Satire

'Da'ish' becomes 'Ja'hish' - "The state of donkeys in Iraq and Syria". By Alice Guthrie on 19/2/15 Arabic translator Alice Guthrie investigates 'Daesh', the new name for ISIS recently adopted by several world leaders because it delegitimises the group's activities. But how can a new name undermine a terrorist organisation? And why do the English-speaking media find the name so difficult to understand? Over the last few months, there has been a concerted effort by several senior global politicians to give a new name to the group known as ISIS, or Islamic State, IS or ISIL.

Drawings of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, proclaiming, “I have changed,” published in Charlie Hebdo, May 2, 2007 Tim Parks The New York Review of Books What does satire do? What should we expect of it? Recent events in Paris inevitably prompt these questions. In particular, is the kind of satire that Charlie Hebdo has made its trademark—explicit, sometimes obscene images of religious figures (God the father, Son, and Holy Spirit sodomizing each other; Muhammad with a yellow star in his ass)—essentially different from mainstream satire?