His name was Wadea.

A beautiful child slain in the name of hate.

“His name was Wadea — Wadea — a proud American, a proud Palestinian American family. We can't stand by and stand silent when this happens. We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia.”

President Biden spoke those words during his prime time Oval Office address last week.

He was talking about Wadea Al-Fayoume.

On October 14, 2023, Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, was killed when he was stabbed 26 times in his home just outside of Chicago in what authorities have said was an anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate-crime.

His mother, Hanaan Shahin, was also stabbed and choked, leaving her critically injured.

Wadea means peaceful. But that beautiful, innocent boy left this world in an act of horrific violence.

Slaughtered by his landlord, a man who not long before had built the boy a treehouse.

A 71-year old man so enraged by the endless poking and prodding and “othering” of Muslims in the wake of the unimaginably grotesque October 7th attack on Israel, that the rage consumed him whole.

Imagine what has to happen to your brain to be able to stab anyone. To stab an adult, let alone a child. Then add to that thought, if your mind will even allow, that you are stabbing a 6 year old child. A beautiful, wide-eyed child, one who knows you and trusts you and loves you so much he wanted you at his birthday party. And then imagine stabbing him 26 times.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Thirteen.

Fourteen.

Fifteen.

Sixteen.

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Nineteen.

Twenty.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-two.

Twenty-three.

Twenty-four.

Twenty-five.

Twenty-six.

How is that even possible? How?

My mind simply cannot go there, because I have never in my life felt so consumed by rage that I wanted to hurt a child, or anyone frankly, but certainly not a child.