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Very well said.

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Devichan said on June 13th, 2016 at 7:15 pm

Daesh. They HATE that.

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@JayDzed said on June 13th, 2016 at 8:39 pm

As Devichan noted: We should *always* refer to that hateful pack of terrorists as Daesh, not ISIS or ISIL.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/19/us-general-rebrands-isis

Let’s not show them any respect they don’t deserve.

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I’m glad you get it, John. The stated goal of ISIS is to get the world enraged at Muslims worldwide, so that their huge numbers feel threatened and join the fight against the west. They *want* us to hate Islam. They want it to be all Muslims against Christians.

So the last thing we should do is anything Donald Trump suggests.

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Laridian said on June 14th, 2016 at 10:12 am

John, I know you’ve said several times that you have your own blog, but I’ve never found a link posted here. For the lazy among us, could you do that at some point?

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It’s actually in the linkroll on the side of the page, but for those who don’t want to try to hunt through lots of names in small text, the link is:

http://fraggmented.blogspot.com

And yes, I know that Daesh is the best term, but I wanted this particular post to be accessible to people who may not follow the politics of the situation closely so I tried to hew a bit closer to the name the mass news media uses. ISIL was a mental compromise. 🙂

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I, in normal circumstances, don’t like anyone who plugs their own blog, but rather than say the same things here, I’ll just mention that, in the middle of my gamebook playthrough blog, I posted my own brief thoughts in this tragedy :

https://wayofthetigerblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/editorial-comment/

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mygif

The problem with American politics is that, for all the lip-flapping current politicians pay to their predecessors, they’ve cultivated a situation where complexity of thought is a sin. It takes too long to say:

‘We must foster stronger relationships with non-radical Islamic leaders, and make it clear to them that we understand the difference between progressive Islam, conservative Islam, and radical Islamic extremists. We must understand that the great majority of Muslims stand even more under siege than we are, as they are battered from within by extremists, and viewed with distrust by those from without. Only by accepting, honoring, and fostering closer ties with the Muslim community will we be able to open the lines of communication that will allow us to protect ourselves, protect the Islamic members of our own community, and foster mutual acceptance of divergent religious beliefs… a core principle that our nation was founded upon.’

That takes too long, sounds too much like ‘Obummer’, who’s a Muslim anyway. So instead its:
Build a wall.
Kick out all Muslims.
Burn down all Mosques.
Put them all in camps!

While Daesh is just a rabid death-cult as you say, the challenge that the world faces at a time of instability in that region, is severe. Because certainly Daesh does have sympathizers in refugees… and the way the refugees have been treated only creates more of them.

It’s a time more than any other where America can serve as ‘the shining city on the hill’, but in the current political environment no one on that side of the aisle holds a candle to the person that had that vision.

Say what you will about Reagan (and holy crap, can I say a lot), his larger vision was of an America that was made stronger by the (straight, cis, Christian) people that made it up. He saw a nation that accepted people from anywhere as long as they had a willingness (to work shitty jobs, and be second class citizens) to be free. He saw an America that was welcoming (of cheap labor), was accepting (as long as you didn’t expect to be treated well), and was made stronger by those she took to her breast (because you can always join the army, service means citizenship!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c32G868tor0

Mind you, I’m not saying that Hillary does stand for something… other than being the first woman president. But the alternative isn’t just worse, it’s potentially cataclysmic.

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Wolfthomas said on June 16th, 2016 at 12:06 am

My understanding is that they have mixed opinions on the name Daesh. Some don’t care. Others dislike not because it’s insulting but because they want to be known by Islamic State. Which is reason enough to annoy them by calling them Daesh.

Daesh is just the acronym for ISIS in arabic. But acronyms are less common in the arab world (but exist like Fatah), but when they do exist they tend to become just a word/name/neologism rather than the individual components. So those pedantic members don’t want to be seen as just another middle eastern terrorist group. Which again is good reason to call them Daesh to present them diminutively.

The word has some pun-related value in the arab word too, especially as Daes means to trample or something like that. Though people can make the same in English about ISIS (cystisis I saw Adam Hills calling them).

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Laridian said on June 16th, 2016 at 10:15 am

John, thank you, I never look at the sidebars so it never occurred to me that you’d be there!

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Aryeh Harris-Shapiro said on June 16th, 2016 at 10:21 pm

Beautifully said. Thanks, man.

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