By Matthew Knott and Lisa Cox
- Abbott's tirade against Islam
- Tony Abbott: I would have won the election
- Comment: Muslims don't need Western cultural supremacists to tell them what Islam needs
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has fired back at calls by his predecessor Tony Abbott for a "religious revolution" within Islam by cautioning against blaming all Muslims for Islamic State terrorist attacks.
Mr Abbott called for a "hearts and minds campaign against the versions of Islam that make excuses for terrorists" in an opinion piece on Wednesday, saying Islam had not undergone an equivalent version of the Reformation and Enlightenment in Christian nations.
He said societies "can't remain in denial about the massive problem within Islam" after terrorist attacks in Paris and the Middle East, the deaths of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson in the Martin Place siege last year and Curtis Cheng outside Parramatta police station in October.
While declining to criticise Mr Abbott directly, Mr Turnbull struck a markedly different tone when asked to respond to the former prime minister's comments.
"I'm not sure what the response is other than to say that he's entitled to his opinion," Mr Turnbull told ABC radio.
"I'm not about to run a commentary on Mr Abbott but I'd simply make the observation again that the one thing we need to be very careful not to do – and I'm sure Tony agrees with this by the way – is to play into the hands of our enemies and seek to tag all Muslims with the crimes of a few.
"This is very important.
"The simple fact of the matter is the vast majority of Muslims are as appalled by these acts of extremism as we are."
Mr Turnbull said Australia need only to look to its closest neighbour, Indonesia, to see that most Muslims are strongly opposed to extremism.
"Indonesia demonstrates that Islam is compatible with both democracy and an open, tolerant society," he said.
"The extremism of ISIL or Daesh is utterly rejected by the leaders of the majority of Muslim nations."
In his opinion piece, Mr Abbott writes: "Dealing with terrorism and the Islamist fanaticism that inspires it is the great challenge of our time."
Mr Abbott said surveys of British and French Muslims "typically show up to 30 per cent sympathising with the aims if not the methods of Islamic State."
Although most Muslims utterly reject terrorism, some are all too ready to justify "death to the infidel," he wrote.
"Demonising Islam generally or all Muslims could bring on the 'clash of civilisations' that academic Samuel Huntington feared two decades back and make 'Islam's bloody borders' even more dangerous.
"But we can't remain in denial about the massive problem within Islam.
"Islam never had its own version of the Reformation and the Enlightenment or a consequent acceptance of pluralism and the separation of church and state.
"Fortunately there are numerous Muslim leaders who think their faith needs to modernise from the kill-or-be-killed milieu of the Prophet Muhammad."