An entire Egyptian Coptic Christian family murdered, with strong circumstantial evidence that the killers were Muslim.

But what’s important to Newsday? Jersey City slaying spurs new wave of anti-Islam bias.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The dirty looks and shouted slurs started in 1993 after Muslims living here helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center. They intensified on Sept. 11, 2001, when Muslim hijackers brought down the twin towers just across the Hudson River.

Now a third wave of anti-Muslim sentiment is washing over New Jersey’s second-largest city, sparked this time by speculation that the murders of an Egyptian Christian man, his wife and two young daughters might have been carried out by Muslims angered over postings the man made in an Internet chat room. ...

The bodies of Hossam Armanious, a 47-year-old Coptic Christian, his 37-year-old wife, Amal Garas, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were discovered last week in the family’s home. They had been bound and gagged, and each was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and head.

Although prosecutors have stressed that robbery remains a possible motive in the case, many in this city’s sizable Egyptian population believe the killings were religiously motivated. Those beliefs were sparked in part by speculation of friends of Hossam Armanious who claim his life was threatened after his correspondence on a religious Internet chat room offended Muslims.

For people like Ahmed Shedeed, director of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, the accusatory feeling is all too familiar.

“We Muslims living in America are getting sick of this crap,” he said. “Why should we have to apologize for or make a defense of something we had nothing to do with? There is no proof at all that Muslims had anything to do with this, yet we are taking the blame again. Is Islam on trial, or is a killer on trial?” ...

Suzanne Loutfy, a Muslim leader of the Egyptian-American Group, asked people not to blame Islam if the killers are found to be Muslim.

“People are so willing to condemn an entire religion,” she said. “That’s what the big problem is. People commit crimes; religions don’t. I hope we can be intelligent enough to separate those two.”