Vigil held for 6-year-old Palestinian boy killed in alleged hate crime in Plainfield

Sunday after sunset, on a patch of grass near the Bath and Tennis Club in Oak Brook, a crowd gathered with candles in the dark. The quiet of the night was punctuated with the chirping of crickets.

The vigil for Wadea al-Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian boy who was stabbed to death in an alleged hate crime in unincorporated Plainfield Township a week earlier, was a silent one — organized with no political objective in mind. A poster board showed images of the boy, with some messages displayed. “Kids are innocent!” one read.

”Let’s pray that we all take a moment, every day, at least 20 minutes, to learn more about our neighbors,” said event organizer Sakeena Mirza. “Love is more important than hate. It shouldn’t take a child’s — a 6-year-old’s — murder to bring us together.”

Earlier Sunday, the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Hanaan Shahin, the 32-year-old mother of the boy, had been released from the hospital.

Shahin, 32, was transported to a local hospital in serious condition after her landlord stabbed her more than a dozen times in an Oct. 14 attack. Her son was transported to Ascension St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Joliet in critical condition, where he died, according to the Will County coroner’s office.

Shahin was released from the hospital Thursday, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Will County prosecutors said the mother and son’s landlord, Joseph Czuba, became “heavily interested” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas after regularly listening to conservative talk radio. Authorities said Czuba told Shahin, who is Palestinian and Muslim, that he was angry at her about the war, later stabbing her and her son with a large, military-style knife at their home in the 16200 block of South Lincoln Highway. Shahin was left bleeding profusely from the face.

Czuba, 71, is detained on charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder and hate crime. Federal authorities, including the FBI and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, have also launched investigations into the attack. Leaders in the Muslim and Palestinian communities have criticized public officials and the media for fueling anti-Palestinian sentiment.

“We need to take collective responsibility for how we, as a civilized democratic nation, can engage in a complex conversation about a complex issue and not erase Palestinian lives, not erase Palestinian victimhood, not erase the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, said last week.

Hundreds of mourners showed up to Wadea’s funeral last week, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. His father described the boy as someone who “loved everything and loved everybody.” He enjoyed playing basketball, soccer and coloring, he said. Shahin wasn’t able to attend the funeral because of her injuries.

Shahin moved to the United States about a decade ago from the city of Beitunia in Palestine’s West Bank, fleeing conflict in the Middle East. A fundraiser to help pay for funeral expenses, hospital expenses and housing assistance for Shahin has raised more than $600,000.

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