Everyone seems to agree that the Sunni extremists who are striving to carve out a caliphate in Syria and Iraq have upended the region, but there is no consensus on what to call the militant group, in English at least.
Many news outlets, including The New York Times, have been translating the group’s name as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS for short. But the United States government and several news agencies call it the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or I.S.I.L. (The BBC, curiously, uses the ISIS acronym, but “Levant” when spelling the name out.)
Neither way is an exact rendering of the group’s Arabic name, الدولة الاسلامية ÙÙŠ العراق والشام, or al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil-Iraq wa al-Sham. The difficulty comes from the last word.
Every time I see the “Levant” tilte I do a double take, wondering if an Islamic radical group really wants to name themselves after a bisexual, Jewish comedian. Apparently I am the only one who gets the joke. Of course, as a general rule, Islamic radicals have about the same sense of humor as Gestapo officers.
I am surprised that the article says that the jihadists and their ilk prefer the term Levant to Orient, the latter having French connotations. There are good grounds for believing that the name Levant is also French, from the verb se lever to arise, to lift up – the East being the place where the sun rises. This area is from the perspective of France to the east, at the eastern end of the Meditteranean.
“Sham” apparently refers to Syria, the Arabic word referring to “on the left hand,” which is what the area is if one is in Mecca facing east. (This according to Wikipedia.)
[blockquote] What to Call Iraq Fighters? ISIS? ISIL?[/blockquote]
I think “savages” works rather well.