![]() On the United States government’s use of ISIL, Khalidi surmised: “Maybe because you don’t want to give the dignity of the name that they give themselves.” The Levant, which can extend from northern Egypt to Greece, is not as precise.” How you translate the term into English determines if you’re of the ‘ISIL’ camp or the ‘ISIS’ camp. Khalidi said: “How you translate ‘al-Sham’ determines whether you have an ‘L’ or an ‘S’ in English. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that al-Sham has many meanings in Arabic. ![]() “We believe this is the most accurate translation of the group’s name and reflects its aspirations to rule over a broad swath of the Middle East,” said John Daniszewski, vice president and senior managing editor for international news for The Associated Press, according to an AP blog post.Īl-Sham is a reference to a region that stretches from Turkey through Syria to Egypt and includes the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon, according to Rashid Khalidi, a Columbia University professor and expert on Syrian history. Of course, the Levant is larger than Syria,” Bergen said. “But the Levant is a relatively obscure word in English – in English, we refer to Syria. The ‘L’ stands for Levant which is a translation of “al-Sham” – the word the group uses to refer to itself, Bergen said. And also because Washington doesn’t want to recognize their plans for a caliphate.ĬNN national security analyst Peter Bergen believes ISIL is a more accurate translation of the group’s name. has stuck with ISIL because the group appears to have to set it sights beyond Iraq and Syria. Since then, the English-speaking world seems to have had a hard time settling on a name for them.īarack Obama, the United Nations and some news organizations refer to the jihadist group by the acronym ISIL, which stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.ĬNN Global Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott said the U.S. Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. In April 2013, Islamic State in Iraq absorbed the al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, his successor, several months later announced the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). In June 2006, al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. Within two years, al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to fuel a sectarian war against the majority Shiite community. ![]() It all started in 2004 when the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi formed an al Qaeda splinter group in Iraq. Whatever you call the jihadist group known for killing dozens of people at a time, carrying out public executions, beheadings, crucifixions and other brutal acts, there is no denying they have captured the world’s attention.
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