Who killed the Armanious family?

After the murder of Theo van Gogh, I feared it was only a matter of time before something similar happened in North America. A disturbing case in New Jersey suggests that a man and his family might - might - have been killed because he insulted the Islamic faith:

Authorities are exploring whether a religious argument in an Internet chat room led to the slaughter of a Coptic Christian couple and their two daughters in their Jersey City home, relatives of the slain family said yesterday.

One of the victims, 47-year-old Hossam Armanious, spent some of his spare time in chat rooms devoted to the Egyptian religious sect, at times proselytizing and at times writing about persecution of Coptic Christians by Muslims, family friends said.

Armanious' hobby took a dark turn about two months ago, friends said, when he was threatened after writing comments deemed an insult to Islam by another person logged in to a chat site.

"Some Muslim guys said if you don't stop this, we're going to come out and kill you," said a family friend, who requested anonymity, citing fears for his safety.

First Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Guy Gregory would not comment on the possibility that the slayings were a bias crime.

"We are continuing the investigation, making inquiries on several theories, and will not comment further," Gregory said.

Kathy Shaidle has more, including links to stories in the New York Post (which plays up the Muslim-Copt angle) and Newsday (which says a "former tenant" is suspected).

Update: the New York Daily News says the family was robbed when the murders were committed - but police haven't ruled out the religious angle, either.

Update II: Jeremy Lott: "if we tweaked the situation a bit -- say Egyptian Muslim immigrants were murdered and rabid Presbyterians were suspects -- it's hard to imagine law enforcement would be campaigning so vigorously against drawing conclusions, or that the press would by and large go along with that suggestion."

Update III: this (via LGF) is interesting:

ABC News has learned that the slain family's cousin has been a translator working for the prosecution in the trial of Lynne Stewart. She is the radical lawyer accused of smuggling messages from imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to terrorist cell members and associates.

I know we shouldn't jump to conclusions about this kind of thing. (Daniel Pipes has never been allowed to forget his comments just after the Oklahoma City bombing, which he said - not without reason, to be honest - seemed like the work of Islamic extremists.) But it's getting harder to believe this was just a robbery.

Posted by damian at January 17, 2005 07:47 AM