The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, often abbreviated as "ISIL" and pronounced as such, is a militant Islamist terrorist group. It is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, abbreviated as "ISIS" (and pronounced the same as the ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis) or sometimes as just Islamic State "IS", which has caused name changes to distinguish other entities from the group.
Version 0.3 of Linux distribution elementary OS, originally to be called Isis, was renamed Freya. [1] (Freya is a Norse goddess.)
A mobile banking app previously known as ISIS changed its name to Softcard in 2014, stating "We have no desire to share a name with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and our hearts go out to those affected by this violence". [2]
In 2015, the University of Arkansas decided to rename its course registration system from "Integrated Student Information System" to "UAConnect". [3] National University of Singapore and Dunman High School in Singapore made similar changes to their similarly-named systems. [4]
Tufts University and University of Massachusetts Lowell renamed its online information system, iSiS, the "Intercampus Student information System", to "SiS" – Student Information System. [5]
In 2016, the University of Economics, Prague decided to rename its online information system from ISIS to INSIS (Czech: Integrovaný Studijní Informační Systém). [6]
Also in 2016, Cornell University's Isis2 Distributed Computing Library was renamed "Vsync" to eliminate any suggestion of connections to the group. [7]
Other universities that have renamed their software include Kansas State University, [8] the University of Iowa, [9] and Johns Hopkins University. [10] [11]
In 2013, a Belgian chocolate manufacturer previously known as Italo Suisse changed its name to ISIS. But in 2014, it changed the name again to Libeert after a decline in sales, mainly in the Anglophone world. The company was founded in 1923, and had only been called ISIS for a year. [12]
A British private equity firm changed its name from ISIS Equity Partners to Livingbridge to distance itself from the group. [13]
In 2014, a Chicago business owner renamed her store from ISIS to My Sister's Circus after people began taking pictures of her store's sign and harassing her sales staff. [14]
In Queens, New York, the owner of ISIS Nails renamed the salon Bess Nails and Spa because of harassment. The salon's revenue had declined by approximately 30 percent. [15]
In 2015, Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company in California, originally named for the Egyptian goddess, after observing relevant drop in stock and to avoid confusion, decided to change the name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. [16]
Automobile performance part manufacturer ISIS Performance changed its name to ISR Performance after using it for 6 years to remove the negative connotation with its name. The change took place on November 17, 2015. [17] [18]
The Danish dessert company ISIS changed their name to EASIS, citing the "political connotations" [19] their name would have on primarily export markets. [19]
An Australian fit-out and refurbishment company changed its name to SHAPE, to coincide with the "best interests" of those involved with their business. [20]
In June 2016, Finnish translation agency Isis Translations changed its name to Pauhu Ltd. to avoid denial of service attacks and problems with bank and PayPal payments. [21]
In 2014, an organisation in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia aimed at assimilating immigrants, previously known as Immigrant Settlement & Integration Services (ISIS), changed its name to Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS). Its main concern about the former name was its appropriateness towards clients from Iraq and Syria, where ISIL are operative. [22]
A language school in Oxford, named Isis after the city's stretch of the River Thames, became the Oxford International Education Group in April 2015. Staff said that recruiting from the Middle East was made difficult by the name, and that people searching for their website may be put at risk. [23]
In 2016, the Association for Information Systems (AIS) changed the pronunciation of its premier conference ICIS, International Conference on Information Systems, to "I See IS". [24]
In 2016, an international non-profit organisation that responsible for online database of wild animals under human care — previously known as International Species Information System (ISIS) — changed its name to Species360. [25]
The former ISIS InterCity train of the Hungarian national railway company MÁV-START, named after the Egyptian goddess, was renamed to Ízisz on 31 August 2015, reflecting the Hungarian spelling of the same word. [26] [27] The train was further renamed to Borostyánkő on 13 December 2015, distancing it completely from its original name. [28]
The FX animated series Archer , first aired in 2009, revolves around the fictional International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). In 2014, the sixth season of the show began with the characters being told that they now work for the CIA. Merchandise based on the fictional ISIS was withdrawn. [29]
A French rock band changed their name from Isis Child to Angel's Whisper as the attention on ISIL had overshadowed them on search engines. [30] An American band named Isis, which was disbanded in 2010, changed their Facebook name to "Isis the band" to avoid confusion. Some fans suggested that the band should change their name completely. [31]
In December 2015, the name of the spaceship browser in the online multiplayer video game EVE Online was changed from "Interbus Ship Identification System" (ISIS) to "Ship Tree". [32]
The anime series Infinite Stratos also sometimes sparked controversy,[ example needed ] as its shortened name is "IS", which is sometimes confused with Islamic State.
In the multiplayer online battle arena video game Smite, developer Hi-Rez Studios renamed the playable goddess Isis to Eset, citing concerns of demonetization on video platforms. [33]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2016) |
An Australian woman who named her daughter Isis after the Egyptian goddess stated it caused a rift in her family because the name is "now synonymous with terrorism and evil". An American woman named Isis initiated an online petition for the media to stop referring to ISIL as ISIS. [34]
In April 2015, the World Meteorological Organization removed Isis from its list for the 2016 Pacific hurricane season, replacing it with "Ivette". [35]
In November 2015, a soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces initially refused to sign a participatory certificate for nine-year-old Isis Fernandes who was attending a school field trip. The soldier only agreed to sign after commenting to the girl that he thought her name was not real and a bad joke. The soldier subsequently apologized and was removed from signing certificates for children in the future. [36]
The British television series Downton Abbey featured a dog named Isis after the goddess, who became ill in the show around the same time as other entities sought to distance themselves from ISIL. Actor Hugh Bonneville repudiated claims that the dog was being killed off due to its name, saying "Anyone who genuinely believes the series five storyline (1924) involving the animal was a reaction to recent world news is a complete berk." [37] ITV called the name an "unfortunate coincidence". [37]
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by their Arabic acronym Daesh, are a transnational Salafi jihadist group. Their origins were in the Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004. The organization affiliated itself with Al-Qaeda, so IS was originally a branch of Al-Qaeda and fought alongside them during the Iraqi insurgency. IS eventually split, and gained global prominence in 2014, when their militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. Notorious for their perpetration of war crimes and extensive human rights violations, IS have engaged in the persecution of Christians, Mandaeans, Shia Muslims, and Sufi Sunnis, and published videos of beheadings and executions of journalists and aid workers. By the end of 2015, they ruled an area with an estimated population of 12 million people, where they enforced their extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.
Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, commonly known by his nom de guerreAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant who was the first caliph of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 until his death in 2019.
The Islamic State of Iraq was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law in Iraq.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
The persecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder of Christian minorities, within the regions of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria controlled by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by its spillover.
The War in Iraq (2013–2017) was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State. Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into full-scale guerrilla warfare following clashes in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in parts of western Iraq, and culminated in the Islamic State offensive into Iraq in June 2014, which lead to the capture of the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and other cities in western and northern Iraq by the Islamic State. Between 4–9 June 2014, the city of Mosul was attacked and later fell; following this, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on 10 June. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers. Ali Ghaidan, a former military commander in Mosul, accused al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul. At its height, ISIL held 56,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory, containing 4.5 million citizens.
Many states began to intervene against the Islamic State, in both the Syrian Civil War and the War in Iraq (2013–2017), in response to its rapid territorial gains from its 2014 Northern Iraq offensives, universally condemned executions, human rights abuses and the fear of further spillovers of the Syrian Civil War. These efforts are called the war against the Islamic State, or the war against ISIS. In later years, there were also minor interventions by some states against IS-affiliated groups in Nigeria and Libya. All these efforts significantly degraded the Islamic State's capabilities by around 2019–2020. While moderate fighting continues in Syria, as of 2024, ISIS has been contained to a manageably small area and force capability.
On 15 June 2014 U.S. President Barack Obama ordered United States forces to be dispatched in response to the Northern Iraq offensive of the Islamic State (IS), as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. At the invitation of the Iraqi government, American troops went to assess Iraqi forces and the threat posed by ISIL.
In October 2014, the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control of numerous government buildings, security vehicles and local landmarks in the Eastern Libyan coastal city of Derna. Although some media outlets reported the control as being absolute, rival groups like the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade continued to control parts of the city. Clashes erupted between ISIL and an alliance of Islamist groups in June 2015, with ISIL retreating from Derna to outlying suburbs the following month. However, clashes continued between the Islamist alliance and the Tobruk-based government forces.
The Battle of Baiji took place in Baiji, Iraq, lasting from late October 2014 to late October 2015. In mid-November 2014, Iraqi forces retook the city of Baiji, and re-entered the Baiji Oil Refinery. However, fighting continued in the region, and on 21 December 2014, ISIL forces took Baiji and put the Baiji oil refinery under siege once again, before Iraqi forces recaptured the city on 22 October. It gave Iraqi forces complete control of the highway stretching from Baghdad to Baiji, and allowed Iraqi forces to use Baiji as a base for launching a future assault on Mosul.
The Battle of Ramadi, also called the Fall of Ramadi, was part of an ISIL offensive to capture all of the Anbar Province. Ramadi was one of the Iraqi government's last strongholds in Anbar, after ISIL's success in a previous campaign. The battle began in November 2014, and drew to a close on 14 May 2015, as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents seized hold of government buildings. On 17 May, the Iraqi Army and special forces fled the city, with 500 civilians and security personnel dead.
The Jordanian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War began on 22 September 2014, with airstrikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets, and escalated after the murder of Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian pilot who was captured by ISIL when his F-16 Fighter Jet crashed over Syria in early 2015. Though Jordan's strikes in Syria largely tapered off after December 2015, airstrikes have continued through February 2017, and Jordan has continued to support rebel groups in Syria and host military activities of other countries.
The Salahuddin Campaign was a military conflict in the Saladin Governorate, located in north-central Iraq, involving various factions fighting against a single common enemy, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The province exited Iraqi government control during ISIL's Northern Iraq offensive when large swathes of the north of the country were captured by the militant group with the Iraqi national army quickly disintegrating in the path of its advance. In light of the sweeping gains of the militants, Nouri Al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq at that time, attempted to declare a state of emergency though the Iraqi Parliament blocked his efforts to do so.
The ideology of the Islamic State has been described as being a blend of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
Since 2012, the Islamic State (IS) has produced annual reports giving numerical information on its operations, somewhat in the style of corporate reports, seemingly in a bid to encourage potential donors.
The name of the Islamic State has been contentious since 2013. In Arabic, the group called itself al-Dawla al-ʾIslāmiyya fī al-ʿIrāq wa al-Shām, which it adopted in April 2013. The literal translation of its previous name resulted in confusion, resulting in both ISIS and ISIL, two acronyms based on different literal translations of the name into English. Apart from these, an Arabic-derived acronym, "Daesh",, is the common name for the group in the Muslim world. Finally, the group's current name caused controversy due to its English translation as Islamic State and as a result, both the previous acronyms are still widely used, or a qualifier is often added to the IS name, such as "Islamic State militant group", "Islamic State extremist group", "Islamic State terrorist group", "self-styled Islamic State" or "so-called Islamic State".
The Anbar campaign (2015–2016) was a military campaign launched by the Iraqi Armed Forces and their allies aimed at recapturing areas of the Anbar Governorate held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the city of Ramadi, which ISIL seized earlier in 2015. The United States and other nations aided Iraq with airstrikes.
Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.
Al-Barakah is a Syrian administrative district of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised proto-state. Originally set up as al-Barakah Province to govern ISIL territories in al-Hasakah Governorate, the province shifted south after 2016 due to the territorial losses to the YPG/YPJ. Having been demoted from province to district in 2018, al-Barakah administered a small strip of land along the Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate until the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, since then the "territory" has turned into an insurgency.
The origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.
3.8 - Updated system name references from ISIS to SIS