Daesh is another word for ISIS and an acronym for the Arabic phrase al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham meaning Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
By Eileen Fleming
ISIS militants hate the word Daesh because “it is similar to the Arabic words ‘Daes’, ‘one who crushes something underfoot’ and ‘Dahes’, translated as ‘one who sows discord’.”
According to NBC, ISIS has reportedly threatened to ‘cut out the tongues’ of anyone it hears using the term Daesh. Evan Kohlmann, a national security analyst, told NBC: “It’s a derogatory term and not something people should use even if you dislike them.”
Illustration by Matthieu Meron
On Saturday from France, Julie Guilbault launched the Petition Dear Facebook, thanks for the “Safety-Check”, but on fighting ISIS, you can do much better!
On Monday the petition had topped 100,000 worldwide signatures and Americans wrote the top two comment responses:
If you can take down Michael Stokes Photography over a single picture your moderation algorithm doesn’t like, (and his work is decidedly art-not porn) then you can figure out how to stop a real threat like Daesh from being able to create accounts for spreading their hate. elegantgypsy rose, Helena, MT
In an email interview with Huffington Post, the petition’s creator Julie Guilbault, explained she was inspired to do something nonviolent ‘in the war on terrorism’ because she was flooded with abusive messages from Islamic State-aligned spam bots and individuals when she tried to use the #rechercheParis hashtag.
The hashtag was supposed to help people locate missing loved ones following the terror attacks in the French capital but it became flooded with jihadist propaganda.
Julie Guilbault wrote:
There are literally dozens of stories telling how, on Facebook, you just have to post a few keywords about Islam, Muslims, to have jihadist content appearing in your feed, or even to have someone talking directly to you, and trying to recruit you.
It’s simply unbearable to think Facebook, the largest, most popular social network in the world, can set up algorithms to detect nudity, even on a painting, and put it offline in a matter of minutes or hours, and can’t do the same on jihadist propaganda or gore images.
I just want them [Facebook] to realize that they are used as weapons in a war against all the Western world. In the war against ISIS, they have a real role to play.
On Sunday President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office “in the wake of the terrible tragedy in San Bernardino…[and] what we know. We have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas, or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home. But it is clear that these killers had embraced a perversion of Islam, stockpiled assault weapons, and committed an act of terrorism….Your security is my greatest responsibility. And I know that, after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure. So, tonight, this is what I want you to know: The threat of terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL [Daesh ]any other organization that tries to harm us. Here’ s how…”
Daesh is ISIL
Beyond hunting down terrorist plotters, using air strikes to take out Daesh leaders and infrastructure in Iraq and Syria; US allies France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have increased their contributions to the military campaign.
Obama promised continued training and equipment to Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting Daesh and is deploying Special Operations forces.
The USA is now leading a coalition of 65 countries to stop Daesh “operations by disrupting plots, cutting off their financing, and preventing them from recruiting more fighters…”
Obama concluded:
What we should not do. We should not be drawn once again into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. That’s what groups like ISIL [Daesh] want. We also cannot turn against one another by letting this fight become a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL [Daesh] want. [Daesh] ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, and account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world who reject their hateful ideology.
If we are to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as our strongest allies in rooting out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization. It is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. It is our responsibility to reject language that encourages suspicion or hate. Because that kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values, plays into the hands of groups like ISIL [Daesh]…let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional:
We were founded upon a belief in human dignity — the idea that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what religion you practice, you are equal in the eyes of God and equal in the eyes of the law.
As of this writing the second top comment at the petition Dear Facebook, thanks for the “Safety-Check”, but on fighting ISIS, you can do much better! was written by this Florida based senior non-Arab Correspondent for The Arab Daily News [my quotes are from the text of this petition]
Not only is “the ‘moderation’ policy patently ABSURD” the cycle of violence epitomizes the ABSURD as in utterly and obviously senseless, illogical, contrary to all reason and common sense! Godspeed on this petition “to produce the tools to help fight ISIS online” and in solidarity Yes We Can!
https://thearabdailynews.com/author/eileen-fleming/
Jon Stewart BS quote
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/