Today I hold in my heart Wadea Al-Fayoum, a 6 year-old Palestinian American child who was murdered in hate in Illinois one year ago today.
Please share his story. Remember his name.
My words after his death:
On October 14, 2023, Wadea’s mother opened the door of her apartment in Plainfield, IL. Their landlord attempted to choke her, then stabbed her, yelling, “You Muslims must die!” She ran to the bathroom to call 911. When she emerged, she found her son stabbed twenty-six times. Law enforcement confirmed that the landlord targeted them for being Muslim and for what’s happening in Gaza, and charged him with hate crimes.
I have chronicled hate crimes in the U.S. for 22 years. As a Sikh American, people in my community have been frontline targets for anti-Muslim hate, especially after terrorist attacks and during every election season. Today our people are five times more likely to be targets of hate than before 9/11. And that was before Gaza. Now, as anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiment fills our screens — I stand with my Muslim American family. A threat on them is a threat on us. Their suffering is our suffering. Their courage an extension of our own as we face the threat of hate together.
I look at Wadea and cannot help but see my own son. I want to believe that my children are at least safe in our home. Wadea was killed in his home.
So I say to you, whoever you are —
Wadea was our child. Our six-year-old boy. Ours to love and protect. We could not save him. Who are the children in your care? You have a sphere of influence — your school, home, neighborhood. In the face of antisemitism and anti-Muslim violence, we need you.
We will only survive this era if people who stand in love are bolder than those who wield hate. What would love have you do?
Start here with our introduction to the compass. We teach ten core practices of revolutionary love, backed by research and infused with ancestral wisdom. Imagine these practices as points on a compass. Point the compass toward whomever you want to practice loving— another, an opponent, or yourself. Decide what practice you need. You can use this compass as a tool in all arenas in your life.