Head of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee suggests using term Daish for IS

Head of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee Nurtai Abykayev has urged to use the term Daish in respect to the so-called Islamic State, Tengrinews reports citing Abykayev as saying at the Central and South Asian Regional Conference on Countering Violent Extremism that was held in Astana on June 29–30.

Daish is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS or the Islamic State group. “Terrorist organization Daish calling itself Islamic State, in fact, turned into a religious and extremist international group, which includes tens of thousands of people from different countries. We believe it is not right when politicians and journalists widely use the term Islamic State for Daish. Use of the term 'state' in this case wittingly or unwittingly gives the organization a veil of legitimacy that is, at least, incorrect. In our own special service, we use the abbreviation Daish (...) Perhaps it would be more correct to use this abbreviation, avoiding the term state in whatever way they call themselves,” Abykayev said 

Earlier, Australia and France also urged to use the term Daish for the Islamic State to take away the illusion of credibility and ligitimacy from this group, since it was neither state nor was it Islamic, they said then.

"Today Daish actively promotes the idea of building a Khurasan caliphate, which supposedly should occupy the territory from North Africa to China, including Central Asia. The organization has its supporters in Afghanistan. This state is still known to be far from peace and it borders directly with our region. Of course, we cannot remain indifferent," the head of the National Security Committee adressed the participants of the conference that brought together representatives of 18 countries including nine Central and South Asia countries as well as the European Union and the United Nations

Abykayev stressed that violent extremism had become one of the most acute global challenges of our time. It destabilizes not only individual countries but entire regions. According to him, even the most developed and prosperous countries were not immune to it.

"Not long ago, some 4-5 years ago, it was impossible to imagine that there could be something more dangerous than Al-Qaeda. However, today we see that the Daish and Boko Haram surpassed Al-Qaeda in terms of its scale and aggressiveness. Today they have reached a new level. They widely use legal and illegal opportunities from presence of their activists in various countries. They tend to penetrate the state, political, economic and security structures. (...) Separate terrorist attacks tend to turn into large-scale terrorist operations, becoming a subversive and terrorist war. Modern methods of information and psychological impact are used," Abykayev said.

Reporting by Asemgul Kassenova, writing by Assel Satubaldina