The saga of Murdock, that was first covered Bluestem in Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly setting up in Murdock, Minnesota, continues.
For the West Central Tribune, Mark Wasson reports in Murdock responds to town criticism after whites-only group moves in:
After a whites-only religious group set up shop, national attention, the good and the bad, shined on Murdock, disrupting this town of fewer than 300 people.
Newspaper articles and television stories in large-market media like the Washington Post, VICE and NBC painted the town and City Council as racist, it seemed to many readers and viewers, who often voiced their disgust online.
An online petition was set up on change.org, blasting the small Swift County community for approving a conditional use permit for the Asatru Folk Assembly to practice its Nordic faith in an old Lutheran church building the group had purchased.
A whites-only Nordic faith, yes, but a faith nonetheless. The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Asatru Folk Assembly as part of the neo-Volkisch belief system, a pagan belief that is based around pre-Christian white Europeans and “the preservation of what they claim are dead or dying cultures.”
Facing a potential lawsuit, as advised by the town’s attorney, the Murdock City Council voted 3-1 earlier this month to allow the group's use of the old Lutheran church that sits on U.S. Highway 12. . . .
The change.org petition, signed by more than 100,000 people, is asking for money. Who created the petition remains a mystery as the name on the petition, Eridan Ampora, is from an online character.
Victoria Guillemard, an organizer for Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate, which was formed in opposition to the Asatru Folk Assembly, openly questions the purpose of the petition, writing on Facebook that the core organizers of the local alliance have had nothing to do with it.
“Whoever did start the petition has been asking for monetary donations,” Guillemard wrote on the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate private Facebook page. “This raises big red flags for us, as we do not take donations nor have we been contacted about where to direct any donations. Where that money is going is a complete mystery to us.”
Guillemard makes a very good point. Bluestem hasn't shared the petition because it seemed sketchy and removed from the small community.
Read the rest of the article at the West Central Tribune.
Related posts:
- Arrival of Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock prompts Swift Co Sheriff office patrol contract
- From Willmar to Washington: more on Murdock's approval of Asatru Folk Assembly hof permit
- Star Tribune: Murdock council anonymous vote on Asatru Folk Assembly permit may have violated Minnesota's open meeting law
- Murdock city council approves permit for whites-only Asatru Folk Assembly to re-purpose church
- Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly setting up in Murdock, Minnesota
- AFA gothar coordinator's life changed from police shoot-out & prison to serving old Gods
- Bluestem in the news: Strib & the Intercept
- Quiet protest is start of anti-hate movement in Murdock (West Central Tribune)
- WC Trib: "Murdock City Council, on advice of city attorney, not commenting" on whites-only group
- Resident: "We really don’t want to be known in Murdock as the center of hate in Minnesota"
Photo: "Victoria Guillemard, left, and Ben Kowalskygrahek stand Wednesday, Dec. 9, outside the Murdock building of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a whites-only organization, in protest of the group's presence in the small Minnesota town. Kowalskygrahek said his sign reads, in Old Norse, "Where you see evil declare it evil and give your enemies no peace." Mark Wasson / West Central Tribune.
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