Mom of 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy stabbed to death by landlord who ‘feared Hamas attack in US’ speaks out and asks public to ‘pray for peace’ as she recovers from horrific hate crime in their Illinois home

• Hanan Shahin, 32, issued a statement Tuesday with Council on American-Muslim Relations. A scheduled press conference Wednesday was postponed
• She said her son Wadea Al-Fayoume was ‘her best friend’ and that she ‘harbors no hatred … but believes in the pursuit of justice’ 
• Their landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, is accused of bursting into their apartment and attacking the pair with a military grade knife – stabbing the boy 26 times 

The mother of the six-year-old Muslim Palestinian boy fatally stabbed in Chicago last week in an an apparent hate crime, spoke out for the first time and asked the public to ‘pray for peace’ as she recovers from the horrific attack in their Illinois home. 

Hanan Shahin, 32, issued a statement Tuesday through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after meeting with the group’s executive director a day earlier.

She said her son Wadea Al-Fayoume was ‘her best friend’ and that she ‘harbors no hatred … but believes in the pursuit of justice.’ 

The written statement marked her first public comments since the brutal October 14 attack that left her with more than a dozen stab wounds and stitches on her face.

Their landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, is accused of bursting into their apartment and attacking the pair with a military grade knife – stabbing the boy 26 times during the vile attack.

Wadea Al-Fayoume, six, was killed October 14, allegedly by landlord Joseph M. Czuba, 71, who was renting the family a room in his home in Plainfield, Illinois. The victim is shown here as a younger boy, waving an American flag

Six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume was attacked along with his mother, Hanaan Shahin, in their home on October 14.

Police charged 71-year-old suburban Chicago man Joseph M. Czuba (pictured left) Sunday with a hate crime for allegedly fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume (pictured right) and seriously wounding his 32-year-old mother

The mother of the six-year-old Muslim boy fatally stabbed in Chicago last week in an an apparent hate crime, spoke out for the first time and asked the public to ‘pray for peace’ as she recovers from the horrific attack in their Illinois home.

The boy’s mother, Shaheen, survived the attack and told police later how Czuba appeared at their door spouting hateful, anti-Muslim slurs.

Shaheen was set to publicly share her story at a press conference Wednesday, which has now been postponed. 

She has retained the nationally renowned civil right attorney Ben Crump. It is not known when the press conference will be rescheduled. 

Authorities said the family’s suburban Chicago landlord singled them out because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war. 

Prosecutors said Czuba, 71, had become paranoid after listening to radio segments about the Israel-Hamas war.

‘Pray for peace,’ Shahin said, thanking authorities, doctors and others. She was released from the hospital last week and has declined interviews with reporters. 

Czuba faces first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He is being held without bail and is set to appear in court next on October 30. 

Czuba’s attorney, George Lenard, released a statement last week via the Will County Public Defender’s Office saying he would not comment on the case beyond ‘what is presented in the courtroom.’

Muslim community members pray for Wadea Al Fayoume at Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Ill., Monday, Oct. 16

Mourners cry at the grave of 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume in LaGrange, Ill., Monday, Oct. 16

Paying tribute to his young son, Oday told The Daily Beast that Wadea was ‘basically a small angel in the form of a person’

Wadea with his father, who described him as ‘an angel’. He said he could imagine his son running towards the landlord to hug him. 

Wadea Al-Fayoume had recently turned six. He was killed in a crime which authorities believe was influenced by the Israel-Hamas war

Shahin, who was hospitalized during her son’s funeral, remembered him as an intelligent and funny child who cared about the planet and liked to join her in prayers.

She said she felt comforted ‘remembering her son as an angel on earth, and knowing that he is now an angel in heaven.’

She added, ‘He was my best friend.’ 

Wadea’s father, Oday Al-Fayoume, has spoken out, explaining that his son and ex-wife knew the landlord and had even shared a ‘good relationship’ with him before the horrific attack.

‘It is hard to picture this man holding a knife about to stab my son,’ he said.

‘I keep thinking that my son was probably running towards him before getting stabbed, trying to give him a hug.’

Paying tribute to his young son, Oday told The Daily Beast that Wadea was ‘basically a small angel in the form of a person’.

Wadea’s mom suffered more than a dozen stab wounds. She remained hospitalized Sunday but is expected to survive.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, the boy’s uncle, Yousef Hannon said: ‘We are not animals, we are humans.

‘We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are.’

The family moved to the US from the West Bank twelve years ago. Wadea was born in the US.

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