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Frequently asked questions

Q1: Which name is best: ISIS, ISIL, Daesh or Islamic State etc

A: The article title is decided according to policy WP:Article titles

The discussion that resulted in the current name Islamic State was held in August-September 2021. The decision followed WP:Commonname section of WP:Article titles.

This question has been raised over 40 times on the talk page, without any proposal other than the September 2021 and August 2013 discussions resulting in a page move. Now archived, those discussions can be read here and searched here.

Past names, both used and considered, have included: "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria", "Islamic State of Iraq and (al-)Sham", "Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria", "Islamic State", "The Islamic State", "Islamic State (Middle East)", "Islamic State (Organisation)".

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Ajnad Foundation was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 19 July 2020 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Islamic State. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

Islamic State received a peer review by Wikipedia editors, which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

Worldwide caliphate was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 8 September 2022 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Islamic State on 8 September 2022. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on April 8, 2015, April 8, 2017, and April 8, 2020.

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This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

"ISIS not the Islamic state it fiercely claims to be". Olean Times Herald. March 18, 2015. I approach Wikipedia cautiously as to whether its abundant information on a multitude of subjects is complete and authoritative. But I salute the site for its numerous citations concerning the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS — specifically the "criticism of the name 'Islamic State' and 'caliphate' declaration" (found under its entry for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

WARNING: ACTIVE COMMUNITY SANCTIONS

The article Islamic State, along with other pages relating to the Syrian Civil War and ISIL, is designated by the community as a contentious topic. The current restrictions are:

Limit of one revert in 24 hours: This article is under WP:1RR (one revert per editor per article per 24-hour period)

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With respect to any reverting restrictions:

Edits made solely to enforce any clearly established consensus are exempt from all edit-warring restrictions. In order to be considered "clearly established" the consensus must be proven by prior talk-page discussion.
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This article has been viewed enough times in a single year to make it into the Top 50 Report annual list. This happened in 2014 and 2015.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 24 times. The weeks in which this happened:

This article has previously been nominated to be moved. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination.

Discussions:

See Older discussions (below this list) for a list of twelve earlier requested moves and discussions.
Archive 38#RfC: One year moratorium on move proposals Agreed 14 Aug – 19 Sep 2015
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → ISIS, Not moved, 20 Oct – 27 Oct 2016, /Archive_39#Requested move 20 October 2016
RM Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State (''to-be-decided'' qualifier) Technical Close 4–23 July 2017, /Archive 40#Requested move 18 July 2017
RM Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State Moved. 30 August – 22 September 2021.
RM Islamic State → Islamic State militant group Not moved. 18 May – 26 May 2022.

Older discussions:

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria → Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Moved, 13 August 2013, /Archive 1#Rename
RM, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Not moved (but moved back to "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant"), 12 June 2014, /Archive 2#Requested Move
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → The Islamic State, No consensus, 29 June 2014, /Archive 3#Requested move 2
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Procedurally closed, 31 July 2014, /Archive 3#Requested move
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State, Not moved, 8 August 2014, /Archive 5#Requested move 8 August 2014
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State (organization), Quick close, 20 August 2014, /Archive 5#Move
Content discussion, References in the text: ISIS or ISIL?, ISIL chosen, 17 Sept – 26 Sept 2014, /Archive 10#References in the text: ISIS or ISIL?
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State, Not moved, 7 Sept – 30 Sept 2014, /Archive 10#Move request - 6 September 2014
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State (Organisation), No consensus, 17 Sep – 3 Oct 2014, /Archive 11#Requested move 17 September 2014
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State (islamist rebel group), No consensus, 9 Jan – 17 Jan 2015, /Archive 28#Requested move 9 January 2015
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State, Not moved, 19 Apr – 20 Apr 2015, /Archive 34#Requested move 19 April 2015
RM, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant → Islamic State (IS), Not moved, 15 Jul – 29 Jul 2015, /Archive_37#Requested move 15 July 2015

Section sizes

Section size for Islamic State (41 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	9,531	9,531
Name	12,127	12,127
Purpose and strategy	27	41,048
Ideology	24,209	24,209
Islamic eschatology	1,734	1,734
Goals	7,287	7,287
Strategy	7,791	7,791
Organisation	1,537	50,800
Leadership and governance	19,717	19,717
Civilians in Islamic State-controlled areas	3,379	3,379
Military	101	10,965
Number of combatants	4,645	4,645
Conventional weapons	2,116	2,116
Non-conventional weapons	4,103	4,103
Women	3,680	3,680
Communications	69	69
Finances	7,841	11,453
Monetary system	2,516	2,516
Education	1,096	1,096
History	2,821	2,821
Territorial control and claims	10,277	10,277
International reaction	124	62,950
International criticism	2,287	2,287
Islamic criticism	531	31,819
Religious leaders and organisations	20,797	20,797
Other jihadist groups	10,491	10,491
Other commentaries	2,731	28,720
Designation as a terrorist organisation	22,677	22,677
Militia, cult, territorial authority, and other classifications	3,312	3,312
Supporters	4,344	4,344
Countries and groups at war with IS	672	28,929
Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	6,344	28,257
Other state opponents not part of the Counter-ISIL Coalition	5,339	5,339
Other non-state opponents	11,480	11,480
Al-Qaeda	5,094	5,094
Human rights abuse and war crime findings	4,243	4,243
Explanatory notes	38	38
Citations	29	29
General and cited references	3,466	3,466
Further reading	333	333
External links	5,110	5,110
Total	236,046	236,046

On 14 December 2024, it was proposed that this article be moved to Islamic State (militant group). The result of the discussion was not moved.

Use of term 'terror group'

Per MOS:TERRORIST, terms like terrorist are "best avoided unless widely used by reliable sources to describe the subject." I understand there was some confusion that led to the removal of the term based on a quick reading of the 'best avoided' part alone. The label terrorist is near-unanimously used by WP:RSs in essentially every language to describe groups like ISIS and hence it is usable per MOS:TERRORIST. Using such a term would be justified in the lede as long as reliably sourced.--OrebroVi (talk) 22:40, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think something like "Islamic State has been designated as a terrorist organistation by the United States and many other countries" would be appropriate, per the requirement at MOS:TERRORIST for intext attribution. Note that news organisations like the BBC also refer to IS as a "militant group" [1] rather than referring it to it in their own voice as a "terrorist group". Hemiauchenia (talk) 22:45, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The in-text styling is in the fourth paragraph of the lede. BBC also regularly uses the term terror and alternates between the two (terror and militant) rather than using only 'militant'. OrebroVi (talk) 22:50, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Islamic imperialism" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Islamic imperialism has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 March 5 § Islamic imperialism until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 17:40, 5 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reduced clustering of terms in the first sentence

Inorder to summarize the first sentence and enhance its clarity, I have removed the previous names of the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

"Do not overload the first sentence by describing everything notable about the subject. Instead, spread the relevant information out over the entire lead. Avoid cluttering the first sentence with a long parenthetical containing items like alternative spellings and pronunciations: these can make the sentence difficult to read."Shadowwarrior8 (talk) 11:08, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Asb.png

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:53, 7 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Founder of Daesh is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is not the founder of Daesh but he did invent the name "Islamic State". The real founder is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. He founded the group in 1999. 188.91.146.206 (talk) 01:22, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]