Illinois landlord convicted of murder in stabbing of 6-year-old Palestinian boy

An Illinois landlord who stabbed his tenant’s 6-year-old son to death in October 2023 was found guilty of murder and hate crime charges on Friday.

On October 14, 2023, Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old Illinois Islamophobe in Will County, stabbed Wadee Alfayoumi 26 times a few days after Hamas’s retaliatory operation al-Aqsa Flood against the Israeli regime.

Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning with the verdict.

The jury also found Czuba guilty of the attempted murder of Wadee’s mother, who was reportedly stabbed a dozen times right before her son was killed.

She managed to survive after weeks of treatment, only to live with the loss of her son.

The attack spiked fears over anti-Muslim discrimination in the earliest days of the war in Gaza.

The slain boy’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, said at the time that the Palestinian family had not previously had any issues in the two years they rented from the convict.

But the landlord’s attitude changed after the start of the war, telling her that they had to move because Muslims were not welcome.

“He told me, ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shahin, who testified in English and Arabic through a translator.

According to activists, Czuba targeted the family because of their Islamic faith and Palestinian ethnicity, driven by hatred fueled by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and related propaganda peddled by Western Media.

Civil rights groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, have welcomed the guilty verdict.

They called for an end to the anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate that fueled this tragic crime.

How Zionist lies, amplified by Biden, led to 6-year-old Muslim boy's murder in US

The gruesome murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy in the US state of Illinois by his landlord came days after CNN and Joe Biden peddled lies about Israeli children being "beheaded" by Hamas.

Ben Crump, the national civil rights attorney representing Shaheen, released a statement calling the verdict a “measure of justice.”

“Wadee was an innocent six-year-old child whose life was stolen in an act of unimaginable violence fueled by hatred,” the statement added.

“While we are relieved that his killer has been held accountable, we must continue to stand against the rising tide of hate that led to this senseless act. We must honor Wadee’s memory by continuing to fight against hate in all its forms and working toward a future where every child is safe, valued, and free from violence.”

Shaheen did not speak at a press conference following the jury decision. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-Chicago, said it was too difficult for her and added that she “only prays for peace and love.”

The boy’s father, Odai Alfayoumi, expressed mixed emotions about the verdict.

“People are telling me to smile. Maybe if I were one of you, I would be smiling, but I’m the father of a child, and I have lost my child. I feel like this decision came too little too late,” he said.

Czuba is scheduled for sentencing on May 2, according to the Will County Circuit Clerk’s office.

“All of us who are parents, who are Arab or Palestinian … who are Muslim, we all saw our children die in Wadee Alfayoumi, because this could have been any one of our boys, any one of our girls,” CAIR-Chicago’s Rehab said.

“It just so happened that it was Wadee Alfayoumi. When he was targeted, all of our children were targeted. Every Muslim was targeted when he (Czuba) yelled, ‘All Muslims must die.’”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir