Month: October 2023

A 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was killed in his Illinois home by his landlord, who has been charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly stabbing the boy to death because he was Muslim. The boy’s mother was also critically wounded the anti-Muslim hate crime, with police calling it a “senseless and cowardly act of violence.” The brutal killing comes amid heightened tensions in the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East and at a time when Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. are warning against hate toward their people stateside.

The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times at his Plainfield home by Joseph Czuba, 71, Saturday, investigators said. He died at the hospital. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32, was stabbed more than a dozen times; she is at a hospital and is expected to survive. When officers arrived at the scene, about 40 miles (64km) south-west of Chicago, they found Czuba sat on the ground outside the property with a cut to his face. He was taken to hospital for treatment before being questioned by detectives, and later charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, hate crimes and aggravated battery. The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release: “Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”

A funeral service and burial was held on Monday afternoon at the Mosque Foundation in the town of Bridgeview, Illinois which is sometimes referred to as “Little Palestine” because of its large Palestinian-American population. At the end of the funeral, a small white casket, which at one point was covered in the Palestinian flag, was carried away.

Thousands of Americans boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise ship on Monday in an attempt to aid in the evacuation of Israel, would take then take them to neighboring Cyprus. In Cyprus, American evacuees will be able to board commercial flights to take them the rest of the way home. The race to evacuate comes after Israeli military said they are preparing for an all-out ground assault on Gaza in retaliation for last week’s deadly attacks by Hamas that killed at least 1,400 people, including at least 29 Americans.

The US Embassy in Israel announced the evacuation plan, offering the 2,500 Americans and their immediate family members in Israel the opportunity to leave by sea. The cruise ship line Royal Caribbean offered aid in helping with evacuation efforts, after commercial airlines mostly stopped flying into Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Amid the escalating hostilities in the region, thousands of Americans, including infants and young children, headed to the port city of Haifa hoping to board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas. The passage from Haifa to Limassol Port in Cyprus was expected to take between 10 and 12 hours, with food and internet service available to passengers on board. According to embassy officials, boarding got underway at 8 a.m. local time and was available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The State Department also said that in addition to the ship, chartered flights from Israel will be available for American citizens through Tuesday.

Editorial credit: ATGImages / Shutterstock.com

Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry has won the Louisiana governor’s race, in a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry succeeds current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits. Landry, 52, garnered more than half of the votes and avoided an expected runoff under the state’s “jungle primary” system. The last time there wasn’t a gubernatorial runoff in Louisiana was in 2011 and 2007, when Bobby Jindal, a Republican, won the state’s top position.

Landry — who was backed by former President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep Steve Scalise — said during his victory speech: “Today’s election says that our state is united. It’s a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”. The governor-elect celebrated with supporters during a watch party in Broussard, Louisiana, and described the election as “historic.”

Landry has used his office to champion conservative policy positions, and repeatedly clashed with Edwards over matters in the state, including LGBTQ rights, state finances and the death penalty. He spent two years on Capitol Hill, beginning in 2011, where he represented Louisiana’s 3rd U.S. Congressional District. Prior to his political career, Landry served 11 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard, was a local police officer, sheriff’s deputy and attorney.

Landry has said that one of his top priorities as governor would be addressing crime in urban areas, pushing a ‘tough-on-crime’ rhetoric, calling for more “transparency” in the justice system and continuing to support capital punishment. Louisiana has the nation’s second-highest murder rate per capita.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters on a call Sunday that the agency has seen an increase in reported threats in the US in the wake of Hamas attack in Israel. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security both issued a public service announcement and a bulletin to law enforcement agencies last week, warning of possible threats related to the war abroad.

A senior FBI official said during the call that most threats have been deemed not credible by the agency, but Jewish and Muslim institutions have been targeted. The FBI official also noted that over the past week, the agency has seen an uptick in rhetoric targeting “Jewish people as well as Muslim institutions.” Wray said: “Here in the US, we cannot and do not discount the possibility thaat Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil.”

Wray said that FBI officials have also been meeting with leaders in Jewish and Muslim communities across the US as the threats increase. The goal of these meetings, both in person and over the phone, has been to tell leaders “if you see something that concerns you, please let us know because we want to keep you safe.” The director also noted that the FBI is working to help “identify all Americans who’ve been impacted in (Israel), including those who remain unaccounted for.”

According to the State Department, fifteen Americans are still unaccounted for after the attacks, and over two dozen Americans were killed. Said Wray: “Our victim services specialists are working closely with victims and their families, here and abroad.”

Editorial credit: Kristi Blokhin / Shutterstock.com