Jersey Jihad

Oliver Guitta has a good article in the Weekly Standard about the investigation--or rather lack of one--into the brutal murders of four Coptic Christian Arabs in Jersey City on January, 14th.

Base10 has not commented on this horrific case, but the forces of political correctness may be overtaking the forces of honesty in criminal investigations. Here's Guitta's description of the scene:

On Friday, January 14, 2005, police discovered the bodies of a family of four Egyptian Copts slain in their home. Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife, Amal, 37, and their daughters Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, had been bound, gagged, and their throats slit.

The motive for the quadruple slaying has not yet been established. FBI agents are assisting with the investigation. Hudson County prosecutors say the killers refrained from taking expensive jewelry, but Armanious's wallet had been emptied and his pockets turned out.

"We know that money was taken," said prosecutor Edward De Fazio. "Whether that was the primary motivation, we don't know. To think that someone would commit this type of crime for a small amount of money does not make sense."

Yet, Guitta continues, there is ample information to point to a motive of religious extremism.

Another possible motive that is being reviewed is religious hatred. Armanious was active in Internet chat rooms defending the Copts against Islamic extremists. The Coptic church, whose presence in Egypt goes back nearly 2,000 years, has suffered persecution off and on over the centuries, intensifying in the last 10 years. Armanious had reportedly received a death threat online: "We will hunt you down . . . and kill you." Investigators have taken a computer from the children's bedroom. And according to the New York Post, a relative of Jersey City mayor Jerramiah Healy said there was information the murders were "religion-related."

Additional disturbing details point in this direction. First, the brutality and methodology of the crime do not fit the profile for simple robbery but rather call to mind the Islamist killings of Western hostages like Daniel Pearl in Pakistan and Nick Berg in Iraq.

In addition, the investigators acknowledge that a relative of the victims had helped prosecutors in their case against lawyer Lynne Stewart, currently on trial in Manhattan for allegedly carrying messages for her imprisoned client, the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York landmarks including the United Nations building.

The investigators downplay a possible connection between the Armanious case and the Stewart trial. What remains suggestive, however, is that the Armanious murder occurred in what some nickname "Terror City" because of its history of Islamic extremist activity.

Some commentators seem to be more concerned with reporting on a "backlash" against muslims. For example:

Jersey City Slaying Spurs New Wave Of Anti-Islam Bias - AP (via Jihadwatch)

Anti-Muslim Bias Renewed by Jersey City Murders - AOL News

Jersey City Slaying Spurs New Wave Of Anti-Islam Bias - WNBC

Thankfully, pundits like Guitta and Robert Spencer will not let the Jersey City District Attorney forget this case for the sake of winning an election in a largely Arab community.
- posted by Base10 @ 10:46 AM