The FBI is investigating a radical Islamic Web site that posted photos and information about people who use an Internet chat room frequented by a Jersey City man whose family was murdered Jan. 14. The Web site, barsomyat.com, contained detailed information about some users of the PalTalk.com chat service whom the site’s members accuse of being outspoken critics of Islam, according to published reports.
An FBI spokesman confirmed Monday that federal investigators are probing whether the site -which is run by a Jordanian -played any role in the murders of Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8. The family was discovered bound and stabbed to death in their Jersey City Heights home.
Hossam Armanious was an active participant in PalTalk.com discussions, using the nickname "I Love Jesus," according to friends. Armanious, a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt, would often engage in heated debates with Muslims in the site’s religious chat rooms, and family members have speculated that the murders stemmed from these discussions and his attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Source: [North Jersey Media] Via: [Sabbah’s blog]
I have been following this murder for a while now and it saddens me to see that there is now an alleged Jordanian link to these horrible murders. I tried to visit the site mentioned but I couldn’t get through. I think it is already shut down. About time no?
No one in the U.S. will blame Jordan. Jordan is seen in the U.S. – rightly or wrongly – as one of the most rational and pragmatic states in the Middle East.
Regarding the Armanious family – If it turns out that they were murdered by Muslims (which seems very likely to me) it will be important for the authorities to find a link to a specific mosque or specific group of men. There aren’t many Jordanians in Jersey City, so it’s fairly unlikely the perpetrators were Jordanian.
Paltalk has hundreds if not thousands of rooms. Some are really educative, some are provocative. You choose where to go. If you don’t like one, go to the other. Not only some Coptics that attack, also Moslems attack Cristianity; and both are provocative; where to sart and how to regulate that; I have no answer.
I have seen this site many times before. It is one of those sites as fanatic as the Coptic sites also that attack Islam. The only thing that I knew from my old visits to the Paltalk is that threats were common and that that site and its related chat rooms were really talking (publicly) about hacking rooms that attack Islam and hacking their computers, finding their photos, and following them.
However, you shouldn’t be saddened by the Jordanian connection; it is just a preliminary thing. There are no nations on Internet… remember that. Each domain is a domain.. no countries there!!
Well.. everybody has the right to be fanatic or crazy- but nobody has the right to threat or promote hate on the Internet. This should really be more regulated.
I’ve been following it also, and share your sadness, Natasha. Forget Norma Khoury, this is what is going to harm Jordan’s reputation.
It was closed down, but it was based in Minnesota.
Jareer, ya lost me there, but I think I got the jist of it.
Ma shaa2 allah wa tabaarak ! Abu Mis3ab, Jordanian terrorist site, what else ? Yallaah ; mahi maakleh hawa, maakleh hawa , ma dall bil khomm ghayr mam3oot il danab; sorry for the so many Arabic Jordanian expressions.