Sign up to our free US news bulletin sent straight to your inbox each weekday morningSign up to our free morning US email news bulletin<\/p>\n
A six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was fatally stabbed and his mother was wounded by their landlord in an anti-Muslim hate crime linked to the Israel-Hamas war, police in Illinois say.<\/p>\n
The boy, named by his father as Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times and his 32-year-old mother, Hanaan Shahin, more than 12 times in the shocking attack at a property in Plainfield Township, outside Chicago, on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cDetectives 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,\u201d Will County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n
On Sunday the boy\u2019s father confirmed that his son and his mother are Palestinian, according to TV station WLS.<\/p>\n
Authorities say that when deputies arrived at the scene they found Joseph Czuba sitting on the ground near the home. They responded to the address after the woman called 911 and said she was being attacked by her landlord.<\/p>\n
The victims were found inside a bedroom and investigators say that a military-style knife was found at the scene of the stabbing.<\/p>\n
Wadea Al-Fayoume stabbed to death outside Chicago in alleged anti-Muslim attack <\/p>\n
(CAIR-Chicago)<\/p>\n
They were both rushed to the hospital where the boy died and the mother remains in a serious condition but is expected to survive.<\/p>\n
The 71-year-old suspect has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated battery, and two counts of hate crime.<\/p>\n
The dead boy has been identified as being a Palestinian-American by the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation\u2019s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation.<\/p>\n
CAIR-Chicago claims that the mother sent the boy\u2019s father text messages, alleging that the suspect shouted \u201cYou Muslims must die\u201d ahead of the stabbing.<\/p>\n
The organisation called the incident \u201cour worst nightmare\u201d and says they have seen a spike in hate calls and emails since the violence in the Middle East broke out.<\/p>\n
Joseph Czuba has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated battery, and two counts of hate crime<\/p>\n
(Will County Sheriff)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have is a murdered Palestinian child, created by the radicalization,\u201d Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago told reporters on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knocked on the door and attempted to choke her, and said, \u2018You Muslims\u2019 must die. And, this was all in her own words,\u201d Mr Rehab said.<\/p>\n
The suspect was transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility and is awaiting his initial court appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoseph Czuba did not make any statements to detectives regarding his involvement in this heinous attack. Despite the suspect not providing a statement to detectives, personnel were able to gather enough information through interviews and evidence to formally charge Joseph Czuba with numerous criminal offenses,\u201d Will County Sheriff\u2019s Office added in its statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Will County Sheriff\u2019s Office would like to thank the Will County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office for their assistance in working with detectives regarding Joseph Czuba being formally charged in this senseless and cowardly act of violence. <\/p>\n
Neighbours said that the suspect regularly had political signs outside his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always had signs around times of elections and that were pretty angry about what was going on politically and locally here,\u201d Jim Stein told CBS News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free US news bulletin sent straight to your inbox each weekday morningSign up to our free morning US email news bulletin A six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was fatally stabbed and his mother was wounded by their landlord in an anti-Muslim hate crime linked to the Israel-Hamas war, police in Illinois say. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n