U.S. Senate honors Plainfield Muslim child who was killed in stabbing last year

The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution honoring a Muslim child who was stabbed to death in Plainfield Township a few weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of his killing.

The resolution approved Tuesday honored Wadee Alfayoumi, 6, as someone who was “murdered as a victim of a hate crime.” In a statement, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said the child and his mother were “violently attacked for no apparent reason other than their religion and their ethnicity.”

“By passing this resolution, the United States Senate is honoring and remembering Wadee’s life and condemning all forms of hate,” Durbin said.

Joseph Czuba, 72, has been charged in the Oct. 14, 2023, incident with the first-degree murder of Wadee and attempted first-degree murder of his mother, Hanan Shaheen. Czuba was the landlord of the Plainfield Township residence where the attack occurred, police and prosecutors have said.

Czuba also has been charged with committing a hate crime against the mother and child on the basis of their Islamic faith.

Czuba has not been convicted of the charges. His case is set for a jury trial Feb. 24, 2025. Czuba’s attorney, George Lenard, has notified prosecutors in a court filing that Czuba “intends to rely on the presumption of innocence” at the trial.

Czuba was not named in the Senate resolution, but the document indirectly referenced him as the “hate-driven perpetrator” who stabbed Wadee 26 times.

Although the Senate passed a resolution honoring Wadee, the status of the federal hate crime investigation into the incident still remains unknown.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the investigation last year, and federal law enforcement officials have declined to reveal its progress.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, said Wadee was a “beautiful boy who brought so much joy and light to our community in Plainfield.”

“He deserved to live a full and happy life. Instead, he was killed in a brutal attack driven by bigotry and bias,” Underwood said.

The Senate resolution said it is the duty of elected officials and the media to “tell the truth without dehumanizing rhetoric” when informing the public of “factual information.”

The resolution recognized that freedom of speech and peaceful protests are “constitutionally protected and a fundamental cornerstone of democracy.”

“The [U.S.] has zero tolerance for hate crimes, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab discrimination,” according to the Senate resolution.

The Senate resolution said there is evidence that the “perpetrator” yelled, “All Muslims must die and your people must die” during the killing and consumed “media containing dehumanizing and hateful rhetoric that is anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian.”

“[Dehumanizing] misinformation and disinformation fuel sentiments of hate that result in violence against those who belong or who are perceived to belong to a certain ethnic or religious group,” according to the Senate resolution.