It bothers the hell out of me when a major hotel chain allows a known Islamic extremist group to conduct a conference at their facilities in their attempt to recruit prospective terrorists here in the States.

For those who may have missed it, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir – a global network of Sunni with ties to Al Qaeda met Sunday at a local Chicago area Hilton hotel to host a conference titled, “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam.”  And to think that this “group” professes not to condone or engage in terrorism not to mention that the State Department does not have them on their terrorist watch list.

Yet at the same time, some terrorism experts make the claim that this group is more dangerous than some that are on the list.  At least one person, Walid Phares – head of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies – says:

“Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism.”

He further stated that rather than training members to carry out terrorist acts like Al Qaeda, the group 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.

Part of their strategy is to package themselves as a moderate organization, yet they have a published book that seems quite the opposite of how they claim to operate here in the States.  The book, “How the Khilafah Was Destroyed,” has a passage in it that says that 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.”

They also endorse the hijacking of planes assuming that the plane belongs to a country that is at war with Muslims.  And yet despite what this organization’s obvious goal is, the State Department does not have them on their terrorist watch list and as a result, can host conferences like this anywhere in the U.S.

The hotel which is hosting this conference isn’t totally blameless here, either.  Rick Harmon, general manager of the Hilton Oak Lawn, said that Hizb ut-Tahrir registered under its own name when it reserved the room for the conference.  All well and good except that the hotel didn’t so its due diligence and discover that some of the lectures included in this conference has such titles as, “Capitalism is Doomed to Fail,” “The Global Rise of Islam,” and the “Role of Muslims in America”.  Only after the contract was signed did they discover this.

Harmon’s excuse?  He said that the hotel is open to all kinds of meetings that do not necessarily reflect the hotel chain’s beliefs, adding:

“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.”

It is obvious here that the hotel dropped the ball.  They should have done some vetting of this oprganization; apparently the pursuit of the dollar was more important than checking these unsavories to ensure that they were not a terrosist organization – which they obviously are.

It would behoove the State Department to investigate this group and discover for themselves what they’re all about.  But folks, don’t just take my word for it.  Here is this terrorist organization’s website.  To go there, click here.  Take a look around then you decide.