(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The mother of slain British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung has said she has no desire to meet her alleged killer, while decrying the “nonsense” in public discussion linking the tragedy to Islamic fundamentalism.
Rosie Ayliffe, writing for UK newspaper the Independent about her daughter’s death at an Australian backpackers’ hostel last week, said the alleged murderer, the French national Smail Ayad, had “never set foot in a mosque”.
Queensland police separately confirmed there was still no evidence that Ayad – who has also been charged with the attempted murder of Briton Tom Jackson in an alleged stabbing spree at the hostel in Home Hill, north Queensland – was even a practising Muslim.
yliffe said that “much nonsense is being spoken in the press about [my daughter’s] alleged killer”, who was “not an Islamic fundamentalist, he has never set foot in a mosque”.
Supt Ray Rohweder, of Queensland police, said it was unlikely that investigators would ever be able to rule out Ayad having attended a mosque but “we certainly found nothing – no Koran, nothing of a religious nature – to suggest he was a practising Muslim”.
“You would think [if he were, there would be] a Koran or a prayer mat, or something like that, but there was nothing of that nature,” Rohweder told the Guardian. “We are conducting inquiries overseas but there is nothing to suggest he’s a practising Muslim.”
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