THE NEW YORK TIMES Suburban authorities Chicago accused a man of stabbing and killing a 6yearold boy and seriously injuring the boy’s mother on Saturday the 14th because they were Muslim, in an attack allegedly related to violence Israel is at Gaza.
The killing in Illinois alarmed Muslim leaders, who called on American politicians and journalists to better express the humanity of the Palestinian people when addressing the conflict abroad.
“This is directly related to the dehumanization of Palestinians,” said Abdelnasser Rashid, a Democratic state representative from Illinois who is of PalestinianAmerican descent.
Investigators in Will County, Illinois, southwest of Chicago, described a bloody scene. They said a 71yearold man attacked the boy and his mother, who were his tenants, at their Plainfield Township home Saturday morning, stabbing them repeatedly with a serrated knife with a 7inch blade.
The boy, identified by a family member and the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations as Wadea AlFayoume, was stabbed 26 times and pronounced dead at a hospital. The boy’s 32yearold mother was in serious condition and had more than a dozen stab wounds. Authorities said she ran into a bathroom and continued to fight her attacker while calling 911. Relatives said the family was of PalestinianAmerican descent.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, condemned the stabbing and death of a boy. Photo: Jim Vondruska/Chicago SunTimes via AP
The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Sunday that “investigators were able to determine that both victims of this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect because they are Muslims and because of a conflict in the Middle East between Hamas and the Israelis ongoing.” The statement did not elaborate on how investigators knew the motive, but said they had conducted interviews and reviewed other evidence.
The man accused in the attack, 71yearold Joseph M. Czuba, was arrested on charges of murder, attempted murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Czuba is scheduled to make his first appearance in Will County Court on Monday. It was unclear whether he had hired a lawyer.
Saturday’s attack came amid increasing violence between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip. On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack against Israel, killing more than 1,300 Israelis. According to local officials, this triggered a violent retaliation that killed 2,670 people in Gaza. Across the Middle East, fears of greater conflict and a worsening humanitarian crisis are growing.
The Chicago suburb has a large PalestinianAmerican community, including a neighborhood with many Arab restaurants and shops that some call Little Palestine. The attack occurred in another part of the Chicago suburbs, at a home on a busy stretch of highway, near a Chevrolet dealership and a steakhouse.
This property, about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, was decorated with several American flags, an advertisement for organic honey and a sign urging people to pray for an end to abortion. Mariola Jagodzinski, who lives two doors away, said she never had any negative interactions with the suspect. She said she gave toys to the mother of Wadea, the sixyearold boy, and was speechless and distraught when she found out about the murder.
“He was a playful kid — really full of energy,” Jagodzinski said. “Children are innocent. It really breaks a lot of hearts.”
On Sunday, the Chicago office of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, the Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, condemned the stabbing, calling it “our worst nightmare.” “Our hearts are heavy and our prayers are with the dear boy and his mother,” Ahmed Rehab, the board’s executive director, said in a statement.
Authorities have not confirmed the names of the victims. Illinois State Police said in a statement Sunday that it was coordinating with other agencies “to respond to the increased level of threats of violence and hate crimes related to the current conflict.”
“Everyone in Illinois both law enforcement and community members must remain vigilant for terrorism and hate crimes during this time of volatility,” said State Police Director Brendan Kelly.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a statement that “taking the life of a sixyearold child in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil.” “Wadea should go to school tomorrow morning,” the governor said. “Instead, his parents will wake up without their son.”
Council authorities said they had analyzed text messages written in Arabic that the boy’s mother sent to his father from the hospital. In those messages, they said, the mother indicated that the owner was upset about what he saw in the messages. The organization did not make the text messages available for analysis.
According to the report, the owner knocked on the family’s door and when the mother opened it, he tried to choke her, attacked her with a knife and shouted, “You Muslims must die!” as she ran to the bathroom to call 911 , according to the text message, she came out and found that the man had stabbed her son. “It all happened in a matter of seconds,” she wrote.