut off the tongue of anybody that uses it. So I’m not going to call them what they want to be called, I’m going to call them what they are, which is terrorist, which do not represent any faith, including my own. They look to impose power by violent means and need to be stood up to.”
ISIS stands for the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria or al-Sham. ISIL stands for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, a larger area including Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Syria, and Turkey. Daesh stands for the group’s full Arabic name, al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham.
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