Community members pray throughout a funeral service for 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume on the Mosque Foundation on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, in Bridgeview, Ill.

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Community members pray throughout a funeral service for 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume on the Mosque Foundation on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, in Bridgeview, Ill.

Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images

Mourners gathered outdoors Chicago on Monday for the funeral of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed to demise in his residence late final week in an obvious anti-Muslim hate crime.

Authorities say the household’s landlord Joseph M. Czuba, 71, attacked Wadea and his mom as a result of they had been Muslim. Illinois prosecutors have charged Czuba with hate crimes and different offenses.

Wadea’s mom, 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin, was severely wounded within the Saturday morning assault in unincorporated Plainfield Township however is predicted to outlive.

A prayer service was held at a Bridgeview, Ill., mosque Monday afternoon, drawing dozens of mourners, a few of whom waved Palestinian flags, WBEZ’s Anna Savchenko reported.

Muslim religion leaders who addressed the group decried what they thought-about the biased information protection of the Israel-Hamas warfare, Savchenko famous, and condemned the stabbing as an assault on all Muslims.

“When this individual said, ‘You Muslims must die,’ this was a message not to the boy and the mother,” Ahmed Rehab, government director of the Chicago workplace of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a news conference. “This was to all of us. We were all stabbed that day.”

Rehab additionally stated Wadea’s mother and father hadn’t suspected earlier than the assault that Czuba would grow to be violent.

“The father says that [Czuba] had built a treehouse for the boy and allowed him to swim in a makeshift pool and brought him toys, but it wasn’t until he started watching the news and hearing the statements that something changed,” Rehab added.

The stabbing got here one week into the bloody warfare between Israel and Hamas, with U.S. officers warning that the battle 1000’s of miles away could lead to increased threats towards Jews and Muslims at residence.

Wadea’s killing drew widespread condemnation from elected officers, from President Joe Biden and first woman Jill Biden to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who attended the funeral.

“As governor of Illinois, I condemn bigotry and violence. I won’t be silent in the face of this evil in any form,” Pritzker said.

The suspect makes his first look in courtroom

Also on Monday, Czuba made his first look in Will County courtroom, the place he was learn the eight felony counts he faces, together with homicide, aggravated battery and hate crimes prices.

A choose ordered that Czuba stay behind bars. His subsequent courtroom look is a preliminary listening to scheduled for Oct. 30.

Neither the Will County state’s lawyer nor the Will County public defender’s workplace responded to NPR’s request for remark.

Prosecutors on the listening to stated Czuba had been listening to information in regards to the warfare between Israel and Hamas on conservative discuss radio and grew more and more nervous about his security, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Czuba’s spouse reportedly instructed investigators that her husband believed Shahin was “going to call Palestinian friends to come and harm them,” the outlet reported.

The Justice Department has additionally opened a federal hate crimes investigation into the assault.