Christians stalked on Islamic website
WND  | Jan 31st, 2005
 

The New Jersey man brutally murdered with his family was just one of a number of Christians systematically tracked by a radical Islamic website because they debate Muslims on the popular Internet chat service PalTalk.com.

The password-protected Arabic website www.barsomyat.com, includes the kind of death threat received by Hossam Armanious, a Coptic Christian from Jersey City, N.J., who was found Jan. 14 with his wife and two daughters, bound and gagged with their throats slashed, the New York Sun reports.

Two months before his murder, according to authorities, Armanious received a death threat from a Muslim PalTalk user: "You'd better stop this bull ... or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you."

The Sun's report says barsomyat.com features photographs and information about Christians who actively debate on PalTalk, including a group of photographs of a Syrian Christian, "Joseph," who now lives in Canada.

Personal information posted by subscribers clearly indicates they are trying to find his current address, the paper said.

One comment warns: "Know, oh Christian, that you are not far from us and you are under our watchful eyes!"

Another says: "Laugh, oh Christian, and soon you will see a big hit."

Banner on Islamic website that tracks Christians. The Islamic website's banner displays lamb with its throat being slit and a crucifix crossed out by a violent red "X." The main heading, in Arabic, says "Christians: Revealing the Truth Behind Our Belief."

Authorities have not determined whether the Armanious family's murder is tied to Islamic radicals, but the Sun says barsomyat.com users expressed delight in the deaths.

One post, with a photograph of Armanious and his wife, said, "This is a picture of the filthy dog, curser of Muhammad, and a photo of his filthy wife, curser of Muhammad. They got what they deserved for their actions in America."

The Islamic website has at least seven collections of photographs of Christians who post on PalTalk and about 40 related discussion threads.

One post is about a Christian man whose computer apparently was hacked to obtain his photograph. It includes his PalTalk name, real name and the city where he lives in Lebanon, the Sun reported.

Another entry, with photographs of four Christians, says it has postponed publishing information "because there is a lot more to be revealed when the time is right."

Islam researcher and writer Robert Spencer, moderator of the weblog JihadWatch.com, told the Sun he has never seen anything like the posts on barsonmyat.com.

"It's chilling to see photographs of people who probably have no idea that they're on the website," he said. "Hamas's website would post self-congratulatory accounts of their attacks on civilians, but barsomyat.com's users are telegraphing their intended victims in advance."

Spencer told the New York paper he sees barsomyat.com as a "prime example" of how Islamic extremists can utilize technology to attempt to bring Islamic religious law to the West.

"We saw in the Theo van Gogh murders that some Muslims will take these kinds of matters into their own hands," Spencer said, referring to the murdered Dutch filmmaker. "The Internet makes it easier for them to do so by disseminating this kind of information. You could imagine 15 years ago how hard it would be for people to get this much information on people who they believe should be killed."