I’ve been trying to find a good article about this for a while: France doesn’t call ISIS ‘ISIS’.
Being bilingual gives me the chance to see how the news coverage of the same event or topic differs between the two countries. When the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the Defense Secretary Laurent Fabius both started using the term ‘Daesh’ to refer to ISIS a few weeks ago, I felt something was fishy. The word Daesh is roughly the acronym of the Arabic name of ISIS ; it also appears to be a derogatory term in Arabic.
The French press uniformly followed suit and I have yet to find an article explaining the reasoning behind this move – could the rest of the world be this stupid for not doing the same? I have a deep respect for the power of words, and can certainly see why calling it ‘The Islamic State’ establishes it as something it isn’t. However, that at least one government is so prompt to discredit at entity not because of its horrific actions, but through the name it bears, feels in an of itself like an acknowledgment. I’m not sure the young French jihadists will be any less inclined to join the ranks of ISIS.