Islam promotes a “culture” that “thinks you can kill in the name of God” and is in need of a reformation, according to former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. He also believes Western Civilisation should have more confidence in its innate superiority over barbarism and mount a sustained military offensive against Islamic State (IS).

Tony Abbott, who was brutally deposed by his own conservative coalition in a leadership coup in September, made the comments in a wide-ranging interview on Australian television. He told the Paul Murray Live program on Sky News:

“We’ve got to work closely with live-and-let-live Muslims because there needs to be, as President (Abdel Fattah) Al-Sisi of Egypt has said, a religious revolution inside Islam. All of those things that Islam has never had – a Reformation, an Enlightenment, a well-developed concept of the separation of church and state – that needs to happen, but we can’t do it; Muslims have got to do this for themselves, but we should work with those who are pushing in that direction.

“The other thing that’s needed is a restoration of cultural self-confidence in those who are supporters of Western civilisation. All cultures are not equal and, frankly, a culture that believes in decency and tolerance is much to be preferred to one which thinks that you can kill in the name of God, and we’ve got to be prepared to say that.”

When asked about the involvement of Russia in the war against IS, Mr. Abbott said there were “encouraging straws in the wind” but pointed out that Russian bombings in Syria were not just targeting IS, but opponents of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

He also said it was encouraging that the U.S. was sending ground troops into the troubled region. He said:

“Certainly President Obama’s decision a week or so back to put those special operations forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria to fight – not just to advise – I think is a very encouraging sign that finally there is developing a real will to win this because in the end Islamic State can’t be contained; it has to be destroyed.”

Mr. Abbott is no stranger to controversy. He famously labelled claims of man-made global warming as “absolute crap” and initiated a tough regime of border protection for Australia that saw any and all so-called “refugees” denied entry to the country.

The British-born politician was elected on a mantra of “stop the boats” and he did just that because, as he said: “Jesus knew there was a place for everything… and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.”

More recently he lashed out at the “misguided” immigration policies of European leaders, including that of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, insisting: “unlike you, we now control our borders”.

Speaking at the Second Annual Margaret Thatcher Gala dinner in the City of London, Mr. Abbott told a crowd of Conservative Party MPs and supporters that seeing off radical Islam, as well as stopping migrants reaching Europe, were the most critical battles in modern times rather than the climate fixation of U.S. President Barack Obama and assorted European political leaders.