Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Ash-Sham, Islamic State (IS), or Daesh, is a self-proclaimed Islamic state and caliphate. The group is known in Arabic as Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyyah fī'l-'Iraq wa'sh-Sham, leading to the acronym Da'ish or Daesh, the Arabic equivalent of "ISIL". On 29 June 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being named its caliph, and renamed itself Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyyah ("Islamic State" (IS)). As a caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide, and that "the legality of all emirates, groups, states, and organisations, becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas."