Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday defended his comments suggesting that Western culture is superior to that of Islam, and called for US-led assistance in defeating the Islamic State group.
In a Sydney Daily Telegraph opinion piece published earlier in the day, Abbott, a staunch Catholic, wrote of a need to “modernize” Islam, saying it propagates a culture that is inferior to that of the West.
Critics associated his comments with those of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has proposed a controversial ban on all Muslim visitors to the US, with the exception of foreign Muslim leaders.
“I am more than ready to assert the superiority of a culture that is decent and humane, and welcoming, over a culture that thinks it’s right to kill in the name of God,” he said in a speech in Singapore.
Once you embrace the principle of killing in the name of God, “we have the war of all against all, until there is only one man, or one particular faith or version of faith left standing. Now, that is a recipe for catastrophe, absolute catastrophe,” he added.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (YouTube screen capture/ABC News)
— AP
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