The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the country's largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, condemned the stabbing to death of a six-year-old boy at the hands of his landlord, who also attacked his mother, under an anti-Muslim discourse.
The attacker goes by the name of Joseph Czuba, 71, and was accused of the first-degree murder of little Wadea Al-Fayoume, whom he stabbed 26 times with a military-type knife, and later died in the hospital. Just two weeks ago, the little one had had his birthday.
The little boy was not the only one attacked, as his mother, Hanaan Shahin, also received a dozen stab wounds that seriously injured her, but is expected to survive.
Czuba attacked his tenants in their home in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, because of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
The mother, Hanaan Shahin, and her son Wadea Al-Fayoume, had lived on the ground floor of the house for two years with no previous notable problems with the landlord, said Joseph Czuba, 71.
According to written text messages sent to the child's father by the mother from the hospital and shared with CAIR-Chicago, the homeowner who had become angry about what he was seeing on the news, knocked on her door, and when she answered it, he tried strangle her and proceeded to attack her with a knife, shouting “you Muslims must die!”
When she ran to the bathroom to call 911, she came out and discovered that he had stabbed her six-year-old son to death. “Everything happened in seconds,” he texted.
President Joseph Biden stressed that "This horrible act of hate has no place in the United States, and goes against our fundamental values: freedom without fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are."
The president assured that both he and his wife, Jill Biden, are "shocked and disgusted to learn of the brutal murder of a six-year-old boy and the attempted murder of his mother in their home yesterday in Illinois."
"The boy's Palestinian Muslim family came to the United States seeking what we all seek: a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace," President Biden said in a statement. ?As Americans, we must unite and reject Islamophobia and all forms of intolerance and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. In the United States there is no place for hatred against anyone?
The president extended his condolences and prayers to the family, as well as for the mother's recovery, and to the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim American communities in general.
Joseph Czuba has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
“Our hearts are heavy and our prayers are with the beloved boy and his mother,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. “Is it our worst nightmare?”
“We have every confidence that the authorities will investigate this heinous incident as a hate crime and will do so quickly,” Rehab noted.
He added that, ?The [unilateral] statements issued by public officials and one-sided media reporting have [helped] create [an] unequal atmosphere in which members of our community are essentially easy targets.?
This, he noted, "is doubly worrying, because we had come to believe that we had learned the hard lessons of the darkest days of frivolous Islamophobia in the years after 9/11, where the lack of balanced leadership from our elected leaders and the reports “Irresponsible and biased media actions directly contributed to hanging our communities in the open.”
Rehab called for balanced media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
“This unthinkable and senseless crime did not occur in a vacuum,” Rehab warned again.
This Monday the funeral and burial of little Wadea Al-Fayoume took place.
Prayers were held at the Mosque Foundation, located at 7360 W 93rd St, Bridgeview, Illinois, while burial was at Parkholm Cemetery, LaGrange.
The Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council condemned the tragedy.
?We unequivocally condemn this abhorrent act of terrorism that resulted in the tragic murder of a six-year-old Muslim boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume. Hate, prejudice and violence have no place in our society and are an affront to our fundamental values?, he specified through his X account.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, ayou administeredred by the CaliFornia State Library.
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