Child's fatal stabbing; rise in antisemitism: Here's how Israel-Hamas war is fueling hate
The brutal Hamas invasion of Israel and the resulting conflict in Gaza have opened the floodgates for hate incidents – both in real life and online, targeting Jewish people and Muslims alike – over the last two weeks. In Chicago, a man fatally attacked a 6-year-old boy and wounded his mother on Saturday because they were Muslims, police say. America’s synagogues and Jewish community centers are on high alert, while Jewish targets have been attacked in several countries across the world. It’s the week in extremism.
Apparent hate crime stabbing in Chicago
The Justice Department has opened a federal hate crime investigation into the fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume in Chicago last Saturday. Wadea and his mother, Hanaan Shahin, who was also seriously injured, were attacked by 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, who stabbed them dozens of times with a “military style knife,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Investigators with the Will County Sheriff’s Office determined that Czuba stabbed the mother and child "due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
Czuba’s wife told investigators her husband was incensed by the violence in the Middle East and was concerned that Shahin “was going to call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them,” according to a court filing.
“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek − a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America.”
As USA TODAY reported this week, bigotry and violence against Palestinian Americans is also reportedly spiking across the country. Threats have been made against Palestinian American communities in Dearborn, Michigan, Los Angeles, New York and Portland, among other cities.
Violence against Jewish communities across the world
The Anti-Defamation League is keeping a running tally of incidents of anti-Semitism and violence against Jewish communities across the globe. Also this week, a study finds widespread antisemitic views and support for political violence in the U.S..
The tally of antisemitic incidents since the Hamas invasion includes the burning down of a synagogue in Tunisia and multiple acts of vandalism at Jewish places of worship and businesses.
The ADL is also keeping track of antisemitism in the United States, and recorded 153 antisemitic incidents from Oct. 7-18, 67 of which were Israel-related, according to an ADL spokesperson. During the same period last year, the ADL recorded 99 antisemitic incidents, 9 of which were Israel-related.
An ADL/University of Chicago study, a national poll of nearly 8,000 US adults, “establishes a clear relationship between antisemitism, political violence and antidemocratic conspiracy theories on both ends of the political spectrum,” according to its authors.
The study found that “highly antisemitic Americans are two to three times more likely to support political violence to achieve other far-right goals.”
Among the poll’s other findings: “Compared to the general population, highly antisemitic Americans who accept multiple anti-Jewish tropes are three times more likely to support political violence to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.”
Hate continues to surge online as Middle East conflict worsens
Last week, USA TODAY reported on a surge in online hatred directed at both Jews and Muslims. A new study from the Global Project on Hate and Extremism found that hate is also spiking on the largely unregulated messageboard 4Chan and other platforms.
Researchers at GPAHE discovered an increase of almost 500 percent in hate and violent content on 4chan within 48 hours of the Hamas invasion.
According to the report: “The use of explicit antisemitic and anti-Muslim slurs, along with calls to kill both groups, increased from 511 to 2,959 instances between October 6 and October 8, a staggering 479 percent increase.”
The researchers also looked at other sites popular with extremists, including Gab, BitChute and Odysee. Across the four platforms, hateful posts increased 461%.
“The amount of online hate spreading in the wake of the unspeakable loss of families, friends, and homes is deplorable, and unfortunately reflects the rising tide of extremism the world is facing,” GPAHE founders Heidi Beirich and Wendy Via wrote in a statement.
Statistic of the week: 11,634
That’s how many hate crime incidents were reported in 2022, according to the FBI’s deeply flawed Uniform Crime Reports.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Child stabbed; antisemitic events: How Mideast war fuels U.S. hate
