Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson said he does not want to give the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) more "dignity than it deserves" by classifying it as a Muslim ideology.
"It seems to me that to refer to ISIL as occupying any part of the Islamic theology is playing on a battlefield that they would like us to be on. I think that to call them some form of Islam gives the group more dignity than it deserves," he said on "Fox News Sunday," using the administration's preferred acronym for ISIS
Johnson was defending President Obama and the administration for not using the term "Islamic extremism" to describe the terrorist group.
The terrorist threat overseas requires a military approach, Johnson said. But engagement in Muslim communities in the United States and other western nations is also important, he added.