http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/white-house-chief-of-staff-finally-admits-isis-is-islam/

September 15, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 12 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

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Someone isn’t getting any drink refills on his next flight abroad Air Force One. After Obama insisted that ISIS has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, his own Chief of Staff contradicts him.

“Ultimately, this is a fight within Islam, within Sunni Islam,” White House chief of staff Denis McDonough told Fox News on Sunday.
“That’s why we know that ultimately to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL, something that is not only in our interest but in the interest of the countries in the region, they are going to need to take the fight to it,” he said, using one of the acronyms for the group.

McDonough is almost right. This is a fight within Sunni Islam, though it’s not over moderation or extremism, but the long game for the Caliphate vs. the immediate instant gratification ISIS approach.
But the official line lately has been that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It’s absurd, but that’s the line you heard from Obama and UK’s Cameron. McDonough is unintentionally contradicting that position by locating ISIS within Islam without even the obligatory “distorting that great religion’s teachings” boilerplate, though maybe he found the time to throw it in somewhere.