[dingaling]

> I've wondered why Obama uses ISIL, while practically everyone else is using ISIS.

The State Department interpretation of 'al Sham' is Levant, hence the 'L'. Other agencies translate it as Syria because Levant doesn't incorporate the full area. But there's no one-to-one Western name for the region indicated by the Arabic word.

The whole Daesh meme is amusingly naive; it's like calling "NATO" as "OTAN" ( its French abbreviation ) and claiming that it annoys the British. Really, they have better things about which to concern themselves than the actually accurate abbreviation some distant foreigners have adopted for them.

[elthran]

I agree - I still can't understand these pedantics about the name when everyone knows who you mean.

"What's in a name?..."

[lotux]

naming is important, specially if you want to associate something with something else, for this case: islam with violent crazy people who kill everyone, so ISIS/ISIL will associate these crazy nuts with Islam. it is like calling Americans, Western Christian Gun Owners or WCGO. do you still think it doesn't matter what do you name it?