Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
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Question: If Abbott is serious about tackling terrorism, cutting foreign aid is the worst way to go about it. In conjunction with the joint military action against Islamic State (Isis), Tony Abbott has pledged $5m in humanitarian aid for Iraq on his recent surprise visit to Baghdad . But don't be fooled by the government's apparent show of generosity - Australia isn't giving any more to foreign aid than it was before . In fact ,  it is giving significantly less . It is vitally important that we don't stop talking about recent cuts to foreign aid . The government's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook has reduced the foreign aid budget to the lowest levels in Australian history . Foreign aid spending has been cut by almost $3.7bn over four years . In addition to the $7.6bn already cut in May's federal budget, foreign aid has been cut by one quarter . If the government is serious about tackling terrorist threats and defending "universal values" , cutting off foreign aid to programmes that provide education, reduce poverty and improve gender equality is one of the worst ways to go about it . The Save Australian Aid campaign states that $11bn in foreign aid - the amount cut from the foreign aid budget in the past year - is the equivalent of 2 million children who may not be able to enrol in school, 1.4 million births without a birth attendant, 3.7 million children who may not receive vaccinations, 4.7 million people who will have reduced access to safe water, and almost 22 million people with reduced assistance in emergency situations . These cuts further perpetuate the idea that Australia is not a team player, a notion fuelled by our past behaviour towards our neighbours, and our recent denials of international obligations towards asylum seekers and climate change . In addition to the cuts in the Myefo, Australia backed out of commitments made to tax justice in the recent G20 summit . It is estimated that developing nations lose $160bn per year to corporate tax dodging; an amount that would end world hunger three times over . The G20 commitment, Abbott said, was "about the countries of the world, the people of the world, receiving the tax benefits that are their due and it's needed so that governments can fund the infrastructure and the services that people expect and deserve." As the host of the G20, backing out of this commitment not only damages our international credibility, but also has a huge impact on the developing world . The foreign aid cuts are irresponsible, but not surprising . Cutting the aid budget sends a clear message to our developing neighbours that Australia won't lend a helping hand unless it's in our own best interest . However ,  our politicians seem to forget that there is something in it for us, and not only in Iraq . Aid is much more than a humanitarian gesture ; it's a tool for regional development, trust and cooperation . Foreign aid programmes promote stability through education and equality, in turn reducing conflict . As an added bonus, foreign aid and sustainable development programmes create stronger economies , which in turn create opportunities at home and abroad . Poverty breeds hopelessness and despair , which are both contributing factors to extremist behaviour . Foreign aid is not the only factor in answering this issue , but it's more than a step in the right direction . Higher levels of foreign aid have the potential not to only alleviate extreme poverty in our region, but to raise international opinion of Australia as a fair country . A recent study examining the effects of foreign aid on foreign public opinion found that US aid programmes targeting HIV/Aids have improved perceptions of the US among the public in recipient countries . Australia would reap these benefits as a side effect of foreign aid, saving the millions of dollars set aside to "stop the boats" and wage a "war on terror" . But our government has, predictably, made yet another irresponsible decision with untold repercussions . While two innocent people died in Martin Place on 16 December in what has been labelled an act of terror , a reduction of this size in the foreign aid budget will result in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds across the globe due to reduced access to vital services . The high priority the Abbott government has placed on security doesn't come cheap, with funds for anti-terrorism programmes costing billions of dollars . Wouldn't this money be better spent reducing inequality, poverty, and conflict? Shouldn't we be stopping the problem at the source, not trying to cure the symptoms?

Answer: the government is serious about tackling terrorist threats and defending "universal values" cutting off foreign aid to programmes that provide education, reduce poverty and improve gender equality is one of the worst ways to go about it


Question: What the Quran says about the mighty pen. Muslims - in theory - have traditions that value the power of the pen . Islam was revealed to save people from bloodshed and misuse of the sword . That is a paraphrasing of the cardinal's line in one of the Acts of Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1839 play "Richelieu" . The origin of the timeless adage is thought to have originated in Assyrian wisdom - like Islam, moral and value systems of Middle Eastern descent . However ,  the moral, intellectual and ethical systems of that region - including those carried through dialogue with Hellenic ideas in the first three centuries of Islam - have all been subjected to obscurantist and literalist interpretations of revelation . Islam's first command to the Prophet Muhammad was to "read" ; "Read in the name of thy Lord." Chapter 68 in the Quran is named "Al-Qalam" (the pen) . It opens up with the verse:"By the pen and what they inscribe." In Chapter 96 of the Quran one finds another reference to the high value placed on the might of the pen ; "Who taught by the pen. Taught mankind that which he knew not"(96:4-5) . So it should be natural for Muslims today to feel total empathy towards fellow writers and journalists and the families of other victims in France . Especially in solidarity against the cowardly slaying of the Charlie Hebdo journalists and cartoonists . Reading and writing belong to the "genus" of cross-disciplinary activities Islam insists upon repeatedly . Reading, writing and reasoning are all part and parcel of the way of life Islam is all about . In Chapter 55 we find "Allah - Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Quran. He has created man. He has taught him eloquence [intelligence]" (55:1-4) . The didactic ethos of numerous Quranic injunctions on the pen, knowing and reasoning, seem to be lost today in the heap of ignorance and obscurantism that is consuming many a Muslim land . Lands where scholars of Islam underwrite political power at the expense of freedom of speech and a rational interpreting of the Quran that delivers Muslims from the yoke of oppression that is consuming Muslim youth and pleads the case of social justice, freedom of thought and tolerance . The sad state of the violence that today engulfs Muslim cities, pitting Muslim against Muslim, is in no small measure the result of the over-politicisation and over-securitisation of Islam . Whole states are disintegrating , and religious and sectarian intolerance is ushering in a horrible era of annihilation and self-destruction . Islam never began with jihad (a holy war) . The miracle of the Prophet Muhammad is that he knew when to retreat(via Hijra or emigration) to build values of solidarity, peaceful coexistence with all kinds of "otherness" (such as in Medina and hostile Arab tribes), create know-how, and voluntarism in faith and membership of community, along with moderation ("wasatiyya") . Quran is the word for "reading" . Those Muslims who, in cold blood, killed French journalists and cartoonists, supposedly to "avenge the prophet" miss the point about the prophet's ways . That includes the injunctions that "Verily, this Quran guides [human beings] to that which is most just"(17:9), and"If anyone took a life unless it be for murder and spreading injustice in the land, it would be as if he killed mankind entirely" (5:32) . Satire, criticism, and cartoons will never caricature the grand stature of the prophet nor diminish the sacredness of the Quran to Muslims and billions of tolerant human beings who share countries, ideologies or friendships with hundreds of millions of Muslims . Denigration comes from the savagery of heinous violence and Manichean ways many self-professed learned scholars of Islam or self-serving politicians knowingly and unknowingly are pushing trusting Muslim youth and entire nations towards the abyss . France has historically accommodated millions of Muslims who fled poverty, marginalisation and even oppression . Many of those come from North Africa where Maghreb countries have benefited not only from remittances, but also from a vast shared space in which Muslims, Christians and Jews have learnt the art of toleration of differences . What the murder of innocents in Paris has done is inflame inter-communal trust , and like the 9/11 attacks in the US 14 years ago, it has placed Muslims in the awkward position of being either unwelcome among host communities or defending Islam . This is because of the insane acts of co-religionists whose Islam is fixated on the "sword" and has little to do with the might of the "pen" that over millennia Muslim luminaries used to connect with others, and spread knowledge - not sow death .

Answer: Islam was revealed to save people from bloodshed and misuse of the sword


Question: Christians rally to defend fire chief who wrote 'anti-gay' book. Kelvin Cochran is a decorated firefighter . He is also a devout Christian . He's a deacon at a Baptist church and also teaches Sunday school . By all accounts - he is a decent and honorable man . And now- he is unemployed . Cochran, who served seven years as the chief of the Atlanta Fire Departmant lost his job over a book he wrote about biblical morality titled,"Who Told You That You Were Naked?" A small portion of the book contained what critics called homophobic language . Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed suspended Cochran last month . He was fired on Jan  6- the day he was supposed to return to work . "I profoundly disagree with and am deeply disturbed by the sentiments expressed in the paperback regarding the LGBT community," Reed wrote last November on his official Facebook page . "I will not tolerate discrimination of any kind within my administration." Reed told reporters Cochran was not fired because of his religious beliefs . Rather , he said, the fire chief was ousted because of poor judgment . The mayor accused the chief of not getting permission to write the book- a charge Cochran denies . The mayor also alleged Cochran distributed the book to members of the fire department . Cochran readily admits that he gave copies of the book to close associates within the department . It should be noted that the individual who initially complained about the book did not receive a copy from the fire chief . And for the record - a city investigation determined the fire chief had not discriminated against LGBT employees . But The New York Times editorial board said it doesn't matter if Chief Cochran was innocent . That's not the point, they wrote Tuesday in a scathing editorial titled,"God, Gays and the Atlanta Fire Department." "It should not matter that the investigation found no evidence that Mr  Cochran had mistreated gays or lesbians," the Times wrote . "His position as a high-level public servant makes his remarks especially problematic, and requires that he be held to a different standard." Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, called The New York Times editorial "quite remarkable." "It declares his innocence and then declares him guilty," he said . "Guilty of what? He didn't discriminate against any homosexuals. He vowed that he wanted to have a healthy work place for all of his employees." The Times went on to argue that while Cochran is free to believe whatever he wants- there are limits to where he can believe and still maintain gainful employment in the public arena . "If he wants to work as a public official, however, he may not foist his religious views on other city employees who have the right to a boss who does not speak of them as second-class citizens," the Times wrote . "There is a prejudice against Christians in this country right now," White told me . Dr  White made his bold proclamation just hours before hundreds of Christians were expected to gather at the Georgia capitol to protest the firing of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran . Among those taking up his cause are the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Family Research Council . Click here to follow Todd on Facebook! "What happened to Chief Cochran goes to the core of religious freedom," he said . "Georgia Baptists are deeply concerned about the mistreatment of Kelvin Cochran." Franklin Graham said Cochran was a target of "politically correct bullying against Bible-believing Christians" and vowed to stand alongside the embattled former fire chief . Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the Times had "reached a new low in blatant hypocrisy." "The New York Times is calling for public servants to be held to a different standard when it comes to their freedom of speech and religion," Perkins said . "I think most Americans are quite happy with the standard that we have had for the last 226 years- the First Amendment." If nothing else , Cochran's public shaming at the hands of Atlanta's mayor has unified Georgia Christians from all denominations and races . "This is one of those things that can bring people together from all of the political spectrum," Garland Hunt, chairman of the Network of Politically Active Christians, told me . "This is about religious freedom. This is not about whether a person is conservative or liberal." The reality is that a good man - a husband and father and grandfather - was fired from his job because his boss objected to his religious beliefs . That just ought not to happen in the United States . I'm reminded of something Chief Cochran told me . "The LGBT members of our community have a right to be able to express their views and convictions about sexuality and deserve to be respected for their position without hate or discrimination," he said . "But Christians also have a right to express our belief regarding our faith and be respected for our position without hate and without discrimination. In the United States, no one should be vilified, hated or discriminated against for expressing their beliefs." Maybe those who preach tolerance and diversity might want to consider practicing it, too .

Answer:
Maybe those who preach tolerance and diversity might want to consider practicing it, too