Islam, ISIS, ISIL, Islamism, and Muslim

Many headlines are littered with these terms and I have noticed that many reporters use them incorrectly. So, I went searching to find the most succinct way to define each. I kept spelling of the words consistent, but many variations apply, depending on the writer's origin.

Islam is a religion. Islam is generally used in conversation to denote the religion or community of believers as a whole, such as, "The Islamic community responded to press release."

A Muslim is a person who follows the religion of Islam, a monotheistic religion based on the Quran (Koran). Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of Allah (God) as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

All people who accept the religion of Islam are Muslim, but not all Muslims follow the religion of Islam, just as all Methodists, etc. do not practice their religion.

Muslims agree that Allah is One, Muhammad is His last Prophet, the Quran is His last Book for mankind, and that one day Allah will resurrect all human beings, and they will be questioned about their beliefs and actions. Nearly one quarter of the world population are Muslim.

Muslims are mainly broken down into two sects: Shia and Sunni. The great majority of Muslims are Sunnis, estimated to be about 85% to 90%. Both Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith. The differences between these two main sub-groups within Islam initially stemmed from political differences. Throughout history, Shia Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they believe have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad or Allah (God) Himself.

Islam is the act of submitting to the will of God. Muslim is person who participates in the act of submission.

All Sunni are Muslims, but not all Muslims are Sunni, just as all Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholic.

Islamists do not represent religious Islam. They believe Islamic law should be implemented as a political system or theocracy. Islamism is an extremist, and at times violent ideology that seeks to ground its legitimacy in Islam and focuses its recruitment efforts almost entirely on Muslims. Islamism wants to create a new world order, grounded in the imagined past of 7th century deserts.

Current manifestations of Islamism include a variety of Islamist movements, such as the (mostly) non-violent Muslim Brotherhood, violent Boko Haram, and the violent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Although these groups employ different tactics, at their core they share a common political ideology.
Although ISIS/ began as part of Al-Qaeda. It has since broken relations and Al -Qaeda has not pledged allegiance to ISIL.

Not all Muslims are Islamist, but virtually all Islamists are Muslims.

Islam good - Radical Islamist bad!

Terms:
The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) or simply Islamic State - On 8 April 2013 changed its name from ISIS to ISIL (although most journalists ignore this).

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Levant is a geographic term including  Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and more.

Da'ish (Daesh) is another name used by others for ISIL and is considered derogatory to it.

A caliphate is an Islamic government operating under Sharia law. It is led by a caliph (currently Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), who is a political and religious leader and successor (caliph) to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His power and authority is absolute. In June, 2014, ISIL announced it has established an Islamic caliphate across Syria and Iraq. It currently claims to control 10 million people.

On 14 May 2014, the United States Department of State announced its decision to use Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the group's primary name. However, in late 2014, top US officials shifted toward using Daesh (da eesh or Dash), because this is the name a growing number of countries and Arab allies prefer to use. US officials still variously refer to all three.

Incidently, 90% of Syrians, 97% of Iraqis, 98% Turks, 99% of Iranis, 99.8% Afghanistanis, 96% Pakistanis, 94% Egyptians, and 88% Indonesians are Muslim.

Many US football and basketball players are Muslim. American Muslims include: Dave Chappele, Casey Kasem, Doctor Oz, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Fareed Zakaria (TV), Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube, Huma Abedin, Jermaine Jackson, and Snoop Dogg, among others.

Hope this makes it a bit less confusing.