Tony Abbott has rejected criticism from the Jewish community for comparing Isis to the Nazis, restating that “unlike previous evil-doers” such as Stalin and Hitler, Isis boasts added a “further dimension to this evil”.

The argument began after 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones asked the prime minister about critics who suggested he was raising national security issues to win votes in the Canning byelection. Abbott described it as “nonsense”.

“The latest [Isis] atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive,” said Abbott, who has made similar comments before. “I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it.

“These people boast about their evil. This is the extraordinary thing: they act in the way that medieval barbarians acted – only they broadcast it to the world with an effrontery which is hard to credit and it just adds a further dimension to this evil.”



Robert Goot, the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said there was a fundamental difference between the crimes of the Islamic State and Nazi Germany.



“Whilst there is no question that Islamic State is a profoundly evil organisation, the prime minister’s comments suggesting that it is in some respects worse than the Nazis were injudicious and unfortunate,” he told Fairfax.

“The crimes of Islamic State are indeed horrific, but cannot be compared to the systematic round-up of millions of people and their dispatch to purpose-built death camps for mass murder.”

“There is a fundamental difference between organised acts of terrorism and a genocide systematically implemented by a state as essential policy.”

Asked later whether he should have spoken more carefully, Abbott said: “I’m not in the business of ranking evil, but I do make this point, that unlike previous evil-doers, whether we’re talking about Stalin, Hitler or whoever that tried to cover up their evil, this wretched death cult boasts about it.”

When pressed on whether he stood by the comments, he said: “I think you’re trying to put words into my mouth.

“I stand by I what I said, not by the interpretation that other people might want to put on it.”