Replacing the U.S. Constitution with the Koran

Back in 2004, I noted the disbelief that greets me "when I explain that the Islamist goal is to take over the United States and replace the Constitution with the Koran." Five years later, it's still the case, with most Americans incredulous at such an intention. So, I thank (1) the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization (on which, see Zeyno Baran, Hizb ut-Tahrir: Islam's Political Insurgency) for holding a forthright conference yesterday and (2) Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism for attending the event and reporting on it. IPT begins by setting the scene: Nearly 300 people packed the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel [in Oak Lawn, Illinois, near Chicago] for its Khalifah Conference on "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" to listen to listen to HT ideologues blame capitalism for World War I and World War II; the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown; the current violence in Iraq and Afghanistan; world poverty and malnutrition and inner-city drug use. …