On coverage of the Flinders Street attack

Foad Munir writes: Re. “Flinders Street attack begets online racist hatred, which tabloids feed on” (December 22)

Since the recent car attack in Melbourne, right-wing media have been annoyed that the Police and the authorities didn’t call it a terrorist attack. These calls are made despite the guy having a history of mental illness, drug abuse and having no links to any terrorist organization. It seems that if you are a person of colour, different rules apply to you. Every day a new article is written against Islam and how the Muslim community doesn’t report these terrorists or denounce terrorism.

On the other hand, Matthew Riehl, who killed a cop and injured 4 others shared white Supremacist memes and views on his Facebook page and, yet no one reported him or stopped him from committing such a heinous act. No one called it a terrorist attack despite him following the ideology of white supremacy. ‪Why are we not looking into the online radicalization of young white men? How many more people would have to die before we address this epidemic?