Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi once had now-Attorney General Keith Ellison on a "hit list" of moderate Muslims who the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was targeting for assassinations.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria.

Ellison responded on "WCCO Sunday Morning," saying: "The world is better off without him, but I will say his philosophy is still around. The idea that the Muslim world is against the West and the West should be against the Muslim world is what he was trying to promote."

He said he doesn't use the term Islamic State to describe the group that al-Baghdadi led: "They are violent, power-hungry people."

The U.S. needs to evaluate its diplomatic approach to the Muslim world and the world at large, Ellison said. "We've got to build friendships, and we have to alienate people and isolate and marginalize people like Baghdadi. That needs to begin."

In 2007, Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress.

Mara Klecker