CHICAGO — Faith leaders, community activists and family members of victims are heading to Washington for a congressional hearing Tuesday to address the alarming rise in hate crimes in America, with a focus on tragic cases like that of Wadee Alfayoumi, the 6-year-old Palestinian boy who was stabbed to death in Plainfield.

On Monday morning, Maaria Mozaffar, legislative lead at Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, was flying to Washington with ​​Wadee’s 33-year-old mother, Hanaan Shahin.

“At the end of the day, she’s a mom who lost her baby,” Mozaffar told the Tribune while waiting at O’Hare International Airport.

Shahin was hospitalized after the Oct. 14 attack in which Joseph Czuba — the family’s landlord — allegedly stabbed her dozens of times and stabbed Wadee 26 times because they were Muslim and Palestinian, according to police.

Law enforcement and authorities from Will County said Czuba, then 71, targeted the family after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and Israel’s ensuing bombardment in Gaza. Czuba was charged with two counts of hate crimes in addition to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

Mozaffar said Wadee’s case is the first “casualty on false narratives, misinformation and hate” in the Israel-Gaza conflict that resulted in death in America.

“And then Hisham Awartani and his friends were also shot for being Palestinian on U.S. soil — and that’s what we cannot allow our nation to gloss over is that these hate crimes existed and these are the victims,” she said, referring to the Brown University student who was shot and paralyzed in Burlington, Vermont, while wearing a keffiyeh in November. “We have not seen that surface and highlighted in the halls of Congress and we think it’s very, very important to do so.”

The Chicago-based coalition made a request to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin for the hearing, building on the Wadee Resolution, introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Delia Ramirez of Chicago in December 2023 and in the U.S. Senate by Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth in January, to spotlight the boy’s killing. The resolution calls for national awareness and action to combat hate crimes targeting the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities.

“In that resolution, we directly tie the danger of political rhetoric and misinformation by elected officials that resulted in dehumanization that resulted in the death of Wadee,” said Mozaffar, who drafted the resolution. “We have to recognize that any language that dehumanizes a people has real, on-the-ground impact on everyday lives.”

Mozaffar said that before the resolution went to Congress, she unsuccessfully took it to state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, who represents the 49th District, where Wadee lived. Mozaffar said she was not able to get Loughran Cappel to sponsor it. Loughran Cappel’s office did not respond to the Tribune’s request for comment.

“We’re so happy that Senator Durbin and congresswoman Ramirez took leadership against dehumanization and highlighted the case of Wadee Alfayoumi at the congressional hearing. Unfortunately, we did not see that reality at the state level in Wadee’s district,” Mozaffar said. “Media, elected officials and public narratives all play a role in ending dehumanization and every elected official can play a powerful role.”

In a written statement, Durbin said he hopes to show that hate in all its forms has no place in America.

“We must confront the rise in hate crimes targeting vulnerable communities in our country, including Jewish, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans,” Durbin said. “Our hearing on Tuesday will do exactly that. I’ll be honored to welcome Wadee Alfayoumi’s mom — Hanaan Shahin — to our nation’s capital and pay my respects in person for the horrific loss of her son that shocked so many in Illinois and across the nation.”

Since Durbin became chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee has held several hearings to examine hate crimes, including one shortly after the Jan. 15, 2022, synagogue attack in Colleyville, Texas, and one on the threat of domestic terrorism following a mass shooting by a white supremacist in Buffalo in May 2022.

Mozaffar said the Wadee Resolution addresses multifaith issues and seeks protection for anyone subject to hate because of the expression of their ethnicity or religion, whether verbally or through the wearing of items such as hijab, keffiyeh, turban, mitpachat, tichel, shpitzel, sheitel, kippah or yarmulke.

Tuesday’s 10 a.m. hearing will feature experts who will discuss the ongoing systemic discrimination against Palestinians and Muslims in the United States, the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition said. Shahin will be in the front row, along with community members who have been outspoken about the horrors they have witnessed in Gaza as well as its impact on families in America.

Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from the South Side of Chicago who traveled to Gaza earlier this year, will be joining the coalition in D.C., where he hopes the hearing will mark a turning point.

“We’re at a critical juncture: We either have to do something right now and really start to combat (hate crimes) in a serious way, or expect that it’s going to continue to happen and it’s going to get worse and worse,” Ahmad said. “Everybody is really, really upset and grieving about what’s taking place in Gaza. And we see that connection. You’ve got tens of thousands of kids who have been killed, maimed, injured; and then here you have this very visceral image of this 6-year-old being stabbed to death by this grown man.”

Ahmad, who is Palestinian and a father of two young girls, said widespread misrepresentation of Muslims, including Arab Americans, has contributed to a lack of nationwide support and outcry for tragedies in those communities.

“How come our kids aren’t given that sort of presumption of innocence?” he said. “We have to fight and claw our way to create that safe space for our children.”

Ahmad said the hearing will also be a space to share stories about who Wadee was — a little boy who celebrated his 6th birthday a few days before being killed. In a photo shared by Wadee’s father following the attack, Wadee is wearing a sparkly blue birthday hat with the TV screen behind him paused on a “Happy Birthday to You” song remix.

“It’s not just a 6 year old that was stabbed to death who happened to be Palestinian. He was an actual person who had a story,” Ahmad added. “He had his own dreams as a 6-year-old – what did he use to imagine when he played make believe? What was his favorite food? We want to be able to share that as part of this whole idea that false narratives have led to these crimes. What are you going to tell me about a 6-year-old once you find out his name, once you see his picture, once you see how he smiled?”

The Illinois Civic Muslim Coalition said the hearing is the first-ever congressional hearing on anti-Palestinian hate crimes. Organizers with the group said the hearing follows months of delays and political debates regarding the urgency of addressing anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim discourse.

“It’s very important for Congress and the policymakers in this nation to be in the know of who the victims of hate crimes are in this, in the aftermath of Oct. 7, on U.S. soil,” Mozaffar said. “And that includes Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Arabs and their allies, and not one person should be overlooked, not one group should be overlooked.”

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