The comments have sparked criticism from Muslim leaders who say they are offended by the remarks during an interview on a talk back radio station.
"Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it.
"And it means understanding that in certain areas, such as the equality of men and women, the societies that some people have left were not as contemporary and as progressive as ours.
"People who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia." Mr Howard said.
But Mr Howard says he has no need to apologise for telling Muslims that they need to embrace Australian values.
"I think they are missing the point and the point is that I don't care and the Australian people don't care where people come from. There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate and I have said generally all migrants ... they have to integrate."
Mr Howard was responding to a caller on the Macquarie Radio network who said she was concerned that immigrants were "not fitting in".
Most Muslims were appalled by extremism but some wrongly believed it was discrimination to suggest migrants should integrate into Australian life, Mr Howard said.
Criticism
The comments have also drawn criticism from Victoria’s Premier Steve Bracks, saying this isn’t just a Muslim problem.
"Some of our Greek migrants, our Italian migrants, migrants from China and from other countries, generationally will move where the English language is adopted more and more, but some older members of those communities probably have difficulty with those language skills.”
Mr Bracks adding, "This is nothing new. This is regular and ongoing for each of our migrant communities. The reality is that integration occurs over a period of time.”