Posted by Tina
“Group Reportedly Linked to Al Qaeda Holds First U.S. Conference” – FOX News
** Protesters gathered outside a Chicago area hotel Sunday as an Islamic extremist group reportedly linked to Al Qaeda held its first official conference on U.S. soil in an attempt to step up Western recruitment efforts. *** Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir — a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq’s onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — met Sunday inside a Hilton hotel to host a conference, “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam.” *** Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it does not engage in terrorism, and it is not recognized by the State Department as a known terror group. *** But some terrorism experts say it may be even more dangerous than many groups that are on the terror list. *** “Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism,” Walid Phares, director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told FOXNews.com. *** Phares said that Hizb ut-Tahrir, rather than training members to carry out terrorist acts like Al Qaeda, focuses instead on indoctrinating youths between ages of 9 and 18 to absorb the ideology that calls for the formation of an empire — or “khilafah” — that will rule according to Islamic law and condones any means to achieve it, including militant jihad. **
From the same article and the horses mouth:
** On Sunday, more than 100 group members gathered inside the Oak Lawn Hilton hotel just outside Chicago, blasting capitalism and calling for a rise of Islam. “Free market, organization, capitalization — all has failed and brought disaster to America,” said one of the group’s speakers. **
** Hizb ut-Tahrir itself has also published writings that seem to contradict its tenet of non-violence. In his book, “How the Khilafah Was Destroyed,” Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zalloom, the former global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, says anyone who rules by a non-Islamic system should “either retract or be killed … even if this led to several years of fighting and even if it led to the killing of millions of Muslims and to the martyrdom of millions of believers.” **
** Hizb ut-Tahrir’s official ruling on the permissibility of hijacking planes says, <strong."If the plane belongs to a country at war with Muslims, like Israel, it is allowed to hijack it, for there is no sanctity for Israel nor for the Jews in it." **
** And one of the organization’s more recent leaflets, published in March, calls for the declaration of “a state of war against America.” **
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One Islamic group wants nothing to do with the conference or it’s organizers:
** But one place the group will likely not be recruiting is a local Islamic school that backed out of hosting the conference. *** The non-profit Aqsa school in Bridgeview said Hizb ut-Tahrir had deceptively portrayed the conference as a bazaar-type event where traditional food and clothing would be sold. “They misrepresented themselves and the event. We don’t want to be in the middle of something like that,” the school’s business manager Rana Jaber, told CBS News. **
As related on this blog: “The conference’s new venue doesn’t seem to mind.”:
** Hilton Oak Lawn General Manager Rick Harmon said Hizb ut-Tahrir used its own name when it reserved the room for the conference, but the hotel was not aware of the content of the event, which includes lectures entitled “Capitalism is Doomed to Fail,” “The Global Rise of Islam,” and the “Role of Muslims in America,” until after the contract was signed. *** Still, Harmon said the hotel is open to all kinds of meetings, that don’t necessarily reflect its position or beliefs. *** “We’re United States citizens and an American business — if it’s legal, we’re able to host it, as long as it’s nothing that disrupts our other guests’ privacy and security,” Harmon told FOXNews.com. *** According to the Khilafah Conference 2009 Web site, the group aims to do neither. *** “Hizb-ut-Tahrir is convinced that change must start in the minds of people, and therefore does not accept for people, or societies, to be forced to change by means of violence and terror,” it reads. *** The site, which includes a promotional YouTube video, says the group “does not work in the West to change the system of government, but works to project a positive image of Islam to Western society.” *** But former member Ishtiaq Hussain said Hizb ut-Tahrir is repackaging itself as a moderate organization as a tactic, while in reality it is “extremist.” *** “They don’t recognize countries like Israel, for example; they don’t believe Israel should exist,” Hussain, now a trainer for the Quilliam Foundation, told FOXNews.com. “Some of their leaders have denied the Holocaust, and they believe homosexuals should be thrown off the highest building. … It’s actually a very dangerous group.” **
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President George Bush took a pro-active approach to fighting terror, taking the fight to the enemy. Terror organizations have been off balance and were having trouble funding their efforts as he left office. President Obama, to his credit, has followed through on many of the former president’s efforts in the Middle East but he has also taken a more open conciliatory approach to dealing with terrorists, a stance which seems to have emboldened our enemies both here and around the world:
“Police may have found Jakarta bomber’s laptop” – CNN
** JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) — Indonesian police have recovered a laptop that they believe belonged to one of the bombers of Friday’s twin hotel attacks in Jakarta, the country’s official news agency said Sunday. *** The laptop contained information and codes that the attackers may have used to communicate with each other, the state-run Antara News Agency said. *** The computer was found in a room at the Ritz Carlton, one of two hotels targeted Friday. The other site was the JW Marriott. *** The blasts killed nine people — including at least two presumed suicide bombers — and wounded more than 50. *** Anti-terrorism officials are investigating the links between the attacks and Noordin M. Top, the suspected leader of a small Jemaah Islamiyah splinter group. The group has ties to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network, but so far there has been no claim of responsibility for the latest attack. *** Top is reportedly an officer, recruiter, bomb-maker, and trainer for the group, which was involved in a previous attack on the Marriott — in August 2003 — as well as attacks on a Bali nightclub in 2003 and the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004, according to the FBI. *** Among the victims who have been identified by Indonesia’s health ministry, two were Australian, and one each from New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia. *** Among the wounded were six U.S. nationals, according to the State Department. **
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Some prefer to think that this threat is made up of a small rather insignificant operation of criminals but I believe their words and actions bely this notion. Others agree. Here are a few links featuring people with valuable expertise and knowledge:
“Islam the religion of peace” – “Islamic Terrorists have carried out more than 13628 deadly terror attacks since 911”
“Foundation for the Defense of Democracies”
“Faster Please – Michael Ledeen”
The American soldier now held captive in a Taliban stronghold reportedly linked to Al Qaeda will be featured in a separate post.