WASHINGTON (AINA) -- The U.S. Copts Association express its outrage, shock, and disbelief at the atrocious murder of a Coptic-American couple and their two children in their New Jersey home after father Hossam Armanious expressed "strong Coptic beliefs" to Muslim extremists on an internet discussion forum.

Armanious, a resident of heavily Coptic-populated Jersey City, was a frequent contributor to religious debates in chat rooms accessed through paltalk.com. The 47-year old Egyptian immigrant was known as an opinionated online defender of both his Christian faith and Egypt's persecuted Coptic minority. Authorities suspect the Armanious family's brutal slaying is linked to Armanious' vehement web postings defending Copts against militant Islam and rousing the ire of the internet forum's Muslim fundamentalist participants. A Muslim poster threatened Armanious with retaliation, warning, "We will hunt you down...and kill you."

Armanious, his wife Amal, and their fifteen- and eight-year old daughters Sylvia and Monica were found bound, gagged, and stabbed to death in their Jersey City home on Friday, Jan. 14. All four victim's throats had been slashed. Teenager Sylvia Armanious, an outspoken defender of Copts' religious freedom, sustained the most severe wounds, with slash marks on her throat, chest, and cross- tattooed wrist. Investigators point to the slashing of the teen's cross and the vicious nature of the slayings as indicators of a hate crime.

"Muslim extremists' gruesome slaying of an innocent Coptic family is not only appalling, but disturbing in its implications for the Coptic-American community," said Michael Meunier, president of the U.S. Copts Association. "Since Egypt's exponential increase in anti-Coptic hate crimes, Copts have fled to the U.S. seeking religious liberty and freedom from persecution. That such deadly prejudice has followed Coptic immigrants out of Egypt is deeply alarming, and must serve as a warning to U.S. officials in their campaign against terrorism. The Armanious family members are modern-day martyrs in Islamic fundamentalists' war on Christianity and the freedom it advocates. Al-Qaeda is not only in the Middle East but in New Jersey and we call on the FBI to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice."

Contact: U.S. Copts Association Communications Office, 202-737-3660

The U.S. Copts Association, founded in 1996 and based in Washington D.C., advocates for democracy, religious freedom, and human rights in Egypt. The Association represents over 700,000 Egyptian Christians in the United States.