I am glad that Informed Comment has started to use the correct name of The Islamic State Group. It is time to stop using the abbreviation "ISIS" to refer to the group that has terrorized Iraqi people in recent months. To begin with, it was never a correct abbreviation. The translation of the group's name, al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fi al-Iraq wal-Sham, should have been the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, i.e, ISIL or if one would have liked to keep the vague word Sham untranslated, it would have been ISISH. But more importantly, the group's name now is al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah which is The Islamic State, i.e., IS but since the name itself is short, it does not need to be referred to with an abbreviation. And let us reserve "ISIS" for the International Society for Iranian Studies.
I am glad that Informed Comment has started to use the correct name of The Islamic State Group. It is time to stop using the abbreviation "ISIS" to refer to the group that has terrorized Iraqi people in recent months. To begin with, it was never a correct abbreviation. The translation of the group's name, al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fi al-Iraq wal-Sham, should have been the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, i.e, ISIL or if one would have liked to keep the vague word Sham untranslated, it would have been ISISH. But more importantly, the group's name now is al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah which is The Islamic State, i.e., IS but since the name itself is short, it does not need to be referred to with an abbreviation. And let us reserve "ISIS" for the International Society for Iranian Studies.
Kamran Talattof, Arizona