Jihad in Jersey City?

[buckee]

Jihad in Jersey City?

By Dale Hurd

CWNews

CWNews.org Jersey City, N.J. -- When a Coptic Christian family in the state of New Jersey was murdered-- execution-style--last month, it may have been just another tragic homicide. But it may have also been an act of Islamic terrorism.

Members of Jersey City's Coptic Christian community are now afraid that they're being hunted. They're also afraid that justice will not be served. Some are calling the crime the "Jihad in Jersey City."

At a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the Jersey City home of the dead Armanious family, mourners not only prayed for the victims, they prayed for justice.

Because, rightly or wrongly, there is a real fear in this tightly knit immigrant community of Egyptian Christians that police don't want to find the real perpetrators of this crime.

One month ago the Armanious family was found brutally murdered here in their home and police have still not announced a suspect. Police have suggested the murder was for money. But almost no one in Jersey City's Coptic community is accepting that.

Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal, and daughters 15-year-old Sylvia and 8-year- old Monica were found duct-taped to chairs, their throats savagely cut.

Many believe the murder was a hate crime because Hossam Armanious was an outspoken Christian. Rafigue Iscander was a personal friend and one-time business associate of Hossam Armanious.

Mr. Icsander said, "I knew Mr. Armanious in 1982. We worked together. The guy was religious guy...straight guy. You depend on him to do anything."

Armanious, under the screen name of "I Love Jesus," shared his faith and debated Muslims on the Website Paltalk.com. But he apparently created enemies, because one of the members of Paltalk told a New York newspaper that shortly before the murders, he saw a posted message in a chat room that someone was going to track Armanious down like a chicken and kill him -- a middle eastern reference to slitting the throat.

Then after the murder, a photo of Hossam Armanious and his wife was posted on a radical Muslim Web site Barsomyat.com, with this message: "This is a picture of the filthy dog, curser of Muhammad and a photo of his filthy wife, curser of Muhammad. They got what they deserved for their actions in America. They were slaughtered along with their children as a punishment from the heavens to those who curse the most divine of all who were created."

At the funeral, grief turned to rage, as mourners called the killings an act of Muslim terror.

The murders have created a sense of dread among Jersey City's Coptic Christians, who fear that the Islamic persecution and violence they fled in Egypt has followed them to New Jersey.

One man says he hopes the police find the murderers because Egyptian Christians faced this kind of brutality and terror in Egypt.

And a woman says after the murders there is no safety for her family in the U.S., and she's leaving New Jersey.

Investigators recently told a New Jersey newspaper that they still believe the murders were about money, even though relatives of the victims told us the Armanious family was poor. Police say the house was ransacked and money was taken, but relatives told us almost nothing was taken.

Add-Family members also wonder why, if it was robbery, did Amal Armanious still have a $3,500 ring on her finger when her body was found?

Relatives of the victims held a national press conference Tuesday in Washington to state, while they're not blaming anyone for the crime, they will not accept robbery as a motive, as they also told us when they invited us into their home.

Ayman Garas is Mrs. Armanious' brother. He said, "It's out of the discussion if you even say robbery. This is not acceptable. It's not robbery, no."

And Emad Garas, who is also related to the family, said, "We know it's not a robbery. We know it's not a vendetta. We know it's not financial. We want to know the motive."

But some are wondering if there is political pressure to somehow turn an anti-Christian hate crime into a robbery. And at the Press conference, human rights leaders appealed to the Justice Department to get involved in the case.

Coptic Christians told us they came to America to be protected from Muslim extremism. But many now feel as if America is letting them down.

One woman said, "Our families in Egypt are under this type of threat every single day. Keep this story alive. Remember these people; these people were normal human beings asleep in their homes."

Perhaps Police will find that the Armanious family was killed over money. And police may say they have the evidence to support it. But judging from what we heard on the streets of Jersey City, it seems doubtful that the Coptic Christian Community here will ever believe it was robbery.

[wtnhunt]

Re: Jihad in Jersey City?

That is sad. Just never can tell about people. Maybe it was drug related somehow, who knows or maybe it was infact a radical group inside this country.

There are unsolved murders all over this country. A slaying happened here about 2 miles from us out in themiddle of the sticks where a womanand her daughter were brutally slayed. Some thought due to the timing it could have been the railway killer. Just never know.

[dg]

Re: Jihad in Jersey City?

It wouldn't surprise me. Every darn gas station seems to be owned by folks with towel hats and beards. They pump your gas up there for some reason. One morning, I waited to get gas. No one showed so I went to the door and saw some son of a beach praising alah on a towel on the floor. There's something funny going on up there.