<font color = lightgreen>News story is here.

This is exactly the kind of situation no one wanted to have happen. Mr. Armanious had been having heated discussions on a message board/chat room recently, and some believe that his family was targeted for things he had been saying. Investigators are in the process of obtaining a subpoena for his computer to check for information to generate some leads; meanwhile, the case is primarily being investigated as a robbery/homicide instead of a hate crime. Robbery/homicide is a capital crime, while hate crime is a Federal offense.

Bottom line, even if the investigators find that the crime had nothing whatsoever to do with the family's religious beliefs, both sides are going to think it does anyway because that is what they already believe to be true. This will simply give some people a focal point to pursue whatever agenda they have in mind.

remember: discuss only the case and its fallout, not the pros and cons of either Coptic Christianity or Islam.</font>

Those murders were absolutely disgusting. I also don't feel that this is an appropriate topic for discussion, as religion was the primary cause of both the outrage and the murder itself.

<font color = lightgreen>It would be an appropriate topic, if religion is not discussed. As I said, "discuss the case and its fallout", meaning "fallout" from a social point-of-view. Besides, there is still no direct evidence that religion played a factor in this event, as it could have been merely a robbery/homicide and not a hate crime.

Even if religion does turn out to be the cause, it can be discussed as a social issue without making comments on the relative merits of either religion. That should have been apparent from the wording of my post.</font>

There you go again, expecting people to read your posts...

It appears that many of the mourners did not make claims about Muslim involvement, which could be a generally good sign. If the people closest to the family were to raise a stink about it, it could turn ugly very quickly. If they urge caution and patience to see the results of the investigation, it may help to calm things a bit. I'm curious if the local police have involved the feds yet - or if the feds have involved themselves - as this has the potential of causing some long-term civil strife in the city. I feel for the investigators, as anything they do will be scrutinized a hundred times over and freely misinterpreted for the benifit of different groups. I could see this turning into a Watts-scale riot if it were to be mishandled. Given the current state of mind of many Americans, mixing up religion, politics, "terrorism" and murder in a medium-sized city is a recipe for disaster.
Interesting story Azred, this case will bear watching in the next few weeks.

<font color = lightgreen>I know...I shouldn't make people work. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Yes, fortunately the vocal minority was very small...but what they said made it into the media. The whole community is in shock, not just portions of it, I'm sure.
I agree with you about the detectives--every statement will be analyzed by a panel of talking heads on a daily basis, and every quote will be in print the next day. Because of the sensitive nature of the crime and its associated circumstances, it will be difficult for them to conduct a proper invesitgation, as some will want them to find the guilty parties quickly; if they don't act "quickly enough" tempers will flare.
This is similar to cases in larger cities (such as Dallas) when a white police officer shoots a black suspect--lots of tension in the media for a couple of days until the initial furor dies down.</font>

<font color=plum>This certainly looks like a home invasion crime more than a hate crime. Of course, it would help to know exactly what type of remarks the father posted on the internet chat room that led to the suspicion of Muslim terrorists being responsible.
We've had very heated arguments here before - over religion and politics both - but I doubt ANY of the participants were angry enough to actually take action against another member for comments that were made.

It is good to see that the family and church officials were NOT the ones placing the blame on Muslims. It is said to see the president of the American Coptic Association automatically blamed the Muslims, but at least he did attribute to Muslim terrorists rather than Muslims as a whole.

While there is no doubt that there are most likely Muslim terrorists living amongst us, they are no more representative of the Muslim religion than the KKK are representative of Christianity.

I agree that the detective will be watched closely, but they have to be open-minded in their investigation and explore ALL possibilities, including the fact that this may have been a home invasion. The only thing that actually points away from this being a home invasion is the manner in which the family members were killed. If it were a "normal" home invasion, it would be more likely for the family to be shot rather than stabbed. And the placement of the wounds does suggest a symbolic or ritualistic significance to the killings.

A very sensitive case and a terribly tragedy, regardless of who is responsible.</font>