UAE urges UN to drop ‘Islamic State’ name when referring to Daesh

The UAE has called on United Nations organizations to stop using the term ‘Islamic State’ when referring to Daesh, during the UN Security Council in New York, arguing that the extremists should not be associated with the religion.

UAE Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative and Chargé d’Affaires, Mohamed Abushahab said in his address that organizations should not “permit Daesh and other groups to hijack a religion of tolerance and give credence to their pretenses,” Arab News reported Thursday.

“There is nothing Islamic about terrorism,” he added.

Abushahab’s statement came as the UN recognized that the threat posed by Daesh and its affiliates remained “global and evolving”.

“Daesh and its affiliates continue to exploit conflict dynamics, governance fragilities and inequality to incite, plan and organize terrorist attacks,” said UN counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov, as he presented the Secretary-General’s fifteenth report.

Abushahab stressed that the fight against terrorism went beyond Daesh, as the “fight against Al-Qaeda remains a global priority” especially after “the organization enters a leadership vacuum, following the death of Ayman Al-Zawahiri,” Arab News reported.