|
|
Posted: Sunday, 19 July 2009 9:04PM
Controversial Muslim group, Hizb ut Tahrir meeting in Chicago
|
Jennifer O'Neill and Steve Miller reporting
Newsradio 780, WBBM
Demonstrators gathered outside the Hilton in Oak Lawn Sunday to protest a conference by a controversial Islamic group.
The conference by the group Hizb ut Tahrir (pronounced HIZZ-but-uh-REAR) is entitled "Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" .
The group dismisses democracy, and hopes to elect one worldwide Muslim leader.
A few dozen protestors, who brought signs and American flags, camped out outside the hotel...some preaching Christianity, others democracy and equality....others criticized the media for not letting the public know earlier about the event.
The group is in favor of implementing Islamic doctrine worldwide....and conference deputy spokesman Mohammed Malkawi dismisses claims by some that the group associates with terrorists. He calls those claims absolutely baseless.
Malkawi says the group was created in order to declare that political objectives can only be achieved through political means..not violence.
The groups's website says that in the west, they work to cultivate a muslim community that lives by islam in thought an deed.
With a convention theme like "Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam," Hizb ut-Tahrir America must have known they'd get some reaction.
Among those reacting AGAINST them is Junaid Afeef, the executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.
"Our objection to Hizb ut-Tahrir is that their point of view, their ideology, is completely 180 degrees opposite to what the mainstream Muslim community's views are on civic engagement."
Afeef says Hizb ut-Tahrir doesn't believe Muslims in the West should take part in the political process and that all Muslims should focus their energy on the establishment of an Islamic state.
Afeef says he'd like to know why Hizb ut-Tahrir America is holding this conference now - in Chicago, which he says is the worst place for the group since Chicago's Muslim community is, as he puts it, "pretty much antithetical to their viewpoint."
Afeef says the conference takes away from the good that he says the mainstream Muslim community is trying to do.
|
Contents of this site are Copyright 2009 by WBBM.
|
|
|
|
E-Mail Story
Print Story
