US President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the deadly stabbing attack against a six-year-old Muslim boy, which police have linked to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said in a statement.
On Sunday, a US landlord was charged with murder and hate crime after stabbing a woman and her son dozens of times. The police said both victims were targeted by 71-year-old Joseph Czuba due to their faith. “As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone,” Biden said.
This incident comes as US cities are on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments. Jewish and Muslim groups have reported an increase in threatening rhetoric on social media. Murder suspect Czuba stabbed the boy 26 times, and the child later succumbed to his injuries. However, the 32-year-old woman is expected to survive the “heinous” Saturday attack, according to a statement from the Will County sheriff’s office in Illinois.
The police said the woman managed to call 911 as she fought off the landlord, Joseph Czuba. Though the police did not give details about the victims’ nationality, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group described the child as Palestinian-American. “Deputies located two victims inside the residence in a bedroom. Both victims had multiple stab wounds to their chest, torso, and upper extremities,” the sheriff’s statement said. A serrated military-style knife with a seven-inch blade was reportedly pulled from the boy’s abdomen during the autopsy.
“He knocked on the door and attempted to choke her, and said, ‘you Muslims’ must die,” Ahmed Rehab, head of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told reporters, citing text messages sent by the woman to the murdered boy’s father from her hospital bed. The attack was “our worst nightmare,” the CAIR said in a statement.