Posted: Wed 10 Aug 2005 22:53 Post subject: Aryan Nation leader reaches out to al Qaeda
Quote:
An unholy alliance
Aryan Nation leader reaches out to al Qaeda
By Henry Schuster
CNN
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Posted: 2:42 PM EST (1942 GMT)
Editor's Note: Henry Schuster, a senior producer in CNN's Investigative Unit, has been covering terrorism for more than a decade. Each week in "Tracking Terror," he reports on the people and organizations driving international and domestic terrorism and efforts to combat those. He is the author of the newly published book, "Hunting Eric Rudolph."
SEBRING, Florida (CNN) -- A couple of hours up the road from where some September 11 hijackers learned to fly, the new head of Aryan Nation is praising them -- and trying to create an unholy alliance between his white supremacist group and al Qaeda.
"You say they're terrorists, I say they're freedom fighters. And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples' heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah."
With his long beard and potbelly, August Kreis looks more like a washed up member of ZZ Top than an aspiring revolutionary.
Don't let appearances fool you: his résumé includes stops at some of America's nastiest extremist groups -- Posse Comitatus, the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nation.
"I don't believe that they were the ones that attacked us," Kreis said. "And even if they did, even if you say they did, I don't care!"
Kreis wants to make common cause with al Qaeda because, he says, they share the same enemies: Jews and the American government.
The terms they use may be different: White supremacists call them ZOG, the Zionist Occupation Government, while al Qaeda calls them the Jews and Crusaders.
But the hatred is the same. And Kreis wants to exploit that.
A Nation in turmoil
The best thing that can be said about August Kreis is that he has helped preside over the decline of the once-feared Aryan Nation, a movement inspired by the racist tenets of Nazi Germany. He cannot or will not say how many followers the group now has.
What's clear is that Aryan Nation had a violent streak aligned with its anti-Semitic and racist ideology. One of its followers, Buford Furrow, received two life sentences, plus 110 years, for an August 1999 shooting spree in which he shot and wounded four children and one adult at a Jewish community center in the Los Angeles suburb of Granada Hills. Furrow then drove to nearby Chatsworth, California, where he shot and killed a Filipino-American postal carrier.
Others had been accused of involvement in bank robberies, shootouts with authorities and the murders of blacks and others.
More recently, the Aryan Nation lost its Hayden Lake, Idaho, compound, after losing a civil suit led by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Last year, founder Richard Butler died just as the group's leaders were fighting amongst themselves.
Around that time, Kreis tried to open up shop for Aryan Nation in northern Pennsylvania, but got run out by locals. Now he is in Sebring, Florida, and, although his rhetoric is full of revolution and defiance, he wanted to meet our CNN crew at a local park because he didn't want trouble from his neighbors.
You might think white supremacists like Kreis would spurn al Qaeda, since they tend to view non-Aryan Christians as, in their own term, "mud people." In fact, most of them do. But Kreis wants to change that.
"That's old-school racism, white supremacy, this is something new," he said. "We have to be realists and realize what didn't work [previously] isn't going to work in the future."
Supremacist, Islamist connections
The idea of a Nazi-Islamic alliance dates back to World War II, when Adolf Hitler played host to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, that city's Muslim leader. Some Nazis, moreover, found refuge in places like Egypt and Syria after the war.
Three years ago, I met a Swiss Islamic convert named Ahmed Huber, who began his life as a devotee of Adolf Hitler and moved on to praising former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who led that nation's Islamic revolution and vigorously opposed U.S. policies.
Huber wanted to forge a fresh alliance between Islamic radicals and neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States. And he cannot be simply dismissed as a crackpot: Huber served on the board of directors of a Swiss bank and holding company that President Bush accused of helping fund al Qaeda.
Mark Potok, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that while some U.S. extremists applauded the September 11 attacks, there is no indication of such an alliance -- at least not yet, and not on a large scale. If it exists anywhere, he said, it is in the mind (and the Internet postings) of August Kreis.
For its part, the FBI says it hasn't seen any links between American white supremacists and groups like al Qaeda.
"The notion of radical Islamists from abroad actually getting together with American neo-Nazis I think is an absolutely frightening one," said Potok. "It's just that so far we really have no evidence at all to suggest this is any kind of real collaboration."
So while August Kreis may be calling, there is no sign that al Qaeda is listening.
But that hasn't stopped him. As we ended our interview, we asked Kreis if he had any message for Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants.
"The message is, the cells are out here and they are already in place," Kreis said. "They might not be cells of Islamic people, but they are here and they are ready to fight."
Posted: Thu 11 Aug 2005 14:26 Post subject: Aryan Nation leader reaches out to al Qaeda
People tend to equate Muslims with Arabs (or other non-whites) and Arabs with non-white people. Since they are non-white, they must be naturally tolerant and filled with love for other people. This ignores the fact that many of Europe's people are Muslim-most Albanians, Bosnian Muslims and Bulgarian Muslims. Many Arabs-whether they are Christian or Muslim-see themselves as white people. This also ignores the fact that many Arab Muslims feel superior to non-Arab Muslims and non-Muslims. When it's all said and done, Islam can be seen as a form or Arab cultural imperialism disguised as a religion.
Praying five times a day in Arabic facing in the direction of Arabia, reading a holy book in Arabic, taking Arabic names, often dressing like a Arab (wearing turbans, robes, etc.) and venerating an Arab prophet, can make a non-Arab Muslim question the validity of his own culture. This was the main theme of V.S. Naipaul’s Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey.
Furthermore, according to Islamic mythology, Ishmael-the son of Abraham-is supposed to be the father of the Arab people. In a way this posits Arabs Muslims above other people-Muslim and non-Muslim. Taking all of this into consideration, I can see how a neo-Nazi/Islamic alliance is emerging in some quarters.
A Nazi/Islamic link did exist between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler. There were even Croatian and Bosnian Muslim brigades that were aligned with the Nazis in WWII. Today, many South Asian and Arab Muslims here promote writings of American Neo Nazis and White Supremacists because they are anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. I wonder if these Muslims ever asked how their African American coreligionists feel about this.
Here’s a link to a series of articles from Asia Times on Islamism, Fascism and terrorism. I don’t agree with all of this, but the author raises makes some good points: Islamism, fascism and terrorism By Marc Erikson (Nov-Dec '02)
Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1763 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Thu 11 Aug 2005 17:01 Post subject:
This reminds of an article I read in the NYT back in October 1985 that I actually saved because I was going a paper on the similarities between white supremacists and black nationalists, like the NOI. I have this article still somewhere.
In the article entitled White Supremacists Voice Support for Farrakhan, WAR (White Aryan Resistence) leader Tom Metzger, pledged $100 to the NOI because of its stance on the Jews. He had some positive things to say about Farrakhan. Members of his group suppossedly met with NOI members. This was around the time when the NOI was holding events at MSG.
The article most likely cannot be obtained on the web, but is probably on microfilm. We didn't have the internet back in those days!!! At least those of us that were not in govt or research.
Posted: Thu 11 Aug 2005 18:04 Post subject: White and black racists united?
Of course, Marcus Garvey had an alliance of sorts with the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan approved of Garvey because he was also for racial separatism.
Quote:
Affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
Among the most controversial dealings of Marcus Garvey was his summit conference with the Ku Klux Klan in 1922. "In June 1922, while on the extensive tour of the United States, Garvey stopped in Atlanta for a conference with Edward Young Clarke, Acting Imperial Wizard of the Klan. 52 As a result of the discussions, Clarke expressed sympathy for the aims of the UNIA, while Garvey was reinforced in his suspicion that the Klan represented the invisible government of the United States." Consequently, black and white integrationistswere protesting against the UNIA-KKK summit. 53 However, Garvey concluded that "Between the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP, give me the Klan for their honesty of pupose towards the Negro. They are better friends to my race, for telliing us who they are, and what they mean, thereby giving us a chance to stir for ourselves." 54
(10) During the summer of 1922 Marcus Garvey had a secret meeting with Edward Y. Clarke, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The New York Times reported Garvey's comments about meeting on 10th July, 1922)
The Ku Klux Klan is going to make this a white man's country. They are perfectly frank and honest about it. Fighting them is not going to get you anywhere.
(11) Marcus Garvey, Negro World (September, 1923)
I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying about.
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