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Europe has a Hezbollah problem. A year after a suspected Hezbollah bus bombing killed seven in Bulgaria in July 2012, the European Union designated Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization. But the EU drew a distinction between Hezbollah’s military and political operations. The problem, then as now, is that Hezbollah doesn’t have separate military and political wings. Hezbollah is a single entity with one leader—Hassan Nasrallah—directing all of its actions.

While the EU might distinguish between Hezbollah’s operations, Hezbollah doesn’t. After the 2013 designation of Hezbollah’s military wing, Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mussawi told Spiegel Online: “Hezbollah is a single large organization, we have no wings that are separate from one another. What’s being said in Brussels doesn’t exist for us.” Indeed, whether it’s Hezbollah’s recent political campaign in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections this past May or Hezbollah’s military campaign in Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, Nasrallah is giving the orders.

It is past time that European governments recognize Hezbollah for what it is: a murderous, terrorist organization predicated on dangerous Islamist ideals. Hezbollah freely acknowledges there is no distinction between its political and military leadership, but European leaders continue to promote a legal fiction even as Hezbollah has targeted European interests for over 30 years.

Among Hezbollah’s first attacks in 1983 were bombings of French forces in Lebanon and the French embassy in Kuwait. It is responsible for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 between Athens and Rome, and has been linked to a 1985 restaurant bombing in Madrid. In 2013, Cyprus sentenced three Hezbollah agents to prison for conducting intelligence activities. Further, Hezbollah stands accused of trafficking in forged European passports, visas, and other documents that have allowed its agents to pass through the EU. A partial Hezbollah ban allows the group to further imbed itself in Europe, creating new avenues of moral, material, and financial support for its deadly activities.

The EU’s false distinction actually emboldens Hezbollah’s supporters and allows the group to promote its hateful ideology. In London, Hezbollah flags flew this past June—as in past years—as supporters marked Quds Day, the annual day of anti-Israel protests instituted by Iran in 1979. Hezbollah’s supporters in Europe claim they are legally supporting Hezbollah’s political party and not its vicious paramilitary, though they both march under the same flag. German intelligence estimates that there are 950 Hezbollah supporters in the country. According to Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany has served as a safe haven for Hezbollah supporters. Unless Hezbollah as a whole is designated, its agents can continue to use political affiliation as a shield.

In 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution calling on the EU to sanction Hezbollah in its entirety, in line with the U.S. designation. Canada, Israel, and the seven members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have all designated Hezbollah in its entirety. The Arab League has also designated Hezbollah as a whole, though Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and three other members of the 22-nation body objected. But within the European Union, the Netherlands is the only country that has designated Hezbollah as a singular organization.

There has recently been some—but not enough—movement in Europe’s political spheres to change Hezbollah’s status. In January, representatives from Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary spurred more than 60 members of the European Parliament to write EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini demanding the designation of all of Hezbollah. The letter cited Hezbollah’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East as well as its growing arsenal, and called for the EU to recognize that “Islamist-inspired terrorism is not only a threat to the Middle East, but is also the top threat to Europe’s security.” Mogherini responded that Hezbollah’s designation is up to individual states. According to Mogherini, “the EU remains convinced that engaging in a constructive dialogue with all political parties present in” Lebanon is necessary because of the country’s fragile and complex political dynamics.

Also in January, British Labour MP Joan Ryan urged the House of Commons to take up the debate, arguing that if Hezbollah doesn’t accept the distinction between its political and military identities, neither should the British government. Nonetheless, the Labour Party distributed a memo advising that changing Hezbollah’s status could hurt “dialogue and meaningful peace negotiations in the Middle East.”

In a promising first step, and despite Labour’s objections, U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid reportedly plans to outlaw Hezbollah in its entirety later this year. It is important that Javid follow through with his promise and for the rest of the EU to follow his example.

In October 2014, Lebanese citizen Muhammad Ghaleb Hamdar was arrested in Lima, Peru. He was charged with conspiracy to commit terror after authorities found explosive materials and photos of potential targets––including popular Peruvian tourist locations––in his apartment. While in custody, Hamdar confessed that he was a member of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization and that he was working in Peru on its behalf. Nonetheless, a Peruvian court absolved Hamdar of the terrorism conspiracy charge in April 2017.

This was not Hezbollah’s first attempt to carry out an attack in South America. Both the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group and the Iranian regime itself were linked to two major attacks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1990s: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the city that killed 29 people, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85. Investigations into those events quickly led back to several Hezbollah operatives residing in the Tri-Border Area—a region straddling the borders of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina that has served as a base of operations for the group. However, the attacks were also possible due to extensive Iranian infiltration of the South American continent that has come to light in recent years and continues today.

In 2013, Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor assigned to investigate the still-unresolved 1994 AMIA bombing case, released a 500-page report detailing the Iranian regime’s expanding influence throughout South America. According to the report, in 1982, the Iranian regime held a “Seminar on the Ideal Islamic Government” in which it decided that it would try to achieve then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s vision to attain a unified, global Islamic state governed by sharia law, and approved the use of violence for its expansionist objectives. After the regime identified South America as an initial target, it planted operatives in embassies and mosques in several South American and Caribbean countries. For example, Iranian cleric Mohsen Rabbani worked at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires and also served as a leader at the At-Tauhid mosque in the city. Although some Iranian operatives were expelled or arrested from their respective countries, Rabbani successfully facilitated the two attacks in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, and in 1997, returned to Iran––where he remains today––without facing repercussions.

Mosques and so-called “cultural centers” throughout South America continue to serve as hubs for Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked operatives to associate, propagate their radical ideology, and generate support. According to Nisman, many of these mosques and cultural centers have received direct financial support from the Iranian regime. Some function under the direction of Iranian operatives, who operate freely in their respective countries. The Islamic Cultural Center of Brazil and Mezquita do Brás mosque in São Paulo are led by Taleb Hussein al-Khasraji, a former Iranian government employee who is now a naturalized Brazilian citizen. The Iranian cleric Seyed Javad Ebrahimi was reportedly appointed imam of the Imán Mahdi mosque in Santiago, Chile, by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself.

Other mosques and cultural centers, however, are led by South American converts to Shia Islam who have adopted pro-Iranian and pro-Hezbollah views themselves. Between 2007 and 2013, more than 1,000 Latin Americans reportedly traveled to Iran to study with Mohsen Rabbani himself. The At-Tauhid Mosque in Buenos Aires is one of several mosques in Argentina led and frequented by Argentine sheikhs who studied with Rabbani and who reportedly have links to Hezbollah. Major Islamic cultural centers in Colombia, Chile, and Peru have also reportedly been led by native citizens of those countries who studied with Rabbani in Iran. Edwar Quiroga Vargas, the leader of the Iranian-sponsored Inkarri-Islam cultural center in Peru, reportedly regularly hosts Hezbollah-linked individuals. In 2016, he established a political party called “Partido de Dios”––a direction translation to “Party of God” or “Hezbollah.”

Iran has strived to make its ideology accessible to Latin Americans through resources including translated literature offered by cultural centers and HispanTV, an Iranian-sponsored Spanish-language news station broadcasted across the American continent. Inkarri-Islam, which is located in Peru’s rural Apurímac region, reportedly ties Shia Islamic narratives to indigenous Incan narratives in an attempt to cultivate popular support––while also promoting a heavily anti-Semitic agenda that calls for the liberation of the Incas from “Zionist colonization.”

Unfortunately, governments are turning a blind eye as Iran and Hezbollah continue to make inroads across South America. Known Hezbollah operatives continue to reside freely in Brazil and Paraguay, and Peru failed to prosecute Hamdar for terrorism. Not only has Argentina failed to implicate anyone for the 1994 AMIA bombing, but Nisman accused its government of attempting to collude with the Iranian regime on the investigation in exchange for trade concessions. Nisman’s claims resulted in his death a day before he was due to present evidence in court.

Although Hezbollah and Iran have not carried out a terrorist attack in South America since 1994, the arrest of Hamdar suggests that they are still willing and ready to use violence in the region in pursuit of their radical objectives, making their continued and unhindered presence a serious cause for concern. 

An international Islamist network and its anti-Western rhetoric wants to check into a Chicago area hotel.  

That organization is Hizb ut-Tahrir (“HT”), the “party of liberation,” which has been linked to religious extremism around the world. Nonetheless, the group has for several years held events around the Chicago area, as well as in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Michigan. In 2017, the group’s U.S. chapter, HT America, held events at the Hilton Indian Lakes in Bloomingdale and the Ramada Inn in Glendale Heights, both in Illinois. The Ramada Inn has hosted several of its events since 2014.

HT’s annual Khilafa Conference, a conclave extolling the virtues of establishing a global Islamic caliphate, had originally been scheduled for April 22 at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in Carol Stream. The Holiday Inn apparently reversed its decision and the conference is now scheduled for April 29 at an as-yet unconfirmed location. The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) previously sent the Holiday Inn a letter containing background information and examples of HT’s extreme rhetoric.

HT doesn’t explicitly call for violence. But it indoctrinates the impressionable to a way of thinking that can and has led members down the slippery path to a life of extremism. Among HT’s infamous alumni are 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi, a.k.a. “Jihadi John,” reportedly attended HT events while in university in England. In 1996, former HT leader Omar Bakri Muhammad co-founded the outlawed British terrorist network al-Muhajiroun, which has reportedly been tied to half of the terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom since 1995. Bakri Muhammad is currently serving a prison sentence in Lebanon for creating a Lebanese al-Qaeda affiliate.

The group seeks to transform Muslim governments into a single Islamic caliphate based on an ultra-conservative interpretation of the Quran. HT intends to do this through grassroots outreach in order to sway Muslims to effect change through popular protest.

HT insists that this goal pertains only to Muslim nations, not Western countries like the United States. Nevertheless, HT leaders based in Western democracies have spoken out often and vociferously against the Western ideals of freedom and tolerance. At past HT conferences, speakers such as Haitham Ibn Thbait have excoriated democracy as un-Islamic. At HT’s May 2016 conference in Glendale Heights, Ibn Thbait declared then-President Barack Obama to be a terrorist who “represents a system of terrorism.” Ibn Thbait is once again scheduled to address this year’s conference.

HT has accused the United States of leading an international cabal of colonialists. It believes that HT’s political positions are rooted in the “struggle against the disbelieving imperialists.” HT further believes that “greed, death and destruction” are the “core symbols” of the American dream, and only Islam can provide a functional alternative to the “superficial glamour and mirage of democracy and freedom.”

Abroad, the group’s rhetoric is equally extreme. An HT representative in Australia, Uthman Bader, has openly endorsed the death penalty for Muslim apostates. Abdul Wahid, executive chair of HT in Britain, has condemned valuable and necessary extremist deradicalization programs for “making people less Islamic.”  

HT’s global emir, Ata Abu Rashta, has accused America of conspiring against the global Muslim community, and called for violent attacks on Jews living in Israel.

HT has been banned in 14 countries, including Germany, Turkey, Russia, and Jordan. Using freedom of speech as a shield for its odious rhetoric, HT remains free to operate within most Western democracies, including Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, though the Australian and British governments have both tried to ban the group. Ironically, HT literature has denigrated free speech for encouraging “immorality among women, vice, profanity, and corruption."

Hilton and Ramada's parent company, Wyndham Hotel Group, boast of their commitment to corporate social responsibility and support for human rights. This should include denying a welcoming environment to groups that promote extremist ideology.

HT has the constitutional right to free speech and assembly, but private U.S. corporations have no obligation to provide them venues. Such a thing happened in 2010, when the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook canceled an HT event in Illinois, and in 2012, when the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows refused to host HT’s annual conference. And, of course, the Holiday Inn’s parent group, Intercontinental Hotels Group, canceled HT’s reservation this year.

Other hotel chains should follow these examples and ensure there are no rooms in Illinois for hatred and extremism.

Tumblr, the social media and blogging platform, is a haven for extremists, whether they support ISIS or violent neo-Nazi groups. The website, purchased by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013 and now owned by Verizon subsidiary Oath, recently gained attention for its role in Russian efforts to manipulate the American electorate in 2016. Troubling content on the site is not only limited to state sponsored propaganda efforts - supporters of extremist groups also use the site to spread their violent ideologies. The boundless variety of topics on Tumblr might make the emergence of extremist content inevitable, but the company is failing to actively confront material that clearly violates its Terms of Service.

Tumblr is an easy-to-use web platform that allows effortless posting and sharing of text, photos, gifs, and videos while using custom layouts. The site is ranked 24^th in the U.S. and 56^th globally based on web traffic, and has close to 400 million blogs, according to the company. The site is known as a location for content on a myriad of specific interests, from fashion photography, to television fandom, to micro internet subcultures. Tumblr states that it’s a place “where your interests connect you with your people,” but that is a problem when your interests include hate and violence.

The site hosts numerous blogs that post brutal extremist content. ISIS followers have used the platform to post violent videos, propaganda photos including executions, exhortations to commit terror attacks, and advice on how to provide material support to the terror group. Tumblr has also been used to share dozens of links to ISIS videos posted on other websites. Similarly, the site has been used by neo-Nazis to glorify terrorists such as Anders Breivik and spread content that calls for the murder of Jews and federal employees. Propaganda made by groups such as the paramilitary Atomwaffen Division and the banned British neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action are easily available.

All of this content remains on the site despite Tumblr’s clear community guidelines and Terms of Service. Specifically, the community guidelines prohibit “violence or hatred,” in addition to “violent threats or statements that incite violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.” Tumblr stresses it may “terminate or suspend your access…without prior notice or liability, for any reason…including but not limited to if you breach any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement.” But strong words, as these examples make clear, are meaningless unless backed up by the will to act.

Tumblr has declared 2018 a year of action, pledging support to a range of causes ranging from black representation in media, to youth election engagement, to gender equality. These goals are commendable, but Tumblr should also look closer to home and act in compliance with its own rules to remove dangerous content that promotes terrorism and violence.