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Parents of stabbing victims rip Trump for calling attack terrorism

by Rebecca Savransky - 02/08/17 8:58 AM ET

The parents of two people killed last year in Australia are speaking out against President Trump after their children’s deaths were included on a list of terrorist attacks the White House believes haven’t received the media coverage they deserve.

Mia Ayliffe-Chung and Tom Jackson were murdered last year during a knife attack in a hostel in Australia.

Rosie Ayliffe wrote in an open letter to President Trump that 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,” The Washington Post reported.

“My daughter’s death will not be used to further this insane persecution of innocent people,” Ayliffe wrote in the letter.

{mosads}The parents of the attack’s other victim also spoke out against the president.

“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.”

“The fact anyone would want to make something political out of Tom dying is just beyond me,” Jackson told the Post. “We’re still struggling to come to terms with it and probably never will. This has just brought the whole experience of last summer crashing about us.”

Smail Ayad, a 29 year old from France, was charged with the murders. During the attack, he allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” the Guardian reported. But he also rambled incoherently and stabbed a dog.

At the time of the attack, Ayliffe wrote that Ayad was “not an Islamic fundamentalist,” adding he has “never set foot in a mosque.”

The White House on Monday released a list of terrorist attacks spanning from September 2014 to December 2016, which included 78 attacks planned or carried out by followers of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria both at home and abroad. The White House said “most” of the attacks on the list hadn’t received adequate coverage.

“Our children’s deaths were ugly, and brutal, and must have been utterly terrifying, and I find my mind attempting to recreate those events on a regular basis,” Ayliffe wrote Tuesday in a draft of an essay she shared with the Post.

“If I can find the strength to do this, surely some White House minion with a list to compile could take the trouble to get his facts right.”

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