Murder

ASSIST News Service (ANS)

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

BRUTAL MURDER OF COPTIC CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN NEW JERSEY RAISES SPECTER OF ISLAMIC VIOLENCE IN USA

By John M. Lindner

JERSEY CITY, NJ (ANS) -- The murder of a Coptic Christian family in New Jersey in January is causing many to wonder if radical Islamic vengeance has hit the streets of America.

On January 14 Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their two children, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were found bound, gagged and stabbed to death in their Jersey City home.

The website Jihad Watch quoted the New York Post as saying family members who viewed photos of the bodies observed that Sylvia, who would have turned 16 the next day, apparently was attacked with greater savagery. The killers not only slit her throat, but slashed a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross.

"Family members are loathe to blame Muslim extremists for the murders," said Sliwa in an article published by the New York Sun, but point out "the details of the killings are similar to murders perpetrated by extremists in Egypt, where Coptic Christians have been bound, gagged and had their throats slit."

The article went on to say that the Hudson County Prosecutor suggested robbery may have been the motive and cites as evidence Armanious’s pockets being turned out, his wallet and a pocketbook emptied, and drawers rifled.

But relatives scoff at the suggestion. "The police have vouchered all of the jewelry. None of it was taken. In fact, my daughter was still wearing a ring worth $3,500 after she was murdered," said Anies Garas, Amal's father, the Sun article reported.

But what could have provoked radical Muslims to perform such a hate crime?

According to several reports, Armanious boldly proclaimed his faith on Internet chat rooms and invited Muslims to believe in Christ, and had been doing so for about five years. His intrepid declarations drew numerous threats via the website. When one Muslim told him to "shut up," Armanious allegedly replied, "I can say whatever I want. I live in America."

One of them said, "You’d better stop this . . . or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you," according to a store clerk who was on line at the same time and saw the messages.

According to Jihad Watch the killers had been practicing taqiyya, Islamic deception. They gained the confidence of the Armanious family by pretending to convert to Christianity. When they showed up at the Armanious home that fateful night, they presumably were welcomed in without hesitation, since there was no sign of break in.

While some Muslim clergy immediately denounced the grisly murders, some went on to denounce charges that the killings were religiously motivated. According to an Associated Press story by Wayne Parry, Ahmed Shedeed, director of the Islamic Center of Jersey City said, "We Muslims living in America are getting sick of this crap. Why should we have to apologize for or make a defense of something we had nothing to do with? There is no proof at all that Muslims had anything to do with this, yet we are taking the blame again. Is Islam on trial, or is a killer on trial?"

[TBC: This pattern of violence has persisted for centuries and is continual evidence that despite the politically correct mantra, Islam does not tend to peace.]