Mother of dead backpacker slams Trump’s ‘terror list’

SYDNEY: The mother of a backpacker killed in Australia has slammed Donald Trump for including the stabbing death on a list of supposedly under-reported terrorist attacks, claiming the president was using her daughter to demonise Muslims.

The US leader this week accused “dishonest” media of purposefully failing to report on attacks by radical jihadists, for which he provided no evidence, in the wake of his contentious travel ban on people from seven mostly-Muslim nations.

The White House distributed a list of 78 incidents it said were “executed or inspired by” the Islamic State group, saying most “have not received the media attention they deserved”.

Five Australian attacks were included, including a cafe siege in Sydney in 2014 that received global headlines and the stabbing deaths of British backpackers Mia Ayliffe- Chung, 21, and Tom Jackson, 30, last year.

Agence France-Presse filed five stories on the backpacker killings which were also widely covered by the British press and other media in Australia and around the world.

In an open letter to Trump posted on social media, AyliffeChung’s mother Rosie Ayliffe said it was wrong to connect her death with Islamic fundamentalism.

“The possibility of Mia and Tom’s deaths being consequent to an Islamic terror attack was discounted in the early stages of the police investigation,” she said.