2023-10-17 19:09:24
US President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the murder of a six-year-old Muslim boy who was stabbed near Chicago, denouncing a “horrific act of hatred”, linked according to police to the war between Israel and Hamas.
The child, who received 26 stab wounds on Saturday, died in hospital. His 32-year-old mother is expected to survive, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois (northeast), which described the attack as “heinous.”
“Investigators were able to determine that the two victims of this violent attack were targeted by the suspect because they are Muslim and because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving Hamas and the Israelis,” said the statement, which said the killing took place about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Chicago.
In a statement released on Sunday, Mr. Biden confirmed that the woman was the boy’s mother and claimed that their “Palestinian Muslim family came to America to seek what we all seek: a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace.”
“This horrific act of hatred has no place in America and goes against our core values: the freedom to worship without fear, the freedom to believe, and the freedom to be,” added the American president.
The mother managed to call 911 while fighting off her attacker, Joseph Czuba, 71, according to the sheriff’s office.
During the autopsy, a serrated military knife with a 15 cm blade was removed from the child’s abdomen.
“Our worst nightmare”
When police arrived, they found Joseph Czuba sitting near the entrance to the residence where the attack took place, his forehead marked by a laceration. He was taken to hospital for treatment before being charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of hate crime.
“Deputies located the two victims inside the residence in a bedroom. Both victims had multiple stab wounds to the chest, torso and upper extremities,” specifies the sheriff’s press release.
The head of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab, told reporters that the assailant knocked on the victims’ doors and first tried to choke the woman, telling her: “You Muslims must die”, citing text messages sent by the woman to the murdered boy’s father from his hospital bed.
This attack is “our worst nightmare”underlined CAIR in a press release.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which has left thousands dead on both sides, mostly civilians, was triggered after a bloody and unprecedented attack launched on October 7 by Hamas against Israeli territory from the Strip. of Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
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