1

www.pm.gov.au





PRIME MINISTER


24 September 2014

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MP
ADDRESS TO THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL SUMMIT ON FOREIGN
TERRORIST FIGHTERS,
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

E&OE.

Im happy to be here at your urging, Mr President. It is the weightiest of matters that brings us together
today.

Right now, thousands of misguided people from around the world are joining terrorist groups in Syria and
Iraq because they claim Islam is under threat and because they are excited by the prospect of battle.

But whatever they think or say, these terrorists arent fighting for God or for religious faith.

At the heart of every terrorist group is an infatuation with death.

What else can explain the beheadings, crucifixions, mass executions, rapes and sexual slavery in every town
and city thats fallen to the terrorist movement now entrenched in eastern Syria and northern Iraq?

A terrorist movement calling itself Islamic State insults Islam and mocks the duties of a legitimate state
towards its citizens.

And to use this term is to dignify a death cult; a death cult that, in declaring itself a caliphate, has declared
war on the world.

So, countries do need to work together to defeat it because about 80 nations have citizens fighting with ISIL
and every country is a potential target.

Last week, an Australian operative in Syria instructed his local network to conduct demonstration killings
and this week, an Australian terror suspect savagely attacked two policemen.

Now, its hard to imagine that citizens of a pluralist democracy could have succumbed to such delusions
yet clearly they have.

The Australian Government will be utterly unflinching towards anything that threatens our future as a free,
fair and multicultural society; a beacon of hope and exemplar of unity-in-diversity.
2
www.pm.gov.au

Already, more than 60 Australians are fighting with ISIL and al-Nusra. More than 60 Australians have had
their passports suspended to prevent them from joining terrorist groups in the Middle East.

Our laws are changing to ensure that foreign fighters returning home can be arrested, prosecuted and gaoled
for a very long time indeed.

We arent just dealing with potential terrorists at home; were tackling their inspiration abroad.

Our combat aircraft and special forces are now in the Middle East preparing to join the international
coalition to disrupt and degrade ISIL at the request of the Iraqi government.

I congratulate you, Mr President, for the leadership youve shown in assembling a broad coalition.

The participation of Middle Eastern countries in this weeks strike on ISIL in Syria is the clearest possible
demonstration that the West cant solve this problem alone and wont have to.

Our goal is not to change people, but to protect them; its not to change governments, but to combat
terrorism. Governments that dont commit genocide against their own people, nor permit terrorism against
ours thats all we seek.

But even in what seem to be darkening times, there are grounds for hope: the ISIL horror has generated all-
but-universal revulsion.

Muslim leaders from Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia, and President Yudhoyono of Indonesia, to the
Grand Mufti of Australia, have declared that the ISIL movement is against God, against Islam and against
our common humanity.

Perhaps the realisation is now dawning for all peoples, all cultures and all faiths that it can never be right to
kill in the name of God.

That would be a moral victory far surpassing any military success.

[ends]