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Pakistan Christian couple granted bail in blasphemy case

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Pakistan Christian couple granted bail in blasphemy case: ‘Landmark decision’​

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

Christian devotees pray during a Good Friday Mass at the Saint Francis Church in Lahore on April 15, 2022. | ARIF ALI/AFP via Getty Images
A Pakistani court has granted bail to a Christian couple accused of blasphemy, citing insufficient evidence. A rights group has called it a “landmark judgment,” which has sparked calls for changes to the nation’s controversial blasphemy laws.

Kiran Bibi and Shaukat were granted bail on Oct. 18 by Additional Sessions Court Judge Mian Shahid Javed, UCA News reported, adding that the couple had been accused of defiling the Quran.

Javed cited a lack of evidence of “willful damage or defilement of the original text of the Holy Quran” under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Nasir Saeed, director of the U.K.-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, or CLAAS, lauded the decision in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

“This landmark judgment breaks from the norm,” Saeed added.

In Pakistan, violating Section 295-B could lead to life imprisonment. The couple was accused by Muhammad Tamoor, who claimed to have seen Quranic pages fly out of the couple’s house on Sept. 8.

Tamoor claimed he had been given access to the house by Kiran Bibi. She suggested the pages might have been accidentally thrown by her children — all minors. The court noted gaps in the evidence and report.

CLAAS also mentioned the court found no credible eyewitness testimony that backed the severe allegations. Questions were raised about the actual perpetrator.

The couple’s bail was set at 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($357). The court ordered police to conduct further inquiries into the allegations.

Saeed welcomed the call for further investigation. “This decision underscores the importance of a thorough investigation to establish the facts and ensure justice prevails,” he was quoted as saying.

He also emphasized the need for changes in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. These laws have led to sentences of death or life imprisonment, although no executions have occurred.

In August, attacks against Christians occurred in Jaranwala town, where churches and homes were torched following blasphemy accusations against two local Christians.

Christians make up roughly 1.6% of Pakistan’s 241 million population.

In a separate case last August, a two-member Supreme Court bench granted bail to another Christian who was also accused of blasphemy against Islam.

Justices Qazi Fael Isa and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah ordered the release of Salamat Mansha Masih, expressing concern about the frequency of blasphemy accusations. The state must protect suspects until cases are resolved, the justices said.

In another instance, a sessions court granted bail to two Christian nurses in September 2021. It was the first time bail was granted in a blasphemy case at this level, attorneys noted at the time.

Accusations often lead to mob violence, with little consequence for false accusers.

Lower courts often bow to Islamist pressure, leading to numerous convictions. In January, a Muslim woman was sentenced to death for allegedly committing blasphemy via text messages, marking another rare instance of such a ruling against a Muslim.

In December 2021, a mob killed a Sri Lankan man over blasphemy allegations. Although arrests were made, no legislative changes have occurred to curb false accusations.

 
Funny you talk about minorities in Pakistan.

What about hate crimes and homicides against the Muslim minority in USA?

Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house, mate. :disagree:
 
These laws should be repealed and changed to a “disturbing the peace” kind of law. Disturbing the peace can be applied to anyone (Muslim or non-Muslim) abusing a person’s religion to harass them. It could also help keep people in check from turning personal feuds into “religious” issues such as Sunni/Shia, or something similar.
 
if you don't get lynched first.
Don't start none won't be none :yes4:
btw when is the next Quran burning going to happen in the GARDEN??

the notorious jaranwala incident drop scene

 
It doesn’t matter, nobody in the Pakistani society dare blasphemy, its not in the culture
the problem is Mullah cancer and western domination cancer
 
What about hate crimes and homicides against the Muslim minority in USA?
Mr. Iqbal,
You are sadly deluded. There are no hate crimes against the Muslim minority. There are crimes and murders affecting all groups of peoples in the USA. There are individuals who are crazy and hate other people for crazy reasons. This is sad and despicable, of course. But all groups are equal opportunity targets, not just Muslims. Our problem is that too many people living here do not respect the rights of others to live in peace. But you are wrong to think that Muslims are either uniquely victims or perpetrators of such sins.
 
Mr. Iqbal,
You are sadly deluded. There are no hate crimes against the Muslim minority. There are crimes and murders affecting all groups of peoples in the USA. There are individuals who are crazy and hate other people for crazy reasons. This is sad and despicable, of course. But all groups are equal opportunity targets, not just Muslims. Our problem is that too many people living here do not respect the rights of others to live in peace. But you are wrong to think that Muslims are either uniquely victims or perpetrators of such sins.
LOL what is this nonsense? There are many Muslims who have been murdered in USA. I can post news links.

Or "Sikhs" who were murdered in USA who were murdered by "racist rednecks" who believed them to be Muslims?

Give me a break, man, don't lie here. Islamophobia is also ranted by your politicians like Donald Trump.

Don't talk crap.

It is you who is deluded! :mad:

N.C. Man Pleads Guilty To Killing 3 Muslim College Students; Video Is Played In Court​


June 12, 201910:38 AM ET

By

Bill Chappell

chapel-hill-courtesy-photo_custom-b2ae62f94005e0bef6a0f10db00cd32df21b98a5-s1100-c50.jpg


Deah Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were killed in February of 2015.
Courtesy of Our Three Winners

Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET


Craig Stephen Hicks has pleaded guilty to killing three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2015, a shocking crime that was variously described as a hate crime, a dispute over parking or some combination of the two.


Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry read out three counts of first-degree murder against Hicks, 50, in court on Wednesday. Hicks responded "guilty" to each crime, as member station WUNC's Jason deBruyn reports.


The murders sparked widespread calls for tolerance and engagement with Muslim communities, with vigils and rallies in the victims' memories held as far away as Gaza City.






The 2015 shootings took place as the three young people were sitting down to dinner. Deah Barakat, 23, was a second-year student in the University of North Carolina's dentistry school. His 21-year-old wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, was planning to attend that graduate school. Her 19-year-old sister, Razan Abu-Salha, was a student at N.C. State University.


They were interrupted by Hicks, ringing the doorbell.


In a surprising revelation, prosecutors played a previously unreleased video recording that captured part of the shootings and was taken from a cellphone belonging to Barakat.


"In the 36-second video, Hicks can be seen first threatening Deah, then almost immediately start shooting," deBruyn says. "The cellphone falls with the camera facing the ceiling."


As the video continues, deBruyn reports, "there are screams from two women, both of which can be heard pleading for their lives screaming, 'Please! Please!' "


Before the video was played, the judge agreed to a request from the district attorney's office that the cellphone video "not be recorded by media in the courtroom."


Hicks was charged with first-degree murder; police said his actions may have been fueled in part by a parking dispute between neighbors. But in court, prosecutors made it clear that Hicks harbored animosity for the young trio from the start. He and his victims lived at the Finley Forest Condominiums.




Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson sentenced Hicks to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.


In court, Assistant District Attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn described Hicks as a frustrated man who grew increasingly irate in confrontations with his neighbors — particularly as the complex became popular with college students.


Montgomery-Blinn also recounted that in late 2014, when Yusor Abu-Salha was moving into the apartment, Hicks confronted her mother and said, "I don't like the look of you people. Get out of here." Both of the women were wearing hijab headscarves.


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Montgomery-Blinn said Hicks was obsessed with the Michael Douglas film Falling Down, was very interested in guns, and "hated all forms of religion," according to Raleigh's The News and Observer.


'We're All One,' Chapel Hill Shooting Victim Said In StoryCorps Talk

The Two-Way


'We're All One,' Chapel Hill Shooting Victim Said In StoryCorps Talk


"According to prosecutors, during his time at the apartment complex, Hicks would be rude to white neighbors," deBruyn reports from the courtroom, "but to nonwhite neighbors, he would threaten violence and brandish a gun to intimidate."


The victims' friends and family disagreed with characterizations of the crime as a dispute. It was clear, they said, that Hicks felt special hostility to his Muslim neighbors.


Mohammad Abu-Salha, the two slain women's father, said Hicks had previously threatened the family and that he followed that up with methodical and very intentional violence.


"It was execution style, a bullet in every head," Abu-Salha told The Charlotte Observer in 2015. "This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far."

Three Muslims murdered in USA.

Sabika Sheikh, Pakistani teen killed at Texas school, is laid to rest in home country​

Sabika Sheikh had planned to return home in a few weeks for Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Instead, her tearful father received her body at Karachi airport early Wednesday morning.
1698199660178.jpeg


00:11 /00:46




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May 23, 2018, 10:48 AM EDT / Updated May 23, 2018, 10:48 AM EDT
By Associated Press
KARACHI, Pakistan — The body of a 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Texas arrived before dawn Wednesday in the port city of Karachi, where her family lived and where she was being buried.
Sabika Sheikh was among 10 students and staff slain Friday at Santa Fe High School. The alleged shooter is 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who is being held on capital murder charges.

Sabika had planned to return home in a few weeks for Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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She was her family's oldest child and began classes at Santa Fe High School last August. She had hoped to one day join Pakistan's foreign service.

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Her tearful father was there to receive the body at Karachi airport. Abdul Aziz Sheikh has said he hopes her death leads to stricter gun control in the United States.
Later, thousands of mourners, including the provincial governor, attended her funeral at city's mosque.



Father of Pakistani Santa Fe victim: We thought she would be safe in America

May 22, 201801:32

"Before her death, she was just my daughter, but now she is the daughter of Pakistan, and it is only because of the love of people, who mourned her killing," her father said.

The shooting reignited the debate over gun control in the United States. Pakistan requires gun owners to be licensed, but the rules are poorly enforced, particularly in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. Heavily armed militant groups have carried out scores of attacks in recent years.


Muslim exchange student murdered in USA in a SCHOOL SHOOTING!

Mr. Iqbal,
You are sadly deluded. There are no hate crimes against the Muslim minority. There are crimes and murders affecting all groups of peoples in the USA. There are individuals who are crazy and hate other people for crazy reasons. This is sad and despicable, of course. But all groups are equal opportunity targets, not just Muslims. Our problem is that too many people living here do not respect the rights of others to live in peace. But you are wrong to think that Muslims are either uniquely victims or perpetrators of such sins.
So don't embarrass yourself, my old chap! There are more homicides in USA, than in Pakistan against minorities.

Sorry, but don't embarrass yourself here.

Sikh family kidnapped and killed in California had emigrated from India looking for safety and the American Dream, relative says​

Baby Aroohi Dheri; her parents, Jasdeep Singh and Jasleen Kaur; and her uncle Amandeep Singh were found dead two days after being kidnapped.
8-month-old Aroohi Dheri and her parents, Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36.

Eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri and her parents, Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36.Merced County Sheriff's Office


Oct. 10, 2022, 8:36 PM EDT
By Sakshi Venkatraman
Days before 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri was killed, she babbled one of her first words. She was calling for her dad, Jasdeep Singh, 36, and it would turn out to be the sole time she ever got to do so.
“She said ‘pappa’ for the first time, and the only time,” Jasdeep’s cousin, Amarinder Singh, told NBC News.

Baby Aroohi, her parents Jasdeep and Jasleen Kaur, 27, and her paternal uncle Amandeep Singh, were found dead Wednesday in a rural area of Merced, California, not far from where they were taken two days earlier.
Jesus Manuel Salgado, a former employee at Jasdeep and Amandeep’s trucking company, has been arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping. His brother, Alberto Salgado, was also arrested and charged with aiding him. NBC News could not identify a lawyer for either suspect.
The days after news of the deaths have been a calvary for those left behind, Amarinder Singh said. Amandeep left a widow and two young children, and Jasdeep left his parents. Jasleen’s parents, who live in India, were never able to meet their granddaughter. A circle of tight-knit cousins in California is also reeling from the loss.



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“I just felt like somebody had pulled the earth from under my feet,” Singh said about the moment he learned of the deaths. “I felt numb, I felt empty, I couldn’t think.”

The American Dream brought his cousins Jasdeep and Amandeep across an ocean when they were teenagers, according to Singh. The two grew up in a small village in Punjab; Singh still remembers spending months on end at their home in the summer before the families emigrated in 2004.

The U.S. represented a promise of security for all of them, he said.

“We wanted to be in a place where we would feel safe, where we would think our kids are safe,” he said. “And where we would know that if we worked hard, if our kids worked hard, they could make a life for themselves.”

His cousin Amandeep was the living embodiment of that, he said. He spent his first years in the country working blue-collar jobs as a cashier and a factory worker, eventually buying his first truck.

“He started his business with a single truck that he owned,” Singh said. “He drove like five days out of the week. Some weekends where he would not be home. He would be home every seven to 10 days.”

It was at the business he had worked his whole life to grow that he was eventually taken from, according to security camera footage. The once-perfect image of America, which had formed cracks over the years, is now shattered, Singh said.

“I follow the news. I’ve heard plenty of stuff that happens. School shootings and mass shootings and whatever else happens in the U.S.,” he said. “But I never thought something like that would land so close to our family.”

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Singh saw the family one week before they were found dead. He said they talked of their plans for Thanksgiving, a holiday that Amandeep always treasured spending with his large family.


“As we grew up as kids together in India, he wanted our kids to grow up together so they knew each other, and they had the same kind of bond that we do,” he said.

The last time he saw baby Aroohi, she met Singh’s 3-month-old baby for the first time. The two babbled back and forth together as Singh, Jasdeep and Jasleen looked on fondly, he said.

“I think every single time I saw them around Aroohi, both of them had a sparkle in their eye,” he said. “They loved just being together as a family. They named her literally meaning ‘one who has the spirit of God.’”

Singh said he still struggles to process why someone might have hurt them.

“It’s totally unjustified,” he said. “I think everybody can at minimum agree that an 8-month-old has not done anything wrong to anybody and doesn’t deserve anything like this.”

Amandeep’s wife, Jaspreet Kaur, is left a single mother. She hasn’t been eating or talking, Singh said, and her 6- and 8-year-old kids are struggling to grasp what has happened. The younger one still asks if his father is coming home. The brothers’ elderly parents are left alone too.

“They were all devastated by what happened,” he said.

Singh and a few relatives helped the remaining immediate family members in setting up a GoFundMe, which has now raised over $340,000.

But after the chaos, Singh’s family is left with a hole, he said, and he feels their loss everywhere.

“I can still hear what I think they would have said, I can still feel how they would have given me a hug, I can still think of the things we would do,” he said. “I’m going to miss all of those things.


@Dalit
@Areesh
@xyxmt
@PakFactor
 
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Here is this American moron, who is talking about minority rights in Pakistan. :disagree:

When USA has a huge record of school shootings, homicides, gun related crimes, suicides, rapes, alcoholism, drunk driving, racism against African Americans.

@TruthSeeker you should be the last to lecture us on minority rights, and human rights, my friend.

But at least don't spoil our forum here.
 
@TruthSeeker

How about this? 6 year old Muslim boy stabbed to death in USA? This proves USA has a racism disease.

Muslim boy killed and woman wounded in Illinois hate crime motivated by Israel-Hamas war, police say​




A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman was charged with a hate crime Sunday. Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the Israel-Hamas war. (Oct. 16)

By SOPHIA TAREEN

Updated 10:14 AM EDT, October 16, 2023


CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois landlord accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and seriously wounding his mother was charged with a hate crime after police and relatives said he singled out the victims because of their faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
In recent days, police in U.S. cities and federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments. FBI officials, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, have reported an increase of hateful and threatening rhetoric.
In the Chicago-area case, officers found the 32-year-old woman and boy late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media.

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Relatives and a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group identified the slain boy as the wounded woman’s son.

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The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. The woman had multiple stab wounds and was expected to survive, according to the statement. An autopsy on the child showed he had been stabbed dozens of times.




“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said.
According to the Will County sheriff’s office, the woman had called 911 to report that her landlord had attacked her with a knife, adding she then ran into a bathroom and continued to fight him off.

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Ahmed Rehab, left, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, embraces Odey Al-Fayoume, father of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, at a news conference at the Muslim Community Center on Chicago's Northwest Side, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Authorities say a 71-year-old Illinois man has been charged with a hate crime, accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman, in Plainfield Township, because of their Islamic faith and the Israel-Hamas war. The Council on American-Islamic Relations identified the victims as Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother. (Jim Vondruska/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Ahmed Rehab, left, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, embraces Odey Al-Fayoume, father of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, at a news conference at the Muslim Community Center on Chicago’s Northwest Side, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (Jim Vondruska/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
The man suspected in the attack was found Saturday outside the home and “sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence” with a cut on his forehead, authorities said.
Joseph M. Czuba, 71, of Plainfield was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the sheriff’s office. WLS-TV reported that Czuba was scheduled for an initial hearing on Monday afternoon at the county courthouse in Joliet, according to the Will County State’s Attorney Office.
Attempts to reach Czuba or a family member were unsuccessful Sunday. His home phone number was unlisted. Messages left for possible relatives in online records and on social media were not immediately returned. The sheriff’s office and county public defender’s office did not immediately return messages about Czuba’s legal representation.
Authorities did not release the names of the two victims.

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But the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter Council on American-Islamic Relations where the boy’s father was in attendance. There the boy was identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy who recently had turned 6. The organization identified the other victim as the boy’s mother.
“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,” said Hannon, a Palestinian American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999 to work, including as a public school teacher.
The Muslim civil liberties organization called the crime “our worst nightmare” and part of a disturbing spike in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The group cited text messages exchanged among family members that showed the attacker had made disparaging remarks about Muslims.
“Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people,” said Ahmed Rehab, the group’s executive director, “have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world.”
In response to the increased threats, the Illinois State Police are communicating with federal law-enforcement and reaching out to Muslim communities and religious leaders to offer support, according to a Sunday press release from Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.

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“To take a six-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil,” Pritzker said. “Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son. This wasn’t just a murder — it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.”
President Joe Biden echoed that sentiment Sunday, saying in a statement: “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.”
The Justice Department opened a hate crime investigation into the events leading up to the attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
FBI Director Chris Wray said on a call with reporters Sunday that the FBI is also moving quickly to mitigate the threats.
A senior FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Bureau said the majority of the threats that the FBI has responded to were not judged to be credible, adding that the FBI takes them all seriously nonetheless.

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The official also said that agents have been encouraged to be “aggressive” and proactive in communicating over the last week with faith-based leaders. The official said the purpose is not to make anyone feel targeted but rather to ask clerics and others to report to law enforcement anything that seems suspicious.

___​

Associated Press reporters Jesse Bedayn in Denver and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.


Looks like Islamophobia is rampant in USA.

Despite the Western media campaign against Muslims, racism against Muslims, and homicides against Muslims, the Muslim religion or Islam has given a sense of dignity to quite a few peoples, Muslims make 25% of humanity.
1698509679084.jpeg
 
@TruthSeeker

How about this? 6 year old Muslim boy stabbed to death in USA? This proves USA has a racism disease.

Muslim boy killed and woman wounded in Illinois hate crime motivated by Israel-Hamas war, police say​




A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman was charged with a hate crime Sunday. Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the Israel-Hamas war. (Oct. 16)

By SOPHIA TAREEN

Updated 10:14 AM EDT, October 16, 2023


CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois landlord accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and seriously wounding his mother was charged with a hate crime after police and relatives said he singled out the victims because of their faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
In recent days, police in U.S. cities and federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments. FBI officials, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, have reported an increase of hateful and threatening rhetoric.
In the Chicago-area case, officers found the 32-year-old woman and boy late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media.

Advertisement

Relatives and a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group identified the slain boy as the wounded woman’s son.

MORE ON THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

Palestinians stand inside the building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Israel-Hamas war: Week 1 updates

This photo provided by Eyal Eshel shows his daughter Roni Eshel, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was stationed at a military base near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. “I love you so much,” Eshel told her mother in a text about three hours after the attack started. Her parents haven't heard from her since. (Courtesy of Eyal Eshel via AP)'t heard from her since. (Courtesy of Eyal Eshel via AP)

A third-generation Israeli soldier has been missing for over a week. Her family can only wait

FILE - A pro-Israel demonstrator shouts at Palestinian supporters during a protest at Columbia University, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. As the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war, American colleges have become seats of anguish with many Jewish students calling for strong condemnation after civilian attacks by Hamas while some Muslim students are pressing for recognition of decades of suffering by Palestinians in Gaza. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

The Israel-Hamas war has roiled US campuses. Students on each side say colleges aren’t doing enough
The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. The woman had multiple stab wounds and was expected to survive, according to the statement. An autopsy on the child showed he had been stabbed dozens of times.




“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said.
According to the Will County sheriff’s office, the woman had called 911 to report that her landlord had attacked her with a knife, adding she then ran into a bathroom and continued to fight him off.

Advertisement

Ahmed Rehab, left, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, embraces Odey Al-Fayoume, father of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, at a news conference at the Muslim Community Center on Chicago's Northwest Side, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Authorities say a 71-year-old Illinois man has been charged with a hate crime, accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman, in Plainfield Township, because of their Islamic faith and the Israel-Hamas war. The Council on American-Islamic Relations identified the victims as Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother. (Jim Vondruska/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)'s Northwest Side, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Authorities say a 71-year-old Illinois man has been charged with a hate crime, accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman, in Plainfield Township, because of their Islamic faith and the Israel-Hamas war. The Council on American-Islamic Relations identified the victims as Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother. (Jim Vondruska/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Ahmed Rehab, left, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, embraces Odey Al-Fayoume, father of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, at a news conference at the Muslim Community Center on Chicago’s Northwest Side, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (Jim Vondruska/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
The man suspected in the attack was found Saturday outside the home and “sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence” with a cut on his forehead, authorities said.
Joseph M. Czuba, 71, of Plainfield was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the sheriff’s office. WLS-TV reported that Czuba was scheduled for an initial hearing on Monday afternoon at the county courthouse in Joliet, according to the Will County State’s Attorney Office.
Attempts to reach Czuba or a family member were unsuccessful Sunday. His home phone number was unlisted. Messages left for possible relatives in online records and on social media were not immediately returned. The sheriff’s office and county public defender’s office did not immediately return messages about Czuba’s legal representation.
Authorities did not release the names of the two victims.

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But the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter Council on American-Islamic Relations where the boy’s father was in attendance. There the boy was identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy who recently had turned 6. The organization identified the other victim as the boy’s mother.
“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,” said Hannon, a Palestinian American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999 to work, including as a public school teacher.
The Muslim civil liberties organization called the crime “our worst nightmare” and part of a disturbing spike in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The group cited text messages exchanged among family members that showed the attacker had made disparaging remarks about Muslims.
“Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people,” said Ahmed Rehab, the group’s executive director, “have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world.”
In response to the increased threats, the Illinois State Police are communicating with federal law-enforcement and reaching out to Muslim communities and religious leaders to offer support, according to a Sunday press release from Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.

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“To take a six-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil,” Pritzker said. “Wadea should be heading to school in the morning. Instead, his parents will wake up without their son. This wasn’t just a murder — it was a hate crime. And every single Illinoisan — including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors — deserves to live free from the threat of such evil.”
President Joe Biden echoed that sentiment Sunday, saying in a statement: “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.”
The Justice Department opened a hate crime investigation into the events leading up to the attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
FBI Director Chris Wray said on a call with reporters Sunday that the FBI is also moving quickly to mitigate the threats.
A senior FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Bureau said the majority of the threats that the FBI has responded to were not judged to be credible, adding that the FBI takes them all seriously nonetheless.

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The official also said that agents have been encouraged to be “aggressive” and proactive in communicating over the last week with faith-based leaders. The official said the purpose is not to make anyone feel targeted but rather to ask clerics and others to report to law enforcement anything that seems suspicious.

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Associated Press reporters Jesse Bedayn in Denver and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.


Looks like Islamophobia is rampant in USA.

Despite the media campaign against Muslims, racism against Muslims, and homicides against Muslims, the Muslim religion or Islam has given a sense of dignity to quite a few peoples, Muslims make 25% of humanity.
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Good or bad people are in every parts in the world
 
Pakistan is meant for the minorities of the subcontinent. Blasphemy law should be revoked and it should be a safehaven for all minorities.
 
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