Daesh is, in the words of Tony Abbott, a death cult.

It has seized control of vast swathes of Iraq and Syria, killing and torturing thousands of Muslims and Christians, and subjecting hundreds of women to rape and sexual slavery.

The group is better known in the English-speaking world as the Islamic State, a name its enemies say must be abandoned because it insults true Islam and elevates terrorism to statehood.

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As of Monday, both of Australia’s major political parties may have joined a growing number of world leaders who use the term ‘Daesh’ to spite the terror group, which has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of those who dare use it.

The group’s hatred of the term (which is an acronym of the Arabic words for ‘Nation of Islam in Iraq and Greater Syria’) may stem from the fact that it was first used by its bitterest enemy, the Syrian government; or that it sounds similar to Arabic phrases for ‘crusher’ and ‘felon of the dust’; or simply because it defies an official announcement from the group’s leader.

In July, Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared that all territory under his control would henceforth be known as “Islamic State”, an attempt to rebrand the terrorist organisation as a nation state run by a central government, instead of a roving army of bloodthirsty and potentially drug-addled mercenaries.

Prime Minister Abbott has adopted the new term after a recent meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and has urged others to ditch the group’s “presumptuous” preferred name.

“Daesh hates being referred to by this term, and what they don’t like has an instinctive ­appeal to me,” Mr Abbott told News Corp.

“I absolutely refuse to refer to it by the title that it claims for itself because I think this is a perversion of religion and a travesty of governance.”

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten responded on Monday saying he is “all for” the change in rhetoric if security agencies have proof it would help Australia.

“If it helps in making Australia safer … well then we should,” Mr Shorten told Fairfax radio in Brisbane.

In September, well before the tragic Charlie Hebdo shootings, the French government officially stopped calling the terrorist organisation a state, adopting ‘Daesh’ in all official documents.

“This is a terrorist group and not a state. I recommend no longer using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Muslims and Islamic extremists,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement.

The French prime minister Manuel Valls has declared the preferred term an insult to the religion of Islam.

The United States of America continues to use ISIS and ISIL interchangeably, although President Barack Obama has repeatedly condemned the idea that the group is any kind of state.

The bright orange garb worn by the hostages beheaded by Daesh were undoubtedly a reference to the prison clothes worn by the detainees tortured in the Guantanamo detention facility. The black flag of Islam has become the group’s emblem, displayed in attacks as far apart as Sydney and Paris. Its slick propaganda videos pervade the internet, recruiting vulnerable Muslims the world over to its cause.

In response, social media hashtags like “I’ll ride with you” and “Je suis Charlie” have become rallying points for solidarity and anti-racist sentiments.

Perhaps everything is in a name.

– with AAP