Tony Abbott has called on countries to increase their military commitments to fighting Islamic State (Isis), arguing the conflict could go for decades but the alternative was “a blood-soaked caliphate killing in the name of God”.
The former Australian prime minister, who has been playing an increasingly assertive role in security debates, said Isis thrived on conflict and represented the biggest current threat to the world’s peace and stability.
Delivering the Fullerton Lecture in Singapore on Wednesday evening, Abbott emphasised the importance of a military victory in Iraq and Syria and called on western countries to consider committing troops to fight alongside local forces.
“A military victory over the caliphate isn’t a sufficient response to the challenge of militant Islam but it is a necessary one. The alternative is more attacks on decent people going about their daily lives until the resolve is there to escalate the military campaign against it,” he said.
“That’s the challenge: creating Iraqi and Syrian forces that can destroy the caliphate while respecting non-combatants; and, in the longer term, fostering governments in the Middle East that don’t commit genocide against their own people or permit terrorism against ours.
“It may involve the commitment of western troops to fight alongside local forces. It may involve the creation of safe havens protected by no-fly zones. It may ultimately involve a subdivided Syria, as [former UK foreign secretary] William Hague has suggested.
“What it can’t involve is the persistence of a blood-soaked caliphate killing in the name of God.
“It will be a long, difficult and costly engagement, quite possibly the task of decades, not years; but before we shrink from such a prospect we should remember how much the world has gained from the US and its allies’ sustained postwar willingness to stand up for universal values as well as for their own interests.”
Abbott conceded previous military interventions in Iraq and Libya “ended badly” but added: “Not intervening in Syria has so far had the most disastrous results of all: a quarter of a million dead, seven million internally displaced, and four million in camps beyond the borders thinking of coming to Europe, while Islamic State posts, online, for the world to see, ever more barbaric ways to kill people.”
He said the efforts would need to involve Sunni forces and any longer-term settlement in Syria and Iraq would need to accommodate all the significant minorities.
Abbott said the US announcement of 200 special operations troops to fight in Iraq and Syria was a sign the country was “finally edging towards the action needed to win this war”. He also praised the British parliament’s vote to support airstrikes against Isis in Syria.
Hours after Malcolm Turnbull warned against tagging all Muslims with responsibility for the crimes of a few, his predecessor continued to make forthright comments about the appeal of Isis’s message to “many Muslims”.
In the speech, Abbott described Isis as a “would-be terrorist empire, proclaiming ‘death to the infidel’” and said the declaration of a caliphate showed that “Islamic State wants to emulate Mohammed whose early campaigns would have looked just as puny to the great powers of his day”.
“Islamic State has a simple but deadly message, submit or die; to most, a mediaeval fantasy, but rational enough to many Muslims based on their scriptures,” Abbott said.
Earlier this week, Abbott sparked controversy by calling for a reformation within Islam and arguing that not all cultures were equal.
Turnbull, who has recast the national security debate by emphasising mutual respect, responded to the earlier interventions with a plea for people to take care with their rhetoric.
The prime minister said terrorists wanted to turn people against the Muslim community “so we should not do anything that plays into their hands”.
“It is absolutely vital to ensure that we don’t make the mistake, which is what the terrorists want us to do, of tagging every single Muslim with the responsibility for the crimes of a few,” Turnbull said on Wednesday.
“Can I tell you, everything I say, on this subject, is carefully calculated in the light of the advice I receive from the Australian federal police and from Asio … Our best allies in the battle against terrorism are the Muslim community and it is absolutely critical that we maintain solidarity and unity within Australia.”
The Australian National Imams Council issued a statement saying it welcomed the change in the narrative about Islam under Turnbull’s leadership.
“This is a positive departure from the deliberate conflation of violent extremism with the religion of Islam which serves not only to vilify Australians of Muslim faith but also plays into the hands of extremist recruiters on all sides who propagate the notion that the west is at war with Islam,” the council said on Thursday.
The grand mufti of Australia, Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, said Islam did not need a reformation “since the normative principles and practices of the religion allow Muslims to harmoniously coexist within pluralist societies that are based on the universal values of compassion and justice”.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, defended Abbott, saying the former prime minister was motivated by a desire to keep the country safe and was not talking about all Muslims. Abbott had a continuing interest in national security and was a Rhodes scholar, Dutton added.
“I think we compound the problems if we don’t talk about them,” Dutton told 2GB on Thursday.
“I think we need to recognise that we do ourselves a disservice if we want to sweep this under the carpet.”
Alex Hawke, the assistant minister to the treasurer, called for calm in efforts to prevent terrorism. “Obviously it’s most helpful if everyone in government and in parliament works together on that process, there isn’t any ego involved in this process, there isn’t any need for people to one up each other,” Hawke told the ABC.
Abbott’s speech in Singapore followed his interview with Sky News on Tuesday and his column in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. Abbott has hinted he is likely to remain in parliament, saying he has had “thousands and thousands of messages of support and encouragement” since he was ousted as prime minister in September.
