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The excuse that lone-wolf terrorists who stab at random someone unknown to them in the streets while yelling “Allahu akbar” is suffering from mental illness would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Catholics, Baptists or Lutherans who might attack a stranger while suffering a psychotic episode, do not yell out “Praise be Jesus Christ”. It is time our government and security forces acknowledged that Islamism is the motivating factor in terrorism whether by a lone wolf or a cell. We cannot solve a problem until we clearly identify the cause.

Babette Francis, Toorak, Vic

I note that the PM and the Grand Mufti condemn the ideology that inspired the terror attack at the weekend. How many more such events do we need before the PM and the Grand Mufti accept that such events are not the result of an ideology of hate, but simply a working out of the precepts set out in the Koran. The 1400-year history of Islam should be sufficient proof that the Koran is a dangerous document to be freely available in a secular democracy. If Muslims want to show their allegiance to Australia, the best way to do so would be to reject the Koran and change their lives.

Jim Campbell, Dee Why, NSW

Could the media, politicians and security experts stop calling terrorists lone wolves. The wolf is a highly intelligent, social and brave animal.

“Lone wolf” terrorists hunt alone and take on the defenceless while they are going about their daily business. “Lone wolves” are nothing more than deluded cowards.

Peter R. Tredenick, Paddington, Qld

Senate is the obstacle

Phillip Hudson writes of the Prime Minister as one who lacks policy purpose, “is not winning the propaganda war”, and seems reluctant to follow Peter Costello’s wisdom of small government and lower taxes as the pathway to prosperity (“One year on, what is the point of Turnbull as PM?”, 12/9). And, editorially, you eloquently pursue a consistent advocacy of economic reform (“Economic reform must take centre stage this week”, 12/9).

Yet both fail to sufficiently note the obvious — a Senate that has been allowed to assume powers beyond those intended by our constitutional founders. Given its dominance by Labor-Greens, aided and abetted by crossbench populist purveyors of irresponsibility, no Coalition government, even one led by a leader with the wisdom of a Solomon and the oratorical powers of a Cicero, stands a chance of enacting the worthwhile reform that a recession may achieve.

John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld