(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Plainfield, Illinois man is due in court today on hate crime and murder charges over Saturday’s stabbing death of a 6-year-old Muslim boy, an attack in which the boy’s mother was hospitalized.
Joseph Czuba, 71, allegedly attacked Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother Hanaan Shahin because they are Muslim, the Will County Sheriff’s office said. Local Muslim leaders said the 32-year-old woman told them Czuba — who was her landlord — shouted “you Muslims must die” before he attacked them with a knife.
An autopsy revealed the boy was stabbed 26 times.
Neighbor Eva Case spoke to CBS 2.
“That’s just awful,” she said. “It’s sickening. I can’t even imagine anybody could do that to a child.”
Wadea will be buried Monday, only days after his sixth birthday.
State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, the first Palestinian American to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives, was among those who spoke up following the killing.
“We need to understand and internalize that the killing of this 6-year-old boy … the attempted murder of his mom, was directly connected to what’s happening in Israel and Palestine,” he said.
In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and the first lady were “shocked and sickened” after hearing news of the attack. He said they join everyone at the White House in sending condolences and prayers to the family “and to the broader Palestinian, Arab and Muslim American communities.”
Wadea’s uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“We are not animals,” said Hannon, a Palestinian American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999. “We are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are.”
In response to the increased threats, the Illinois State Police said it is communicating with federal law enforcement and reaching out to Muslim communities and religious leaders to offer support, according to a Sunday press release from Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“To take a 6-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil,” Pritzker said. “Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son. This wasn’t just a murder — it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.”
The Chicago field office of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are investigating the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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