Wadee Alfayoumi<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\nPolice say Czuba arrived at their door angry about the war and proceeded to force his way inside, strangling Shaheen and holding her down before pulling out a military-style knife.<\/p>\n
Shaheen suffered more than a dozen stab wounds before escaping to a bathroom to call 911 for help. Alfayoumi, meanwhile, was stabbed 26 times. He did not survive.<\/p>\n
Czuba\u2019s trial featured audio from Shaheen\u2019s panicked 911 call, as well as testimony from the mother herself. Speaking from the witness stand in English and Arabic, she described Czuba becoming increasingly paranoid and Islamophobic as the war progressed.<\/p>\n
For nearly two years before the attack, the family had rented a pair of bedrooms in Czuba\u2019s house in Plainville, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n
But after the war began on October 7, Shaheen recalled Czuba telling her to move out of her lodgings because Muslims were not welcome.<\/p>\n
Then, during the attack, she once again heard him citing her Muslim faith. \u201cHe told me \u2018You, as a Muslim, must die,\u2019\u201d said Shaheen.<\/p>\n
The incident was one of the highest-profile acts of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence in the US after the war in Gaza broke out.<\/p>\n
But advocates say it is part of a trend of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate that has swept the country in recent months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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