By Brendan O’Brien
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A funeral service and burial will be held for a six-year-old Muslim boy on Monday in a Chicago suburb after he was stabbed to death over the weekend by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian Americans.
Services for the boy, identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume, are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Illinois, southwest of Chicago, according to a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“This is a heavy day that we hoped would never come. As they say, the smallest coffins are the heaviest,” said Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago executive director, said in the statement.
The funeral will be held in a community known as “Little Palestine” for its heavy concentration of Palestinian Americans.
The killing comes amid a fresh Middle East crisis, following a brutal attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians a week ago and subsequent retaliation by Israel in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The conflict has put Jewish and Palestinian Muslim communities in the United States on edge and fearful of a potential backlash against them.
The six-year-old and his mother – identified as 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin – were attacked by their landlord on Saturday in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago. The boy was stabbed 26 times while his mother suffered multiple wounds. She was expected to survive.
The suspect, Joseph Czuba, 71, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, Will County Sheriff’s Office said.
“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland late on Sunday said the U.S. Justice Department would open a federal hate-crime investigation into the attack.
“This incident cannot help but further raise the fears of Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities in our country with regard to hate-fueled violence,” the statement read. “No one in the United States of America should have to live in fear of violence because of how they worship or where they or their family come from.”
Before the stabbings, there were no notable issues or known conflicts between Czuba and the family, CAIR said. According to the organization, Czuba yelled, “You Muslims must die,” during the attack.
Reuters could not identify an attorney for Czuba. He was in the Will County jail awaiting his initial court appearance, the sheriff’s office said.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
