The parents of two British-born backpackers killed by a mentally disturbed man in the remote outback of Australia have reacted with fury to Donald Trump including their children as victims of a "terror attack" to bolster his phony claim that the media are deliberately “underreporting" terrorism. Their anger and disgust at Trump is just another reflection of this Administration’s sheer incompetence and disregard for the impact of its lies to the lives of ordinary people.
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was backpacking in Australia when she stopped to stay in a remote hostel. There she met Tom Jackson, another backpacker staying there. Unfortunately an emotionally disturbed 29-year old French national named Smail Ayad, another hostel guest, apparently developed an infatuation for her during her brief stay. Despite his “Arabic sounding name" the police ultimately determined Ayad was neither an Islamic fundamentalist or even a practicing Muslim, nor had he ever set foot in a mosque. He was, quite simply, mentally ill with a history of imagining paranoid conspiracies against him.
Ayad had previously declared to others staying at the hostel he was planning on marrying Ms. Ayliffe Chung. Then one night something apparently snapped in his head. He found a kitchen knife, broke into Ms Ayliffe-Chung's room and hauled her out of her bed. She ran, screaming through the hostel as he chased after her:
She broke away, wounded, and scrambled through the building, according to the news outlet. Witnesses heard Ayad yelling incoherently as he chased her — “Allahu akbar” among other exclamations — then saw him dive head first from a stairwell, killing a dog and finally cornering his victim in a bathroom.
Mr. Jackson stepped in to try to help her and Mr Ayad proceeded to stab them both with the kitchen knife. Both Ayliffe-Chung and Jackson ultimately died from their wounds.
At first, the police suspected that the “Allahu Akbar” shout meant Ayad actually had some terrorist motive. Upon further investigation, though, the police investigation wholly ruled out terrorism, having found no connection between Ayad and any Islamic organization and any indication that Ayad harbored any “religious" motivation at all. What they did find, ultimately, was that he was likely schizophrenic. His case was later transferred to a mental health court, and he is currently awaiting a court’s determination of his fitness to stand trial.
Despite the clear record of no terror involvement, in rode Donald Trump who, in order to gin up the flames of Islamophobia, had his minions pull up a list of 78 allegedly “unreported” or "underreported" terror attacks, a list filled with typographical errors that had obviously been hastily prepared by some harried staffer in a late night Google search of fringe websites. On the list, which was then publicized around the world, was the attack on Ayliffe-Chung and Jackson.
The parents of both Ayliffe-Chung and Jackson reacted with fury, seeing their childrens’ deaths being politicized to create a climate of hatred against Muslims. Rosie Ayliffe put her feelings into words:
“My daughter's death will not be used to further this insane persecution of innocent people,” she wrote in an open letter to President Trump.
Her words were joined by the parents of the attack's second victim, Jackson, who expressed their disbelief in an email to the White House and elsewhere.
“I’m pretty sure he and his advisors know full well — or could very easily verify — that Tom and Mia died not as the result of an act of terror but rather through the actions of a disturbed individual,” Les Jackson wrote on Facebook.
“Of course, that doesn’t suit his agenda.”
Sandra Jackson, Tom Jackson’s mother, Tweeted the following:
Rosie Ayliffe’s letter to Trump is here, printed in full:
Of course, there has been no admission of this error by the Administration, or any acknowledgement or apology for the pain they've added to these parents’ lives.