In a TV interview on Wednesday (Aug. 16), Charlie Daniels shared his thoughts on the debate over removing Confederate statues. The country artist says that, given their historical meaning, the statues should not be removed, comparing doing so to "what ISIS is doing over there in places."

"There were pieces of history that they didn't like, [so] they're taking them down," Daniels tells NewsMax TV. "Where does it go to? I mean, where does it stop? Is it just gonna be Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, or are we headed into [Thomas] Jefferson and [George] Washington, who were both slave owners?"

Even if you don't condone what happened during the Civil War, or what the South was fighting for during it, the people memorialized in the statues in question are part of U.S. history, Daniels argues. Besides, he says, "If you don’t like it, don’t look at it."

“There’s all kinds of symbols in this country that I don’t like," Daniels adds, "but I’m not gonna go tear them down. I just don’t look at them.”

On Saturday (Aug. 12) in Charlottesville, Va., white supremacists, white nationalists, Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis rallied to protest the planned removal of a Confederate monument. Counter-protesters also assembled, and one of them, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed when one of the white supremacists drove a car into the group. The New York Times reports that Confederate statues have now been removed in Baltimore, Md.; New Orleans, La.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and elsewhere.

Daniels is the latest in a string of country artists who have shared their thoughts about the Charlottesville rally and its message. Jason IsbellMargo PriceMaren Morris, the Brothers Osborne and more condemned the gathering, while Kip Moore was especially vocal, urging his fans and followers to spread kindness and take care of each other and sharing his thoughts on growing up in Georgia and seeing racism spread.

After watching a speech given by Heyer's mother, Blake Shelton urged his fans and followers to listen to her words. Additionally, Johnny Cash's children have responded to the images of a neo-Nazi wearing one of their father's T-shirts, saying that they "were sickened by the association" and calling for "the Cash name [to] be kept far away from destructive and hateful ideology.”

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