WASHINGTON: The Islamic State (IS) terror group in a new audio released has used for US President Donald Trump an Arabic term that means “idiot” according to various translations, a media report said.
The terror group also said that Trump does not know anything about Islam, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
It appears to be the first time that the terror group has referred to Trump since he took office in January. The IS controls parts of Iraq and Syria, and is currently being targeted by a US-led coalition.
The 36-minute audio was released by IS’ spokesperson Abu Hasan al-Muhajir on Tuesday.
The previous spokesman and the group’s second-in-command, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in an airstrike in Syria in 2016, the IS and the Pentagon have said.
The IS statement also called the US “bankrupt” and said: “The sign of your elimination are now clearer to everyone, as the most clear of signs is that you are now ruled by a stupid idiot who does not know what Sham and Iraq are, or what Islam is, who continues to express his hatred and war against.”
Other translations of the statement replaced “stupid idiot” with “riff raff” or “harebrained”, the NBC report said.
Al-sham is a term the group uses to describe a region that includes Syria.
One of the names used by IS is “the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham”, although it also calls itself Islamic State. Some opponents call it Daesh, which is seen a derogatory term in Arabic.
Trump has pledged to “totally obliterate IS,” which swept across parts of Iraq in 2014. It also controls part of Syria, and its headquarters are in Raqqa.
Trump’s opponent in the election, Hillary Clinton, and other critics have called Trump’s statements on Islam and his plans to temporarily restrict entry to the US from some predominantly Muslim nations as a gift to IS, which seeks to portray a battle between Islam and the West.
The IS statement does not appear to directly refer to Trump’s stated immigration policy executive order covering some Muslim nations, which critics have called a “travel ban”, the NBC report said.
But the propaganda did say Trump has expressed his “hatred and war” against Islam.
