Canada to stop using ISIL, instead opt to use Arabic acronym 'Daesh'

The Canadian govenment will join other world leaders in using the term Daesh instead of 'Islamic State' when referring to the terrorist organization, avoiding a phrasing that sounds like a name for an internationally recognized state.

Stating that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was 'neither Islamic nor a state', Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in August that the country would now on officially use the group's Arabic acronym. Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence also supported the change.

Canada was previously amongst many other countries, including the U.S., who used the terrorist group's original name ISIL. Some countries also referred to it as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) or Islamic State for short.

Turkey, France, Israel and the United Kingdom are amongst those who adopted the name of Daesh in recent years.

Ex-British PM Cameron had said that they chose the name Daesh "because frankly this evil death cult is neither a true representation of Islam nor is it a state."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had also chimed in with the UK, calling the group Daesh and branding them as "butchers".

Arab governments have long refrained from using the name Islamic State, instead referring to it by the Arabic acronym for its full original name, Daesh - short for Dawlat al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham.

Iraq's Sunni cleric Hameed Marouf Hameed had said: "Their savage acts don't coincide with the name of Islam," saying that Daesh incites hatred and violence. "These acts have no place in any real Islamic state."

The name Daesh is so hated by the group that it threatened to cut the tonges out of those who used it publicly within its territory. The name which means "to tread underfoot or crush" is considered an insult by the group and is seen as a sign of defiance and disrespect.

In July, the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had announced its rebranding. He declared that the territory under his control would be part of a so-called 'caliphate', or an 'Islamic state', shortening its name from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.