If it’s the “so-called Islamic State”, why is Mohammed not the “so-called Prophet”?

Sep 18, 2017 by Jill

by Archbishop Cranmer:

The BBC and Channel 4 News appear to have a policy of referring to the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh as the “so-called Islamic State”. Senior BBC News Producer David Waddell has explained why (he might even have coined the phrase), which he summarised in a tweet:

so called islamic state

And yet the converse appears to be true: that is, the delegitimisation of the Islamic State is a call for the BBC to make. Certainly, Islamic State is not a recognised state, and many would say that neither is it particularly Islamic. But this is what it calls itself, and we live in an age of subjective realisation: we are what we say we are, even if biological science, geopolitical evidence, historical facts or common sense conflict with assertions of self-identity.

The BBC and C4 never referred to the IRA as the “so-called IRA”, did they? Why did they aggrandise and legitimise a rag-bag group of murderous terrorists by investing them with military prowess and calling them an army? David Waddell responds: “I think the IRA moniker is so long established the label is widely accepted.”

So it is longevity of usage and wide acceptance which determines BBC/C4 policy?

How long is long enough? How wide does the wide acceptance need to be?

Why do they not refer to “so-called Palestinians” or the “so-called Palestinian Territories”? Must it be centuries of wide acceptance, or will decades suffice?

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