Author Description

This book presents the complete text of President Barack Obama's September 24, 2014 speech to the United Nations, along with his 2013 UN speech, and additional material. "There is a pervasive unease in the world," President Obama said as he stood before the United Nations General Assembly today. "A sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers and made it difficult for any single nation to insulate itself from global forces." From the Ebola outbreak in parts of West Africa, to Russian aggression in Ukraine, to the senseless brutality of ISIL terrorists threatening innocent lives, there are problems that demand the urgent attention of the international community. There's much to be done to meet the test of the moment, a test that only the United Nations -- an international community working together -- can choose to overcome. At the heart of that test - at the root of the world's challenges -- are two defining questions: Can the U.N. renew the purpose of its founding, and will the international community come together to reject the cancer of violent extremism? President Obama made it clear that America and our allies will support the people of Ukraine and uphold our commitment to collective self-defense. Terrorism is not a new weapon, but in the 21st century, the President described how we face "a more lethal and ideological brand of terrorists" who have perverted the religion of Islam into "a nightmarish vision that would divide the world into adherents and infidels." That is not what Islam teaches, he noted. Islam is a religion that teaches peace, and Muslims in America and across the world aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice.