6-year-old Palestinian American boy stabbed to death by Chicago man for being Muslim

A landlord in Chicago, Illinois, has been arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes after he stabbed and killed a six-year-old Palestinian-American and seriously wounded his mother, allegedly over his tenants’ Muslim faith. Hanaan Shahin and her son Wadea Al-Fayoume had lived on the ground floor of the house for two years with no previous notable issues with the landlord.

Joseph M. Czuba, 71, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to a statement by the Will County Sheriff’s Office.

“The forensic pathologist conducting the autopsy removed the knife from the abdomen of the boy at that time. The six-year-old boy was stabbed twenty-six (26) times throughout his body.  The knife used in this attack is a twelve-inch serrated military style knife that has a seven-inch blade,” the statement said.

Wadea’s mother had over a dozen stab wounds on her body and remained hospitalised yesterday but was expected to survive.

The criminal 😑 pic.twitter.com/cqY1P568L3

— ‏ SMAYRA NEWS🕸️ (@SARASMAYRA1) October 15, 2023

Although Czuba provided no statement to detectives, they were able to deduce that “both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”

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The Chicago chapter of the country’s leading Muslim civil rights group CAIR has attributed the brutal murder and attacks to “one-sided political statements & media reporting” which it says has led to an “atmosphere of de-humanisation.”

A press release by the organisation revealed that text messages reportedly sent to the father of the boy by the mother from the hospital mentioned that the Czuba who had been angry with what he was seeing in the news knocked on their door, before choking her and proceeded to attack her with a knife, yelling “you Muslims must die!”

When she ran into the bathroom to call 911, she came out to find that he had stabbed her six-year-old son to death.

Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago executive director, said: “Our hearts are heavy, and our prayers are with the darling boy and his mother.”

“As we await the official investigation of the local authorities, what we can confirm at the moment is that we have a murdered child in his own home, a six-year who had just celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago, and a mother lying in the hospital in serious condition, both stabbed over a dozen times.”

“And we have testimony from the mother as to the harrowing moments that unfolded in terms of what was done and said – and it is our worst nightmare,” he added.

After spending a week stoking the flames, Biden feigns shock at the damage caused by the blaze https://t.co/Yg9zYCPxMr

— Petty Is Praxis (@rtyson82) October 16, 2023

The White House has released a press release regarding the tragic murder. Yet several observers found the statement to be insincere and hypocritical, particularly in light of the Biden administration’s clear pro-Israel stance in the ongoing war on Gaza.

This stance includes continued political and military support for the occupying state, even as it engages in actions widely condemned as war crimes, leading to accusations of a potential genocide in the besieged enclave.

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