One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has partially backtracked on her latest inflammatory anti-Muslim comments, as conservative senator Matt Canavan declared they were “un-Australian” and showed she was not a fit leader.

Hanson said in an interview on Monday there were “no good Muslims”, while also suggesting future generations would suffer if more followers of the religion were allowed into Australia.

“I’ve got no time for the radical Islam,” Hanson told Sky News in the interview. “Their religion concerns me because what it says in the Quran, they hate Westerners.

“You say, ‘Oh well, there’s good Muslims out there’. Well I’m sorry, how can you tell me there are good Muslims?”

The comments have been strongly rejected by Islamic faith groups, as well as by Labor and Coalition politicians.

When pressed about her comments on Wednesday, the Queensland senator backtracked on her remarks about there being no good Muslims.

“No, I don’t genuinely believe that,” she told ABC TV, adding that a non-practising Muslim woman had run for election for One Nation.

“If I’ve offended anyone out there that doesn’t believe in Sharia law or multiple marriages or wants to bring ISIS brides in or people from Gaza who believes in the caliphate… then I apologise to you for my comment.

“But in general, that’s what they want: A world caliphate, and I’m not going to apologise.”

Nationals senator Canavan, also from the political right, has added his voice to the condemnation of Hanson’s original comments, describing them as divisive and inflammatory.

“It’s un-Australian, totally un-Australian, for someone to say that of those 800,000 Australians who are Muslim, there’s no good people among them,” he told Nine’s Today show.

Canavan said the One Nation leader had gone “too far”.

“She’s not fit to lead a major political party with these types of ill-disciplined statements that she won’t correct, that insult hundreds of thousands of Australians,” he said.

“It is just not something that I think is part of our country.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Mayor of Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown council are among other leaders who have criticised the firebrand senator’s original comments.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman urged Hanson to apologise, saying “comments that single out and diminish any community have real and lasting impacts”.

“Words that stigmatise and devalue people do not strengthen our society,” Sivaraman said on Wednesday.

“They increase fear, deepen division, and intensify pain and harm that many in our communities have experienced for far too long.”

The commissioner added: “To those who speak about the importance of social cohesion: you cannot build it by isolating, belittling, or casting suspicion on an entire group of Australians. Unity starts with respect.”

Australian National Imams Council president Shadi Alsuleiman said Hanson’s comments reflected a serious misunderstanding of Islam and the Muslim community.

“For many years, she has made inaccurate and harmful statements based on misinformation rather than genuine engagement,” he said.

“Muslims have contributed positively to the growth and advancement of this nation and continue to do so with pride and commitment.”

Hanson dismissed the criticism from Islamic groups.

“Of course they’re going to say that, but I’ve heard more hateful things coming out of the mouths of imams giving their sermons on the streets of Sydney, and other places in Australia, but nothing’s been said about that,” she said.

Hanson used her maiden speech to the Senate in 2016 to claim Australia was being “swamped by Muslims”, a repeat of her 1996 speech to parliament’s lower house about Australia “being swamped by Asians”.

More recently, she drew widespread condemnation when she wore a burqa in the senate.

One Nation has outperformed the Coalition in recent surveys, although that has reverted since a change of Liberal leadership to Angus Taylor.

The latest Roy Morgan survey showed a bump in support for the Liberals and Nationals on Taylor’s first weekend as leader, and a drop for Pauline Hanson’s party.

Primary support for the Coalition was up 3.5 per cent to 23.5 per cent, and One Nation down 3.5 per cent to 21.5 per cent.

–with AAP