Oscar-Tango | despardes.com

JAN 21: First it was a horrible crime, a gruesome murder of four apparently done for money. Then it got kicked around like a football in the alleys and shisha cafes of Jersey City neighborhood as if it was a game of Sunday football which ought to have a touchdown. The ever exuberant media followed of course. So did the authorities apparently. The story kept developing until the crime changed to "a terrorist act". Here's the "touchdown". The rest is becoming a religious-cum-political hot potato and the media and the authorities may not be doing enough to control the situation.

Meanwhile, I have attempted to highlight facts and observations on a timeline basis to show how the conservative Washington Times has used the gruesomeness of the perpetrated crime to spice up its views on Islam of course, as if all it stands for is, Jihad, extremism, terrorism, etc.

There is no harm in having and writing such views as long as they are anchored on facts.

According to Diana West, writing in Washington Times on Jan 21 she says: "Real-life news broke about the vicious murders of a Coptic Christian family whose bound and gagged bodies, slit throats and stab wounds on a Coptic cross tattoo immediately raised fears that the crime may have been Islamic in nature.."

But New York Times in its Jan 21 related article says: The police ...discounted newspaper reports that a tattoo of a cross on Sylvia Armanious's wrist had been stabbed.

It was ABC News which basically broke the news, first cautiously and objectively, while FOX News was the first to paint the crime right from the get go with a religious cum rightist brush. ABC and others then followed looking at it as a possible hate crime. Now, from perception point of view "it appears to be a hate crime".

JAN 14: Ayman Garrus, victim's brother: "They did this for no reason, probably for the money. Take the money and leave! Why you kill everybody?"

The brother of one of the victims was trying to get in touch with his sister for the past few days when all attempts failed. So he and his family tried to get into the house but they could not open the door. That's when the family members decided to go to the police to file a missing persons report.

Early this morning police went into the residence and made the discovery.

At this point police do not have a suspect in custody but we understand that they do have very good leads and this may have been a tenant dispute. (ABC News)

JAN 15: We're told the victims were Christians who fled Egypt because of religious persecution.

With no signs of forced entry or robbery, detectives suspect the victims may have known their killer. But at this moment, still no motive or suspect in this heartbreaking case. (ABC News)

JAN 17: Questions continue to be raised about why a religious family would be savagely attacked, and murdered.

The Coptic Business Association of Jersey City is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the slayings.

Authorities say they're making inquiries on several theories, but are declining comment on a possible motive in the slayings.

There's speculation the family members, including two young daughters, were killed by a Muslim.

The man and his wife were Egyptian Coptic Christians. He allegedly made critical remarks about Muslims in an Internet chat room.

Police say their bodies were found brutally stabbed, but also say that robbery has not been ruled out yet.

During the funeral ceremonies in a Jersey City church on Monday, a man shouted, "Muslim is the killer! Muslim is the killer!" He was dragged away by police.

Mionica

The FBI is investigating this matter...

ABC News has learned that a cousin of the slain family 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.

Bob Troy, Jersey City Police Chief: "I don't believe that it was random. I think that, from what we know at this point, they probably knew their killers." (ABC News)

JAN 18: Investigators are looking into the possibility that Hossam Armanious, 47, his 37-year-old wife, Amal Garas, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were slain by a Muslim angered over postings that the father wrote in an Internet chat room. The family's bodies were found bound and gagged Friday, their throats and heads stabbed repeatedly. Authorities stressed that robbery remained a possible motive because no cash or jewelry were found in the home. Prosecutor Guy Gregory said the father's wallet was empty.

The regional head of the Coptic church also cautioned against a rush to judgment, but Monir Dowoud, president of the American Coptic Association, said Sunday that ''Muslim terrorists" were responsible.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the oldest communities in Christendom.

According to tradition, it was founded in the first century by Saint Mark, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. (Boston Globe)

JAN 19: It was billed as an interfaith unity event, aimed at defusing religious tensions following the slayings of an Egyptian Christian couple and their two children, but only Muslim leaders attended.

Organizers of Wednesday's news conference said Coptic Church officials told them they could not make the gathering because of a religious holiday and a local funeral. Methodist clergy invited also did not attend.

Muslim groups pleaded with the media and the public not to rush to judgment, and if Muslims are found to have committed the slayings, not to blame an entire religion for the acts of a few individuals.

Authorities are investigating the possibility they were slain by a Muslim angered over postings that Armanious, a Coptic Christian, wrote in an Internet chat room. But prosecutors also stressed that robbery remains a possible motive. (AP/Kansas City Star)

JAN 20: Now a third wave of anti-Muslim sentiment is washing over New Jersey's second-largest city, sparked this time by reports that the murders of an Egyptian Christian man, his wife and two young daughters might have been carried out by Muslims angered over postings the man made in an Internet chat room.

Although prosecutors have stressed that robbery remains a possible motive in the case, many in this city's sizable Egyptian population believe the killings were religiously motivated.

Suzanne Loutfy, a Muslim leader of the Egyptian-American Group, asked people not to blame Islam if the killers are found to be Muslim.

"People are so willing to condemn an entire religion," she said. "That's what the big problem is. People commit crimes; religions don't. I hope we can be intelligent enough to separate those two." (NBC)

Sylvia JAN 21: Real-life news broke about the vicious murders of a Coptic Christian family whose bound and gagged bodies, slit throats and stab wounds on a Coptic cross tattoo immediately raised fears that the crime may have been Islamic in nature, a slaying of "infidels" � in Jersey City. Around the time the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was charging Fox with perpetuating terrorist stereotypes, stereotypical terrorism may well have been taking place. (Diana West, Washington Times)

JAN 21: Hundreds of Copts stood watching as members of the American Coptic Association gathered before television cameras and declared the family's murder a religious "execution," drawing comparisons to slayings by terrorists in Iraq and Egypt.

"Wake up America!" yelled Dr. Monir Dawoud, the president of the group. If newcomers to the Arab community found the image of Arabs denouncing other Arabs as terrorists surprising, it was not unusual for Dr. Dawoud, whom some have criticized as using the murder case to advance Coptic rights in Egypt.

Almost immediately, rumors flew: Mr. Armanious had engaged in fiery debates about Christianity and Islam in Internet chat rooms, and may have been threatened with murder, his friends said.

The police would not confirm or deny that, but discounted newspaper reports that a tattoo of a cross on Sylvia Armanious's wrist had been stabbed. (NY Times)

(Despardes News Monitor)