By Brad Brooks and Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – An Illinois jury on Friday found a man guilty of murder and hate crime charges for an October 2023 stabbing that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy and severely wounded his mother, according to court documents.
Joseph Czuba, 73, faces life in prison when he is sentenced in May for a murder that prosecutors said was sparked by anti-Muslim hatred. It took place just days after Hamas carried out an October 7, 2023 attack inside of Israel.
The murder of the boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, and the attack on his mother, Hanan Shaheen, was one of the earliest and worst hate crime incidents targeting Muslims in the U.S. after the Hamas attack on Israel.
Rights advocates have noted rising Islamophobia and antisemitism in the U.S. since that attack.
Czuba, who was the landlord for Shaheen and her son, stabbed the boy 26 times with a military-style knife with a 7-inch (18-cm) serrated blade, authorities said. Shaheen suffered multiple stab wounds in the attack that occurred in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago.
During the trial this week, Shaheen testified that Czuba told her “you, as a Muslim, must die,” according to local media reports.
Michael Fitzgerald, prosecutor at Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, presented a 911 call’s recording in the trial.
“The landlord is killing me and my baby,” Shaheen is heard saying on the audio, according to CBS Chicago.
Other U.S. incidents raising alarm over anti-Arab bias include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, among others.
A few incidents raising alarm over antisemitism include threats of violence against Jews at Cornell University that led to a conviction and sentencing and an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish center.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by David Gregorio)
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