In Illinois, a jury found landlord Joseph Czuba guilty of murder and hate crimes for killing 6-year-old Palestinian American child Wadea al-Fayoume and wounding his mother, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023 in the town of Plainfield. He now faces life in prison without parole. After the verdict was announced, Wadea al-Fayoume’s father Oday al-Fayoume spoke at a press conference, his words translated here by CAIR-Chicago’s Executive Director Ahmed Rehab.

Oday al-Fayoume: “For me as a father, I feel like I’m discovering Wadea and learning about Wadea more every day. And suffice for me as a father to know that his pride in being who he was as a Palestinian, as a Muslim, as an Arab, and being killed and targeted for that, was sufficient for him to live through, even though it caused his death, and that, for me, I will always remember him with pride.”