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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FBI CIVIL RIGHTS UNIT
“REQUIRED” to INVESTIGATE JERSEY CITY SLAYINGS
COPTIC LEADER CITES FBI’S WEB-SITE |
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Contact:
Robert Miller
201-569-4995/Cell: 201-679-8808
rmm@kesslercommunication.com
Jersey City, NJ-February 28, 2005: “The
FBI…requires each field office to initiate a civil
rights investigation whenever information is
received from any source not known to be
unreliable.” The web site continues, “…a
significant number of cases are initiated based on
media reports, complaints from community interest
groups…” Quoting the FBI’s web site, Monir A.
Dawoud, M.D., acting president of the American
Coptic Association renewed his plea for the FBI’s
Civil Rights Unit to investigate the possibility
that the murder of the Armanious family was
religiously motivated.
Mr. Armanious was a devout Christian and professed
it online. It was reported that he received death
threats as a result of postings under his screen
name, “I love Jesus”. On January 14, Hossam
Armanious, his wife Amal Garas, and their
daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 were found
bound and gagged, with their throats slit. Some
reports said that holes were “bored” in their
necks. “Just the thought that this family might
have been killed for professing Christian beliefs
should be enough to justify a bias investigation,”
said Dr. Dawoud, a New Jersey surgeon and advocate
for the Coptic Community.
“We have come to the United States from a
society where the truth was feared, and kept
secret. We don’t fear the truth. We fear its
absence. The Coptic Community will accept whatever
the proper authorities determine, as long as we
know that every avenue has been explored,”
proclaimed Dr. Dawoud.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s office leads four
other local and Federal law enforcement agencies
in the investigation. Thus far neither a Federal
nor state civil rights or bias unit has been
called in to make a determination as to whether
this was a hate crime.
“Just yesterday in Fayoum, Egypt it was reported
that two Christian women were kidnapped and forced
to convert to Islam. Unfortunately these tactics
are not new to us. I pray that we have not arrived
at the point where Americans have to fear for
their lives because of what they believe, and how
they worship God,” said Dawoud.
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