Biden Official Booed at Vigil for 6-Year-Old Muslim Boy Killed

The highest-ranking Muslim official in the Biden administration was recently booed while addressing the recent stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy.

Dilawar Syed, deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, spoke on Tuesday to a crowd of approximately 2,000 gathered at a gymnasium in Plainfield, Illinois, during a vigil for Wadea al-Fayoume. The boy was allegedly stabbed 26 times by his landlord. The suspect, Joseph Czuba, 71, is also accused of severely wounding the boy's mother, Hanaan Shahin, as part of a targeted attack related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, authorities said.

Czuba, who lives in Plainfield, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. The homicide is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said that "this incident cannot help but further raise the fears of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities in our country with regard to hate-fueled violence" as the Middle East war escalates.

"President Biden has been very, very clear: There is no place for hate in America," Syed told the vigil's attendees, according to a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) by journalist Kristina Betinis.

Newsweek reached out to the Small Business Administration and the White House via email for comment.

Syed has also posted about the incident on social media, reiterating Biden's words denouncing violence and hate crimes in the U.S.

"Hate doesn't stay on the other side of the world," Syed wrote on X on Sunday. "Wadea and his mom were attacked for being Palestinian American. @POTUS is clear about rejecting Islamophobia, bigotry, and hate. May Wadea's mother find strength to recover, and her angel Rest In Peace."

In June, the U.S. Senate confirmed Syed for his current position by a 54-42 vote.

On Tuesday, the crowd swiftly reacted with boos and jeers, with one attendee audibly yelling in response, "What about the fake news?"

Another attendee, according to Betinis, said Biden "has blood on his hands."

"If, God forbid, a Jewish child was murdered in a hate crime and a senior Biden administration official was booed at the official vigil like this, it would be worldwide news," Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid told Newsweek in a statement. "But because it's Arabs and Muslims, crickets."

Czuba allegedly entered the apartment last Sunday and attacked Wadea and his mother, who was stabbed over a dozen times, while screaming anti-Muslim words. The boy died while being transported to the hospital.

Oday al-Fayoume, the boy's father, reportedly said his family and Czuba had had a positive relationship. He has expressed his anguish over not just the attack but the way the incident was revealed to him by the Will County Sheriff's Office, which, like the DOJ, has called the assault a hate crime because the family is Muslim.

"The way I found out wasn't the right way to tell a parent," al-Fayoume told The Daily Beast. "I got a call from the police department, and they gave me three sentences exactly: 'Are you Oday al-Fayoume? Are you Wadea's father? He has been killed.' That's how I found out."

He said the situation was "torture."

A man described in media reports as the boy's grandfather spoke at Tuesday's vigil. "Our loss of our son, this gentleman [Czuba] was one of the best friends of the family," he said. "He loved him, brought him toys, treated him as a grandkid, but unfortunately the wrong message when it comes to certain people becomes a killing machine."

He went on: "Our media, our Congress, even our president—they come out and give us wrong info, wrong details, and it goes into their mind. So this gentleman went from one of the best men to that child...and when we heard it, we couldn't believe it."

Betinis said she spoke with six female attendees who wanted to remain anonymous so they wouldn't be targeted in any future attacks. They reportedly left the vigil early when attendees were reportedly requested by the organizers to remain silent on political matters.

One woman spoke with Betinis on camera, saying she showed up to show support for the boy and his family.

"A 6-year-old little boy should not be killed, and a lot of it comes from misinformation that the media pushes out," the woman said. "The media pushes out a very biased side of the story that paints all Muslims and all Palestinians to be evil terrorists."

She went on: "We are not terrorists. We are the oppressed individuals in Palestine by the Israeli Defense Forces."