By Celine Castronuovo - 12/23/20 11:00 AM EST
An online petition to stop the opening of a church by a whites only religious organization in a Minnesota town has obtained more than 120,000 signatures as of Wednesday.
The petition comes after the city council of Murdock, Minn., earlier this month approved a conditional permit to allow use of a church building bought by the Asatru Folk Assembly.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels the organization as a “neo-Volkisch hate group” that couches “their bigotry in baseless claims of bloodlines grounding the superiority of one’s white identity.”
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By Wednesday, a Change.org petition seeking to stop the group from occupying the building in the farming town of 280 people had received approximately 122,300 signatures.
Minnesota Community Grants White Supremacist Group Permit to Gather at Abandoned Church
Council members in a Minnesota town have voted to grant a white supremacist group a permit to gather at an abandoned church building.
The Swift County community of Murdock voted anonymously by a 3-1 vote at a virtual meeting on Dec. 9 to grant a conditional use permit to the Asatru Folk Assembly church.
The council had been warned prior to voting that denying the request could violate the church group’s religious rights. The all-white Nordic heritage church has also been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Petition to block all-white church in western Minn gains steam startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Michael W. Chapman | December 15, 2020 | 2:53pm EST
The emblem of the Northern Blood Kindred of the AFA in Minnesota. (Screenshot)
On Dec. 9, the City Council of Murdock, Minn., voted to allow a religious group that believes in Aryan religiosity and the preservation of white, ethnic European folk to use a former Lutheran church as its gathering hall.
The four City Council members voted anonymously, 3 to 1, to allow the whites-only group, the Asatru Folk Assembly, to practice its religion at the church.
Before the vote, Mayor Craig Kavanaugh said, We as leaders of the city of Murdock want people to know that we condemn racism in all forms, reported the