President Joe Biden expressed his shock and sorrow over the murder of the child and the attempted murder of his mother in their home in Illinois.
On Saturday, a 71-year-old man stabbed a 6-year-old boy to death and wounded his mother in a hate crime motivated by their Muslim faith and the war between Israel and Hamas, according to police.
The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace.
“This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said in a statement.
He also called on Americans to unite and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.
“I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone,” he said.
He offered his condolences and prayers to the family, including for the mother’s recovery, and to the broader Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim American communities.
The suspect, Joseph Czuba, was the landlord of the victims, who lived on the ground floor of his home in Plainfield Township, Ill.
On Saturday morning, he allegedly knocked on their door and attacked them with a large military-style knife, shouting, “You Muslims must die!” at them, as the boy’s father learned from text messages.
The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian-American who had recently celebrated his sixth birthday, died from 26 stab wounds, while his mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32, survived with more than a dozen stab wounds. She was in critical condition but expected to recover.
Will County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene and found Czuba sitting in front of the home with a cut on his forehead. He was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment.
“Detectives were able to determine 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,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago chapter (CAIR-Chicago) condemned the violence and said it was part of a disturbing increase in hate crimes against Muslims after Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war.