Illinois Man Convicted of Hate Crime Murdering Palestinian-American Boy | US News

An Illinois man has been convicted of murder for fatally stabbing a six-year-old boy 26 times in an incident that prosecutors allege was motivated by anti-Muslim animosity.

Wadee al Fayoume, a Palestinian-American, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital after he was assaulted with a “military-style” knife on October 16, 2023.

The tragedy—perpetrated by 73-year-old Joseph Czuba—occurred shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and marked one of the earliest and most devastating hate crimes in the U.S. since the onset of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

His mother, Hanan Shaheen, was also critically injured during the attack.

Czuba, who served as the landlord for Ms. Shaheen and her son, used a 7-inch (18 cm) serrated knife during the assault.

During the trial, Ms. Shaheen recounted that Czuba had ominously told her, “You, as a Muslim, must die.”

A 911 call played in court captured Ms. Shaheen saying, “The landlord is killing me and my baby.”

Czuba’s ex-wife, Mary Connor, testified that in the week leading up to the stabbings, Czuba had expressed extreme anger about the war between Israel and Hamas. Prior to this, she noted that he had maintained a good relationship with Ms. Shaheen, whom she regarded as a friend and a reliable tenant.

“Hanan needs to move because her friends could come and do us harm,” Ms. Connor recounted Czuba expressing in the wake of the October 7 incident.

Ms. Connor mentioned that they should respect Ms. Shaheen’s lease and allow her a 30-day notice to relocate.

She also said Czuba spoke of an impending “day of jihad” and withdrew $1,000 from his bank account due to fears of a failing banking system in the U.S.

Jury took just over an hour to deliberate

Ms. Shaheen testified that Czuba began making derogatory remarks about Muslims, accusing her people of killing Jewish individuals and infants, insisting that she needed to leave the premises.

Days later, he forced his way into her residence, restrained her, and assaulted her with a knife while attempting to inflict additional harm, as reported by Sky’s U.S. affiliate, NBC News.

Ms. Shaheen fought back, grabbing the knife and managing to wound Czuba before he reclaimed it. She subsequently went to the bathroom to contact the police while Czuba turned his attention to Wade, who had just celebrated his birthday.

She recalled hearing him shout, “Oh no, stop!”

She locked the door and waited in the bathroom until the police arrived outside.

Czuba had entered a pleading of not guilty and opted not to testify during the trial. The jury deliberated for slightly over an hour before arriving at a guilty verdict.

A tragic loss

Wadee’s father, Odai Alfayoumi, expressed mixed feelings after the verdict, stating, “I don’t know whether to feel pleased or upset, whether to cry or laugh.”

“People are telling me to smile. Perhaps if I were one of you, I would smile. But I am the father of a child who has been lost.”

He added, “I hope this loss, this senseless tragedy, serves as the last we experience, that no child should undergo what my beloved little Wadee endured.”

Civil rights activists have raised concerns regarding the surge of both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the U.S. since October 2023.

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Additional alarming incidents include an attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian toddler in Texas, the stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, and a violent attack on pro-Palestinian demonstrators in California.

Incidents raising concerns over anti-Semitism include violence threats against Jewish individuals at Cornell University, which led to convictions and sentences; an unsuccessful plot targeting a New York Jewish center; and assaults against a Jewish man in Michigan, a rabbi in Maryland, and two Jewish students in Chicago.