London: British Prime Minister David Cameron adopted the term "Daesh" to refer to the Islamic State group on Wednesday and urged others to follow suit to avoid lending the jihadists credibility.
Cameron had previously used "ISIL" to refer to the extremist group, which is also known as "ISIS", before switching to Daesh, which has negative connotations and is based on an Arabic acronym first coined by a Syrian activist.
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"I feel it is time to join our key ally France, the Arab League and other members of the international community in using, as frequently as possible, the terminology Daesh rather than ISIL," he said.
"Daesh is clearly an improvement and I think it's important that we all try to use this language," Cameron told parliament during a debate on whether Britain should join air strikes against the group in Syria.
A government Twitter account that had been called "UK Against ISIL" was changed to "UK Against Daesh" as Cameron made the announcement.
"#Daesh is Arabic acronym for #ISIL. Daesh hates the term + sounds similar to Arabic words Daes & Dahes: 'to trample' & 'one who sows discord'," read a tweet on the account.
News organisations and international governments have been divided over what to call the group, with French President Francois Hollande referring to it as "Daesh" and the United States President Barack Obama calling it "ISIL".
ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, while ISIS is the abbreviation for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Conservative MP Rehman Chishti, who has led a campaign for the term "Daesh" to be used, said the prime minister had "listened to the strength of feeling across parliament".
"I hope that media organisations will now follow the government's lead and also adopt the term," he said.
Following calls from some MPs that it should begin using the term, the BBC said: "While people can debate terminology we're sure the British public are under absolutely no illusion about the type of organisation this is".
"The BBC uses the name the group itself uses, using additional descriptions to help make it clear we are referring to the group as they refer to themselves, such as 'so-called Islamic State' or 'Islamic State group'," it added.
Experts meanwhile weighed in on the debate, with some criticising the prime minister's call to refer to IS as "Daesh" as irrelevant.
"I'm sorry, but they really don't care," British writer and researcher Shiraz Maher tweeted.
