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In a horrific incident that has received scant media attention, an entire family of Coptic Christians in New Jersey was mutilated and then murdered sometime last week.
The victims, the Armanious family, fled Egypt in 1997 to escape Islamic religious persecution. According to the New York Post:
Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.[Mr.] Armanious, an Egyptian Christian, was well known for expressing his Coptic beliefs and engaging in fiery back-and-forth with Muslims on the Web site paltalk.com.
He "had the reputation for being one of the most outspoken Egyptian Christians," said the source, who had close ties to the family.
The source, who had knowledge of the investigation, refused to specify the anti-Muslim statement. But he said cops told him they were looking into the exchanges as a possible motive.
The married father of two had recently been threatened by Muslim members of the Web site, said a fellow Copt and store clerk who uses the chat room.
"You'd better stop this bull---- or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you," was the threat, said the clerk, who was online at the time and saw the exchange.
The eldest daughter, Sylvia Armanious, was also very outspoken about her faith, according to classmates quoted in both the New York Post and Jersey Journal.
I am doubly shocked by this crime. Firstly because this sort of thing rarely if ever happens in the United States. And secondly because it happened in a neighborhood that was once the Irish slum called "Five Corners", where both my grandmother and my father were born. Five Corners has been a point of arrival for immigrants - a brief stop on the path to assimilation and upward mobility - for more than a hundred years. The murdered teenaged girl, Sylvia, was a student at Dickinson High School, where my father's mother and two of my mother's uncles were once students. From 1996 to 2000 I lived just down the hill, on Pavonia Avenue. Today the neighborhood's largest ethnic groups are all South Asian and Middle Eastern, and some have begun calling the commercial district north of Journal Square at Newark Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard "Little India".
The New York Times has published two brief articles on the murders. Neither of the articles mention Copt/Muslim tensions, the fact that nothing of value seems to be missing from the Armanious' apartment, or that Sylvia's wrist was slashed open where it bore a tattoo of a Coptic cross. Nor does either Times article mention that Sylvia's face and body were particularly badly mutilated. "All the news that fits," I guess.
It's worth noting that in the United States only one Muslim's murder has been definitively linked to retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. The victim was Waqar Hasan of Dallas, Texas, and he was killed on September 15, 2001 by a career criminal named Mark Stroman. Stroman also killed a Hindu and a Sikh and maimed a Bangladeshi around the same time, apparently lacking the mental acuity to make a distinction. Stroman is currently on death row in Texas - hopefully in the express lane.
Whoever massacred the Armanious family must be caught, expeditiously tried and executed if found guilty. Should the perpetrators turn out to be part of Jersey City's substantial Muslim community, and if the police learn this was a crime of a religious nature, then the conduct of the investigation must be of sufficiently high profile that the community as a whole learns that Islamic religious violence will not be tolerated in the United States. If the crime was plotted and carried out by members of a specific mosque, then that mosque must be seized and demolished, and its imams deported or tried as accessories. We are not going to tolerate this sort of thing in the United States. We are not going to tolerate anything remotely resembling Finsbury Park Mosque in this country.
If it is proven to be the work of a Muslim man or group of men, then perhaps the death penalty would not be a wise punishment - not if the perpetrator claims martyrdom (regardless of whether it is deserved under Koranic standards), particularly not if he is able to broadcast this. Better to have the guilty quietly rot on multiple life sentences without parole.
Sometimes, when I was living in Jersey City and working particularly late, I would take a cab home from Journal Square. After 9/11, Coptic drivers - of whom there were many - tended to place Christian iconography on their dashboards. I asked one driver, "You're Coptic?" and he was delighted to be properly identified. He was so thrilled to be here in the U.S., out from under the thumb of Islamic rule, that he couldn't stop talking about it.
This massacre is far, far crueler than the fatwa against Rushdie - it represents an attempt to intimidate all Christian Arabs or Christians in Muslim lands, to let them know they have to keep their mouths shut about how they suffer or suffered under Islam, or they won't be safe anywhere.
It's amazing to think how much criticism Islam must preclude, simply by instilling fear in potential critics.
Posted by: Sterling on January 17, 2005 02:28 AMYou seem, from your comments, to have assumed that it is a Muslim responsible for their deaths. Aren't all people innocent until proven guilty ?
Posted by: Kartika on January 17, 2005 05:49 AMAren't all people innocent until proven guilty?
Are you dabbling in metaphysics or are you too dense to know a rhetorical device when you see one? "Innocent until proven guilty" is a bromide used to remind people that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. A person is guilty of a crime if he commits the crime - what other people think or conclude or adjudicate doesn't make a damned bit of difference.
L'Čtat, ce n'est pas moi. I carry no burden of proof. I can think what I like and assume what I like. I spent about 28 years of my life in New Jersey, and I don't recall ever hearing about anything quite like this happening outside a Robert Harris novel. Until someone proves otherwise, my suspicion is that some overeager young Islamists - probably from Jersey City - are responsible for these murders.
But if I'm wrong, will I apologize to the Muslim community of Jersey City? Not on your life - I remember 40 Pamrapo.
Posted by: Sterling on January 17, 2005 06:54 AMOops. According to the Post in an article headlined THIEVING BUTCHERS, seems like robbery WAS indeed a motive. And no-one had crosses on their wrists slashed. And no-one seems to be mentioning terrible mutilations. And the brother doesn't believe the hate crime thesis. "All the news that fits" possibly also includes the idea that you should only publish stuff that's actually true, ha ha ha. I wonder what the Post's motto is. "Whatever sells, and quick!", perhaps. Sterling's will of course remain: "I am a twat".
So Sterling, your anti-Muslim pogrom will have to wait another day. Save your ghoulish glee for then and keep sharpening your machete. I guess Kartika will also feel pretty dumb for confusing rhetorical devices with the real world. Silly Kartika! Go to the back of the class!
Posted by: eurof on January 17, 2005 09:25 AMi find the fact that sterling is using French in his post far more disturbing. what gives? how dare you sully MF with the silver tongue of those oily devils!
Posted by: Marc on January 17, 2005 10:59 AMI lived in Jersey City for almost 8 years all told - it's a violent place and an older cousin warned me ahead of time that everyone he knew who'd moved to J.C. had been robbed at knifepoint. I had some near misses, and every now and then the Jersey Journal carried a headline of some horrific crime. Despite all that, I never heard of anything as gruesome as this happening to anyone.
Mutilated bodies imply rage. Successfully killing the whole family and locking the door and iron gate behind them as the perpetrators left indicates careful planning. We're to believe a carefully planned robbery of an immigrant family with an unemployed father and mail clerk mother? I call bullshit. This was not intended as a robbery. I'm sticking with my theory.
The only thing that would bring sense to the robbery theory is if the father was an organized crime figure. But there's no Coptic Mafia. The JCPD is probably trying to quiet Islamist rumors to win cooperation from Muslims in Jersey City.
Posted by: Sterling on January 17, 2005 01:04 PMSterling, have you told the cops of your theory? Maybe they'll recruit you!! You're a bit like what would result if Miss Marples mated with Tintin = a super sleuth, but possibly with arthritic ankles.
Posted by: eurof on January 17, 2005 03:37 PMIf this is a hate crime, and if this is the result of incitement to violence by an Imam, I believe there are laws in place to deal with this, and they should be followed, so to that extent I agree with you. (The death penalty is a separate issue, which we agree to disagree on.) Note, however, that none of the laws currently on the books involve collective punishment -- in other words, punishment of innocents belong to the same group as the guilty. I hope you agree with me that this is not how we do things in civilized society, where individual responsibility reins supreme over groupthink.
Posted by: Stefan Geens on January 17, 2005 03:55 PMSterling
I was asking you, when I was being "Dense" to not be sloppy in resorting to a prejudice until there was more "proof". I would have thought anyone of some intelligence would be willing to suspend belief or disbelief until forensically there was SOMETHING to show that their initial conclusions were correct. And I mean conclusions arrived at through prejudice.
Yes- you lived wherever you did and of course saw and experienced what you did- this gives you some weight when you say "I bet... that's what happened" - but as in this case, there is always the off chance that the butler did it.
And Eurof thanks for your facetious support(or at least that's how I have interpreted it)- it seems as if I am already at the back of the class in Memefirst given that I don't carry the wariness if not outright suspicion of Islam that seems to characterise most of the other commentators or bloggers-
Posted by: kartika on January 18, 2005 01:19 AMSeems the Muslim apologists haunt this place too.
If terrorism is NOT a possible cause why is the FBI involved? After all it's just another typical slaughter of an entire Christian family.
You must be getting your information from the NY Times, which refuses to acknowledge the fact that there is this thing called Islamic terrorism.
BTW any comments upon the fact that Mr. Armanious was apparently threatened in a peaceful Muslim chatroom?
I guess that has no relevance, man I love multicultural diversity...
Posted by: Muley on January 18, 2005 09:26 PMI love it how Sterling poses as random other posters such as Muley in an attempt to bolster his opinions
Posted by: Sterling on January 18, 2005 09:43 PMActually, the posted IP addresses guarantee that that isn't the case.
Posted by: Stefan Geens on January 18, 2005 11:12 PMStefan, not trying to geek out on you here, but I can change/customize my IP address fairly easily. There are tons of annonomizing (sp?) tools that you can download to spoof your IP address and avoid detection. Just Google and you shall find. There are other ways to do it to, but I don't want to turn this into a l00pht discussion.
Anyways, Muley's IP 24.4.132.39 address does not appear remote enough from Sterling's home 24.125.42.74 (maybe it's work and he's there are 2:28am) IP to not make the posting appear suspicious. Oh, that's right, there is some mathematically huge number (3,486,784,401) of differences between Sterling's IP and Muleys. What was I thinking?
Posted by: Sanford on January 19, 2005 06:39 PMWhat you weren't thinking is that the IP addresses of most of us are either fixed or dynamically assigned from a subdomain by an ISP that doesn't do open proxy relaying.
Hence, while it easy for me to pretend not to be Stefan by faking my IP address via an open proxy servers, it is very difficult for you to pretend to be me, as my typical IP addresses are not those of proxy servers.
Posted by: Stefan Geens on January 19, 2005 07:15 PMEm, oh wait, nevermind. I think you have a point.
Posted by: Stefan Geens on January 19, 2005 07:19 PMRight on, someone finally agrees with me. I think the math was right, but if not, I am sure someone will correct it.
You can also use a proxy, (explained here http://emoney.al.ru/misc/anonymous.htm if needed) and be like a ghost. Finally, the Russians doing something to help the world out.
I'm a fan of EPIC, so bear with me.
Posted by: Sanford on January 19, 2005 10:22 PMWell I know for a fact that this was done by moslims, there is no other explanation for the way they were murdered, moslims hate Christians, we all know it that have lived in the Middle East. They murdered us many times before in even worse ways than this, if it even is possible.
Not only the Copts who are our brothers in faith know this but the Syriac know this too, as do the Chaldeans, Pontiac Greeks, Armenians etc. all of the antient Christian churches.
The way they slaughtered the girl, by stabbing her in he cheast where she has a cross says that loud and clear.
My prayers go out to the Armanious family, may they be at God's side in Heaven. Where they suffer no more
Nahrin - I don't know for a fact that Muslims did this, and neither do you. We can suspect it strongly, and I think we both do.
I am disappointed that there have been no arrests for what was clearly a premeditated crime. In my experience the Jersey City Police Department is very adept at handling small crimes and maintaining public order, but I can't say whether that extends to major crimes such as this one. The FBI is assisting. Hopefully we'll know soon, and if our suspicions turn out to be correct we can then publicize this appropriately.
Posted by: Sterling on January 31, 2005 02:08 AM