Protesters Gather Outside Islamic Conference Near Chicago

Protesters gathered outside a Chicago-area hotel Sunday as an Islamic extremist group reportedly linked to Al Qaeda held a conference in an attempt to step up Western recruitment efforts.

Roughly 500 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 inside a Hilton hotel in Oak Lawn, Ill., to host "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam."

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Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it does not engage in terrorism. The organization is not recognized by the State Department as a known terror group. Its supporters, however, blasted capitalism while calling for a rise of Islam during Sunday's conference.

"Free market, organization, capitalization — all has failed and brought disaster to America," said one of the group's speakers.

Click here to visit a Web site for the conference.

Dozens of protesters outside the hotel — many of whom held American flags — shouted as attendees left the conference late Sunday. No arrests had been made.

"This is America," the protesters said. "If you don't like it in America, go home!"

Despite the charged rhetoric, Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it condemns terrorism "by all means," spokesman Mohammad Malkawi told reporters Sunday.

"It is not in our dictionary," Malkawi said. "We condemn it by all means … From our perspective, our records are clean on this issue."

Malkawi said the group had "never indulged in recruiting" jihadists.

"Our action is the other way around," he continued. "We do not train them for violence or for jihad … Our objective is to create an Islamic state of khalifah in the Muslim world."

But some terrorism experts say Hizb ut-Tahrir may be even more dangerous than many groups that are on the State Departrment's 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.

Hizb ut-Tahrir often says that its indoctrination "prepares the infantry" that groups like Al Qaeda take into battle, Phares said.

"It's like a middle school that prepares them to be recruited by the high school, which is Al Qaeda," he said. "One would compare them to Hitler youth. ... It's an extremely dangerous organization."

Phares said Hizb ut-Tahrir has strongholds in Western countries, including

Protesters gathered outside a Chicago-area hotel Sunday as an Islamic extremist group reportedly linked to Al Qaeda held a conference in an attempt to step up Western recruitment efforts.

Roughly 500 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 inside a Hilton hotel in Oak Lawn, Ill., to host "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam."

Click here for more from the LiveShots blog.

Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it does not engage in terrorism. The organization is not recognized by the State Department as a known terror group. Its supporters, however, blasted capitalism while calling for a rise of Islam during Sunday's conference.

"Free market, organization, capitalization — all has failed and brought disaster to America," said one of the group's speakers.

Click here to visit a Web site for the conference.

Dozens of protesters outside the hotel — many of whom held American flags — shouted as attendees left the conference late Sunday. No arrests had been made.

"This is America," the protesters said. "If you don't like it in America, go home!"

Despite the charged rhetoric, Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it condemns terrorism "by all means," spokesman Mohammad Malkawi told reporters Sunday.

"It is not in our dictionary," Malkawi said. "We condemn it by all means … From our perspective, our records are clean on this issue."

Malkawi said the group had "never indulged in recruiting" jihadists.

"Our action is the other way around," he continued. "We do not train them for violence or for jihad … Our objective is to create an Islamic state of khalifah in the Muslim world."

But some terrorism experts say Hizb ut-Tahrir may be even more dangerous than many groups that are on the State Departrment's 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