In a rare Oval Office speech to the nation Thursday evening, President Biden addressed the death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old who was killed Oct. 14 after being stabbed 26 times because he was Muslim. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32, was also stabbed more than a dozen times and is currently recovering.
“His name was Wadea,” Biden said in his speech. “Wadea — a proud American, a proud Palestinian American family.”
The president went on to denounce Islamophobia and antisemitism, urging Americans to reject “all forms of hate.”
Joseph Czuba, the landlord and alleged attacker, was charged with first degree and attempted first degree murder, two hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
In texts to the boy’s father, Wadea’s mother said the landlord attempted to choke her and attack her with a knife, yelling, “you Muslims must die,” according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“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.
In another statement, president of the Muslim Student Union at USC Hafeez Mir wrote that the incident last Saturday represents “the grave threat to the safety of Arabs, Muslims, women and children—whether at home like Wadea, on campuses like USC, and anywhere in between where the innocent become targets.”
In the past week, there have been multiple reports across the country detailing a rise in both antisemitism and Islamophobia in relation to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a statement strongly condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia in New York after recent reports of increased acts of hate and discrimination, saying the state had “zero tolerance” for any form of hate.
Sarra Hussein, a Muslim junior at USC, said the incident was “heartbreaking” but not surprising, as she described noticing an uptick in Islamophobic sentiment on social media the week of Wadea’s death.
“I hope that this serves as a reminder or a warning of how dangerous this rhetoric is, and how seriously it needs to be taken,” she said.
Wadea had celebrated his sixth birthday just eight days before he was killed. In a picture circulating X, formerly known as Twitter, the kindergartener is seen standing wearing a sparkly blue birthday hat, his gift bag next to him and a remix rendition of “Happy Birthday” playing on the TV behind him.
We are shocked and disturbed to learn that a landlord in Chicago expressing anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian views broke into a Muslim family's apartment and attacked them with a knife, injuring the mother and killing her 6-year-old son, Wadea Al-Fayoume. @cairchicago will hold a… pic.twitter.com/N0ILuevq4n
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) October 15, 2023
“He loved everything and everybody—from his toys to basketball, to his friends and family,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the CAIR-Chicago, said in a news conference on Sunday.
“He was looking forward to a long and healthy prosperous life,” he added. “He has no clue about these larger issues happening in the world, but he was made to pay for it.”
Both loved ones and strangers gathered last Monday in Plainfield, Illinois for Wadea’s funeral. His mother’s injuries prevented her from being able to attend, according to Rehab.
As the community continues to mourn, Biden has announced $100 million in aid to Palestinians after he visited Israel Wednesday to stand in “solidarity in the face of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack,” according to a tweet. During the visit, Israel agreed for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza after it was blocked.
In his Oval Office appearance Thursday, Biden also addressed the nation on the United States’ response to Hamas’ attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine. On Friday, the president requested $106 billion in military aid for Israel, Ukraine and Gaza, which is yet to be approved by Congress.
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the last two weeks after Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than 1,400 people.
Wadea and his family were from the West Bank. According to the White House, the family had come to America “seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace.”
A Jewish junior at USC, who was granted anonymity for her safety, said the hate crime is “extremely disheartening.”
“Honestly, it reminds me of thousands of instances that occurred after 9/11, in which people were blamed for things that they weren’t responsible for,” she said.
She vocalized her hope for communities to come together at this time.
“The best thing that could come out of this is if people on both sides understood that a lot of [the] pain, a lot of the anxiety and uncertainty that they’re feeling is the same exact pain on both sides,” she added.