Mr Turnbull's office emphatically denied any such instruction had been given. Conservative Liberals have complained Duncan Lewis has weighed in to what they say is a political debate. Credit:Andrew Meares The argument is being waged as a proxy war between MPs loyal to former prime minister Tony Abbott on the right of the party and those more moderate MPs who backed the switch to Malcolm Turnbull. Those tensions spilled into the public domain on Thursday via a front page story in The Australian, seen to have been leaked by either Mr Abbott, who is known to be very close to the broadsheet's foreign editor, Greg Sheridan, or by another MP aligned to Mr Abbott. The story revealed that Mr Lewis had recently telephoned MPs publicly critical of attitudes within the Australian Muslim community and asked them to instead use the "soothing language favoured by Malcolm Turnbull in their public discussion of Islam".

The fact there were telephone calls - which had merely conveyed privately what had been advocated publicly by the previous head of ASIO, David Irvine - quickly became less significant than the fact somebody saw fit to reveal them to a news organisation. Illustration: Ron Tandberg. Senior ministers, including Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton and Education Minister Simon Birmingham, declined to comment, declaring national security matters to be the province of the Attorney-General George Brandis. However, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was more forthright in backing the ASIO chief's actions. "If the director-general of ASIO has formed a view that the public debate might have the potential to put at risk the work that his organisation is undertaking in countering terrorism, then of course he should speak out," Ms Bishop said on Thursday.

The argument over Islam follows a series of public comments critical of Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammed in the wake of the Paris attacks, and a controversial opinion piece penned by Mr Abbott in which he argued the West should more strongly assert its moral superiority over Islam, and that Islam itself needed internal revolution and a reformation. In response to Mr Abbott's claim of a "massive problem within Islam", Mr Turnbull said last week: "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. "The simple fact of the matter is the vast majority of Muslims are as appalled by these acts of extremism as we are." Craig Laundy, a Liberal who understands the debate better than most because of the high Muslim population in his electorate, said he had no problem with Mr Lewis contacting MPs directly to convey the best way to ensure public safety. "I'm always happy to learn, so anyone who wants to reach out to me and provide expert input is encouraged to do so," he said.

Mr Laundy recently issued an open invitation to Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie and to his outspoken LNP colleague MP George Christensen to visit his electorate of Reid in Western Sydney to see first-hand the extent of integration and learn more about the contribution being made by Muslim Australians. Follow us on Twitter