Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson: 'I'm as much of a homophobe as Jesus was'

Reality TV star Phil Robertson has been criticized for his outspoken nature.

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson has defended his position on homosexuality, insisting in an ABC interview that he is "as much of a homophobe as Jesus was."

Robertson, who stars in the A&E hit reality TV show with his family, was famously suspended by the network last year after making what were considered to be homophobic comments in GQ magazine.

Asked what he considered to be sinful, Robertson replied: "Start with homosexual behaviour and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."

Robertson was later reinstated by A&E.

Asked about the comments and his reputation for being unashamedly outspoken in an interview with ABC News this week, the TV star said: "People need to get it in their head...I don't hate anybody".

"I'm as much of a homophobe as Jesus was," he continued.

"The people who are participating in homosexual behaviour, they need to know that I love them."

Robertson also discussed issues of race, and 21st century obsession with technology and social media.

"I don't own a cell phone. I've never turned on a computer in my life," he claimed.

In another interview with Fox News yesterday, the Duck Dynasty star offered his solution to the ongoing crisis in Iraq and Syria.

"You either have to convert them [members of the Islamic State], which I think would be next to impossible...either convert them or kill them, one of the other," he said.

"The whole world is under the control of the evil one," Robertson insisted.

"We're going to have to deal with this group way more harshly than we have up to this point."