Hizb ut-Tahrir holds conference in Chicago

Islam Has Replaced Communism as Top U.S. Enemy
IPT News

A radical Islamist group which claims a presence in nearly 50 countries is so confident it can help establish a global Muslim government – or caliphate – that it distributed a draft constitution during a recent conference outside of Chicago.

It calls for the death penalty for apostates and for creating a government department dedicated to jihad.

The latest Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) gathering drew more than 300 people to a DoubleTree Hotel ballroom June 26.

(HT) is an international movement to establish a global Islamic state, or caliphate (Khilafah). Although it is officially committed to nonviolence, HT preaches a virulent brand of hatred for the United States, and for Western democracy in general. Its alumni include such violent Islamists as Khaiid Sheikh Mohammad, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and the late Iraqi jihadist Abu Musab Zarqawi. Hizb ut-Tahrir has been described as a “conveyor belt” of terror.

At the conference, activists portrayed Islam as the only real force in the world standing up to the United States and the West. With Soviet communism gone, the West is now confronted with the threat posed by Islam, said a speaker identified as Reza Imam. He has served as a spokesman for the organization.

“And they see the return of Islam,” he warned. “And this, brothers and sisters, is the shaking [of] the thrones.” Islam’s foes “see the coming revival of Islam, and they know what that means and they know what it means for their policies,” Imam said.

At the conference, HT activists distributed a brochure detailing how the Muslim state would be governed. The document is “to be studied by Muslims while they are working to establish the Islamic State that will carry the Islamic da’wah (proselytizing) to the world,” it says. The document would govern “the Islamic State in the Islamic world” and does not target individual countries.

The pamphlet, entitled “Khilafah State Structure: Introduction to the Constitution,” contains charts illustrating how a caliphate government would function along with a draft constitution.

“Those that are guilty of apostasy (murtad) from Islam are to be executed according to the rule of apostasy, provided they have themselves renounced Islam,” says Article 7. Moreover, “if they are born as non-Muslims, i. e., if they are the sons of apostates, then they are treated as non-Muslims according to their status as being either polytheists (mushriks) or People of the Book.”

The caliphate government would establish an “Internal Affairs Department” which would include a division of “Apostasy.”

Waging jihad would be a top priority for the government. The caliphate cabinet includes a senior-level “Private Secretary” for jihad. The “Military Department” – which appears to be a cabinet-level agency –would be headed by a “Field Marshall,” who appoints a “Director of Jihad,” his second in command. Included within the Treasury department would be something called a “Department of Jihad.”

The Treasury would be divided into two divisions: one handling revenue, which includes a “War booties Agency,” and the other covering expenditures, which includes both a “Dept. of Jihad” and a “Director of Jihad Office” on its organizational chart.

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