Jihad in Jersey City?

DEPENDING ON THE OUTCOME OF the investigation, a recent grisly murder in Jersey City, New Jersey, may be a sign of things to come in our domestic war on terror.

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."

According to friends and relatives, the family was not particularly wealthy. Hossam Armanious was a headwaiter and his wife a postal clerk. Interestingly, assistant prosecutor Guy Gregory said, "It doesn't appear to be random. It appears to be a specific act. Someone was able to gain access without forcing entry."

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."