Disgusted: A Muslim boy near my hometown of Chicago was stabbed because of hate | Opinion
A week ago Saturday, the Islamic armed group Hamas in Palestine attacked Israel in a horrific terror assault killing thousands.
This past Saturday, a Chicago-area landlord attacked a 6-year-old boy and his mother, killing the boy. Why? Police and relatives say it was because they are Muslim with family ties to Palestine.
Retribution? No. Murder, plain and simple.
The headline glared at me from the news app on my iPhone and the location startled me. Plainfield Township, Illinois, is 42 miles from my hometown of Chicago, under an hour away from the neighborhood I grew up in.
It’s not a large area, with a population of just over 80,000, and the crime occurred in an unincorporated area that is certainly smaller. The 2020 crime rate in nearby Plainfield (estimated population 46,243) was 5.2 times lower than the national average, according to the U.S. Census.
But statistical trends often don’t make sense with violent crimes, especially when hate is involved.
Not much is known about the attacker, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, other than he hated his victims because of their ethnicity and religion, and his anger was directly tied to the war in the Middle East, police said. He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, the Associated Press reported.
Kansas City Star opinion writers published two articles last week discussing whether to take sides in this war, and calling for peace. Many of you wrote that you were pleased to see multiple opinions represented.
But there is no excuse for killing a kid and injuring his mother, no matter where you stand on the war at this moment. And think about the intensity of the attack. Several media outlets have reported that the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed more than two dozen times. His mother was also stabbed multiple times and was hospitalized.
The boy’s uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke of humanity at a news conference Sunday reported by the AP. “We are not animals, we are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are.”
Hours before the attack in Illinois, 150 Palestinians were preaching the same message back home in Kansas City in a rally for Palestine. Some were members of the Kansas City-area organization, Al-Hadaf KC, and spoke to Star reporters giving only first names, for fear of retribution.
I personally have reached out to several in the Kansas City Palestinian community only to be told that there are many people eager to have their voices heard but terrified of the reprisal for doing so. I guess I don’t blame them, with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on X (formerly known as Twitter) calling for the Department of Justice to investigate pro-Palestinian student groups.
Tuesday night, Fatima Mohammadi, representing Al-Hadaf KC, messaged a statement to me via Facebook:
“The Kansas City Muslim community is horrified at the brutal murder of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Faouyme, and at the increase in hate crimes happening against Muslims, Arabs and other adjacent communities across the US. We acknowledge that they are a direct result of the hateful and misleading rhetoric being shared on all media platforms during the unbearable war on Gaza. Responsible and ethical journalism has never been more important as seemingly harmless language can result in dire outcomes like Wadea’s murder. We denounce all forms of unprovoked violence, especially against children, and hope that the entire Kansas City community does the same.”
And Wednesday on Instagram, the local group called for people to email or call the White House just before 2 p.m. to ask President Joe Biden to call for a cease-fire.
Kansas City gatherings representing Jewish and Palestinian communities last week were peaceful. I pray it stays that way. But I’m sad and disgusted about the attack that happened near the city where I grew up.
Yes, Hamas started this war. No doubt. It killed adults and children and terrorized the nation of Israel. And the group must return without delay the Israelis it kidnapped.
Both people believe the land they live on is sacred. Many questions linger, but perhaps this one is most important: Can a war over the sanctity of one’s homeland ever validate the killing of children, and future generations?
Let’s ask it a different way. Can this war validate the killing of innocent people thousands of miles away, in our neighborhoods, who have nothing to do with the violence? The answer has to be no.
This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Disgusted: A Muslim boy near my hometown of Chicago was stabbed because of hate | Opinion."
