At the front of an Illinois mosque, a short white coffin was draped in a Palestinian flag.
The boy inside, a 6-year-old soccer fan named Wadea Al-Fayoume, was too young to have understood the complicated politics of his parents’ Palestinian homeland, or of this country that he was being raised in. But, the authorities in suburban Chicago said, he was a casualty of those divisions nonetheless.
Wadea, who should have been at school on Monday, was instead mourned by a crowd that appeared to number in the thousands in Bridgeview, Ill. A local sheriff’s office said that he was stabbed to death over the weekend in an attack motivated by hate for Muslims and the fighting in Israel and Gaza. A short drive away from the mosque, Wadea’s 71-year-old landlord, who was charged in his killing, was making his initial appearance in court.
The killing on Saturday drew condemnations from President Biden and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, as well as outpourings of grief from Muslim leaders across the country, many of whom saw the attack as an outgrowth of overheated rhetoric about the fighting overseas.
Wadea’s mother, Hanan Shaheen, who was seriously injured in the attack, was still recovering and would not be able to attend the funeral, a local Muslim leader said.
In court documents, prosecutors described the landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, who has been charged with murder and hate crimes, as angry, erratic, paranoid and violent.
He had been listening to conservative radio coverage of the Middle East war in the days before the attack, the prosecutors said, wanted his Palestinian American tenants to move out of his building and was increasingly concerned that he was in personal danger because of his connection to them.
Judge Donald W. DeWilkins ordered Mr. Czuba held in jail without the possibility of release. Mr. Czuba appeared in court in Joliet, Ill., on Monday, appearing hunched and disheveled with matted hair and answering quietly with “Yes, sir” when questioned by the judge.
He faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. In court, Mr. Czuba requested a public defender, but a lawyer has not yet been assigned to him, according to the public defender’s office.
Outside the Bridgeview, Ill., mosque where the funeral was set to take place, large crowds gathered, voicing sadness and, at times, frustration with American politicians and journalists. Police officers from across the Chicago area were posted on the streets surrounding the mosque.
“This is a heavy day that we hoped would never come. As they say, the smallest coffins are the heaviest,” said Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The boy’s mother, he added, “will be feeling Wadea’s loss more than anyone, but she is forced to mourn alone rather in the warm embrace of family and community at this time.”
American Muslims reacted in horror on Sunday when the authorities in Will County, Ill., said that they had arrested the family’s landlord in the attack and that they believed anti-Muslim bias had motivated the stabbings. Many Muslim leaders had previously criticized how politicians from both parties were discussing the violence in Israel and Gaza, and voiced frustration about how the conflict was being framed in the American media.
Since the charges were announced, officials in Illinois and Washington swiftly issued statements condemning the attack. Mr. Biden said that he was “shocked and sickened” and that “this horrific act of hate has no place in America.” Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, said that “to take a 6-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil.”
Mr. Garland announced a federal hate crimes investigation and 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.”
“No one in the United States of America should have to live in fear of violence because of how they worship or where they or their family come from,” he added.
Mr. Czuba had rented two rooms in his home in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, to Ms. Shaheen, 32, and her son. On Saturday, the morning of the attack, Ms. Shaheen told investigators, Mr. Czuba knocked on her bedroom door and told her that he was angry about the war in Israel.
“Let’s pray for peace,” she responded, according to investigators.
But Mr. Czuba immediately attacked with a knife, forcing her to flee to a bathroom and lock herself inside, where she called 911. After the police arrived, her son was found stabbed 26 times and unresponsive in his bedroom.
Mary Czuba, Mr. Czuba’s wife, told investigators that he had recently become very interested in the conflict in the Middle East and was worried that Ms. Shaheen was going to “call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm him,” according to prosecutors.
Ms. Czuba also told the authorities that her husband had made a cash withdrawal of $1,000 to prepare for the electrical grid failing in the United States.
The assault on Saturday comes amid mounting violence between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 7, Hamas unleashed a surprise attack against Israel that left more than 1,300 Israelis dead, prompting intense retaliation that has killed 2,750 people in Gaza, according to officials there. Across the Middle East, fears of a widening conflict and worsening humanitarian crisis were mounting.
Within the United States, Muslim and Jewish congregations have stepped up security, and law enforcement officials have said they are monitoring for potential hate crimes and other attacks.
Brendan Kelly, the director of the Illinois State Police, said everyone in his state “must remain on guard against both terrorism and hate crimes during this period of volatility.”
Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said, “There is no humane world that can and should tolerate the murder of an innocent child because of his identity.”
“The tragic events in the Middle East, begun by the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas, have brought ideologies of hate to the fore across the world — notably antisemitism and Islamophobia,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “This must end.”
Suburban Chicago has a large Palestinian American community, including an area with many Arab restaurants and shops that some refer to as Little Palestine. The attack on Saturday happened in a different part of the Chicago suburbs, in a home along a busy stretch of highway near a Chevrolet dealership and a barbecue restaurant. The property, in Plainfield Township, was adorned with several American flags, an advertisement for organic honey and a sign asking people to pray to end abortion.
Mariola Jagodzinski, who lives two houses away, said she never had any negative interactions with the suspect. She said she had given toys to Wadea’s mother, and was speechless and distressed when she heard about the killing.
“He was a playful child — really full of energy,” Ms. Jagodzinski said. “Kids are innocent. This really destroys so many hearts.”
Robert Chiarito and Johnny Diaz contributed reporting. Jack Begg contributed research.
Julie Bosman, Mitch Smith and Robert Chiarito
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