In the Chicago suburbs on December 20, 2009, a group that has conspired to deny Americans their Constitutional and civil rights will be using a government-managed facility to recruit new members to their extremist cause. In this case it will be the extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir America organization, which will be using the Lombard Park District community building in the Village of Lombard.

On July 19, 2009, the Hizb ut-Tahrir America organization held a recruitment meeting in another Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Illinois, in the Hilton Hotel.  The self-defined extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir America at the July 19 event distributed brochures to the public calling for the “death penalty” for those who committed the “treason” of leaving Islam; this is found on page 62 of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s brochure titled “Islamic reformation.”  An electronic form of such public death threats by Hizb ut-Tahrir against “apostates” is on the “official Hizb ut-Tahrir” web site Khilafah.com, linked to the Hizb ut-Tahrir America web page promoting the Lombard, Illinois event.  Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy and rejects secular nations, seeking only to promote an international “Khilafah” of Muslims, with its own set of laws.

Hizb ut-Tahrir America has sought to intimidate those who would exercise their Constitutionally-protected religious freedom by stating that in the global “Khilafah” of Muslims those who “publicly abandon Islam” should know “that they will be killed for it.” According to Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s handouts in the Chicago suburbs, those who choose such religious freedom are committing “an open attack on the basis of the state which is Islam, essentially it is viewed as treason and a political attack on the Khilafah in order to undermine it”… which according to Hizb ut-Tahrir America deserves “the death penalty.” On July 19, 2009, in full view of local law enforcement (and reportedly federal law enforcement) in Oak Lawn, Illinois, Hizb ut-Tahrir handed out this brochure calling for “the death penalty” against “apostates” from Islam to a reported 700 attendees at this conference.

Emboldened, Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s latest recruitment activity on December 20 will now be using a government-managed community building in the village of Lombard.  There is no public denunciation by government officials.  There is no public condemnation of this anti-democracy international Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, with a long history of making death threats both in the U.S. and around the world.  There is no public call for Hizb ut-Tahrir to retract its continuing promotion in the United States of a document calling for “the death penalty” against “apostates.”

Wouldn’t we be outraged if white supremacists were using a government-managed community building to hold meetings?  Wouldn’t we be more than outraged if such a white supremacist group had been calling for the “death penalty” for white Americans who disagreed with their supremacist views?  Wouldn’t we be demanding legal and law enforcement action to end such a conspiracy to violate others’ civil rights through intimidation?

At what point are open and public death threats (in writing no less) by extremist roups to specific identity groups recognized by our government and law enforcement as nothing less than conspiracies to violate protected American civil rights?  At what point is the use of public facilities to call for the “death” of identity groups recognized as a hate crime?

In America and around the world, we have seen the consequences of failing to take action against extremist groups inciting hatred against others with death threats.  Hizb ut-Tahrir and similar groups’ calls for “death” against others is considered a call to action for those who share this philosophy of hate.  Just last month, on November 2, in Arizona, a 20 year old girl Noor Almaleki died from an attack by her father for not adhering to what his family told the Arizona Republic were “Muslim values.” We are certain that the majority of Muslim Americans would reject such views, but we have also seen similar killings in Ohio, Indianapolis, Texas, and Georgia.  Who is next to die as a result because of such jate?

Death threats by extremist organizations have very real, very deadly consequences.  It is past time for Illinois and the federal government to act on the conspiracy by Hizb ut-Tahrir America to deny Americans’ freedom of religion, by its publicly calling for the death of those who seek such freedoms. It is not only an outrage; it is also a growing conspiracy to use intimidation tactics of death threats to violate our rights as American citizens.

The logo of the Hizb ut-Tahrir extremistt organization with its Black Flag of Extremism