What is "islamistan"

Islamistan literally means Islamland or land of Islam. The term is Persian, (also used in Pashto and Urdu) and refers to the concept of Dar-ul-Islam.

In Afghanistan in the early 1980s, anti-Soviet factions came together to try to present a united front for the country. Some of these groups suggested that the name of Afghanistan be changed to Islamistan.

In 1949 the president of Muslim League in Pakistan said in a speech that the country would bring all Muslim countries together under Islamistan.

Daniel Pipes quotes Hafeez Malik of Villanova University who writes that: "Pakistanis have started to speculate that Pakistan's natural habitat includes Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Central Asia Republics." Pipes then writes that "Sometimes called Islamistan, this region gets counterpoised against the Arabic-speaking south."