When 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin opened the door of her ground-floor apartment in Plainfield, Illinois, her landlord was already angry.
Days prior, Joseph Czuba had told Shahin that he wanted her and her son to move out, according to Czuba’s sister. Less than a week later, he allegedly confronted Shahin again, this time with a military knife.
Shahin didn’t have time to speak. Czuba allegedly stabbed her more than a dozen times and killed her son, 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, as she tried to call 911. The FBI has launched a federal investigation into the attack.
Czuba’s wife told investigators he’d been listening to conservative talk radio on a regular basis, and that he’d become increasingly angry over the escalating conflict in Israel and Gaza.
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched a large-scale attack on Israel, taking hostages and killing more than 1,400 people. Israel quickly retaliated, launching a full-blown raid and aerial campaign that killed more than 4,000 people and displaced more than 1 million people in 10 days.
Since then, right-wing media has capitalized on the attacks, stoking hostility with xenophobic and anti-Muslim rhetoric — including referring to Palestinians as “barbarian pigs,” drumming up hatred against Arabs and Muslims in the U.S., and targeting the two Muslim women who are members of Congress.
It’s not clear if conservative radio was the sole factor in Czuba’s alleged turn to violence. But the dangers lurking within the trend are clear enough. Studies have found a link between hateful rhetoric and hate crimes. In 2018, researchers found that hate crimes against Muslims increased 32% in 2016, as Donald Trump was running for president and targeting Muslims with hostile and hateful language that reverberated across cable news and on social media.
Some of the recent claims on right-wing airwaves are too grotesque to amplify here. Others, listed below, may give an idea of what’s being said:
Eric Bolling, a host at the conservative…
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