Dear friends,
The heartbreaking violence in Israel-Palestine hit very close to home on Saturday. A few miles away from where I grew up in Illinois, a six-year old boy named Wadea al-Fayoume was murdered.
What was this child’s crime?
Wadea was a Palestinian Muslim. On Saturday, he and his 32-year-old mother Hanaan were at home when their landlord, Joseph Czuba, brutally attacked them. He stabbed Wadea to death and tried to kill Hanaan, seriously injuring her. Reports indicate that Czuba believed this little boy and his mom were dangerous – simply because they were Palestinian Muslims. Mirroring the atrocious violence in Israel-Palestine, he attacked them with a military-style knife. The FBI is investigating this murder as a hate crime.
Sadly, Czuba had several crosses displayed on the property where he attacked precious Wadea and Hanaan. Somehow this “Christian” landlord believed that publicly memorializing the violent murder of Jesus and then violently murdering a small child were not incompatible. This breaks my heart to its core... Read More