What a small man is Turnbull.

It's easy to lose sight of what Turnbull's speech in London was supposed to be about - due to his glee in getting a few whacks in on Tony Abbott over conservative v liberal heritage.

A free society.  Trump had less of an entree into his magnificent treatise on freedom in Warsaw last week and look at what Trump made of that!  But Turnbull is no Trump - and so Australia was reduced to some weird insular mob insecurely wondering about whether we're led by conservatives or liberals.

Why pick that fight with Abbott, why there, why then?  A confident leader wouldn't do that, particularly abroad.

Here is a classic Turnbull quote from the speech (nb - whatever comes before "but" or after "because" is bullshit):

Everyone gives me advice how to run Australia – I’m not going to tell anyone else how to run their country. BUT  look, I just repeat, I just refer you to what I said in my remarks that I think.........

Now to prepare you for the shocks ahead here's Turnbull's clarity on Islam and homosexuality.

And some more classic Turnbull on Islam to ease you into his award-acceptance speech.

“Every religion, every faith, every moral doctrine, understands the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

... throughout our history, Muslims have been at the forefront of innovation and education.

......I'm familiar with the great heights of Islam in Spain and indeed in the Ottoman Empire, when the successful, the really successful, artistically brilliant, brilliant in every respect in terms of medicine, in terms of literature, I'm thinking of the Abbasid Caliphate, I’m thinking of the Umayyads in Spain.

Muslims are an integral part of an Australian family that is bound together by the shared values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law

..it was a great mistake to assume that all Islamic schools are homes for teaching extremism Islam is an ancient religion of great scholarship.

...... much of our learning and culture came to us from the Muslims....our whole system of numbers and much of the learning of the ancient Greeks only survived because of the Arab scholars and the Islamic scholars

It is important for us that we promote and encourage Islamic traditions which are moderate, which support freedom, which support democracy and which support Australian values in the sense of democracy, rule of law, tolerance, freedom. That's what we're talking about and they are universal values.

Our strongest armour is in our hearts, we defy the terrorists with love (Feb 2015 after Lindt Cafe terror attack)

(Islamic State and terrorists philosophy) is at odds, completely contrary, to the precepts of Islam........

EXTRACTS FROM TURNBULL IN LONDON LAST NIGHT

It’s easy to scoff at the paucity of (Islamists) vision - many have made the mistake of trivialising the threat they pose.

But as Disraeli once observed, “something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth”.

In the fight ahead, there is no space for the mush of moral relativism.

So we must answer this question - will we cower before their barbarism? Will we change the way we live in the face of these terrorists? Or will we defy them and defeat them as you are doing in the United Kingdom and as the men and women I met today with the Prime Minister at London Bridge and the Borough Markets are doing, defying and defeating those who seek to undermine our way of life?

Now in our response, we draw strength from the finest political tradition ever devised.

The values of Westminster are those of openness, mutual respect and the rule of law.

We believe that a good society is one that welcomes all peoples who commit to these core values. We believe that contending religions and philosophies should have to make their case in a marketplace of ideas. By comparison, the extremists are morally and intellectually bereft. They can offer nothing in life, so they promise glory in death.

There is no justification for the mass murder of children at a concert in Manchester, or the killing of innocent people on London Bridge and at Borough Market – including the young Australians Kirsty Boden, who had rushed to help people who had been injured and Sara Zelenak, a young Australian au pair. I met today the two brave metropolitan police officers who gave her CPR and sought to save her life.

We must acknowledge, as so many muslims acknowledge, that Islamist extremism is a disease within the body of Islam itself.

Equally we must recognise that Muslim leaders who stand for mutual respect and democracy whether at home or, like President Widodo of Indonesia, on the world stage are our best allies in the war against Daesh.

And we must also recognise that those who seek to tag all muslims for the crimes of a tiny minority are doing precisely what the terrorists want them to do.

After all, their pitch to muslims in Australian is “you don’t belong here, they don’t want you, this is not your home.”

The last thing we should do is confirm their poisonous propaganda.

The genius of Australia is that we define our national identity not by race or religion or ethnicity but rather by a commitment to shared political values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, equality of men and women, mutual respect - values accessible to all.

So we must never take a backward step from our values - lets face it, a bad idea does not become valid, let alone good, simply because someone claims it was divinely inspired.

Religion and tradition should be acknowledged, but the values that prevail in our society are our values, the laws that prevail in our society are our laws - and no others.

Every time I talk about this issue I talk about inclusion. The points I’ve made tonight, the Australians in the audience have heard many times. The terrorists are the ones that want to divide us. We must not become amplifiers for their poisonous propaganda. They have to be called out. You know, this Islamist terrorist extremist movement or, I’m not sure whether that’s a philosophy - hardly much philosophical about it - ideology is probably the best word – this Islamist extremist ideology is as we know, it is blaspheming and destroying Muslim societies, or seeking to destroy Muslim societies and the vast majority of their victims around the world are Muslims, as you know. So we have to support those who make the case for inclusion, we have to give them the solidarity that they deserve and they need. And that’s why I am always delighted to be with Joko Widodo. Jokowi is the democratically elected leader of the largest majority Muslim country in the world and he stands there and says, he’s got plenty of critiques of course as all politicians do, but he says Indonesia proves that Islam, moderation, tolerance and democracy are compatible. It is a very, very powerful message and I always encourage him to speak more on the world stage. Jokowi is one of the great leaders of our times, believe me. He is such an extraordinary example. In this particular battle, he is a really powerful advocate for the values that we all share and that you I know in your service in the Metropolitan Police for which I know everyone thanks you, and I do too, that you’ve always embodied too.

So thank you very much indeed.

ENDS

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