Clarification concerning the article THE NEW ROMANTICS in the Spring 2001 issue of Intelligence Report.

The following was sent to Apologia

by Chas Clifton, a leading figure in the Nature Religions Scholars Network <http://www.uscolo.edu/natrel/

>:

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------

Date: 4/10/01 4:56 PM
Received: 4/11/01 11:16 AM
From: Clifton Chas, clifton@uscolo.edu
To: -R Poll, richpoll@apologia.org

Rich,

First of all, did you see Gardell's "clarification"? I wanted to make
sure that you had.

I will pass your request for the other position to some Asatruar.

Chas

>X-Sender: Mattias@mail.ceifo.su.se
>Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 12:16:18 +0200
>To: clifton@uscolo.edu
>From: Mattias Gardell <mattias.gardell@ceifo.su.se>
>Subject: Clarification of SPLC interview
>
>Dear Professor Clifton,
>
>Jeff Kaplan suggested that I should contact you in the hopes of clarifying
>a set of misunderstandings that has caused a minor thunderstorm of protests
>from upset pagans of many traditions. It concerns an interview published in
>the Spring 2001 issue of SPLC's Intelligence Report that unfortunately has
>been interpreted as if it dealt with the worldwide pagan community, which
>it in fact did not. Jeff, whom I know since several years, told me that you
>sponsor the NUREL list and that it might be a good idea to ask you if you
>kindly would post the following message (with permission to crosspost).=20
>
>Best,
>
>Mattias
>
>
>Clarification concerning the article THE NEW ROMANTICS in the Spring 2001
>issue of Intelligence Report.
>
>1. I was NOT talking about the whole neo-pagan community in the United
>States. The interview focused on the racist interpretation of Asatr=FA often
>referred to as Odinism. I also tried to make clear the distinction between
>the racist and ethnic positions as these two very different interpretations
>of Norse traditions often are confused. (The wider non-racial non-folkish
>pan-pagan milieu was hardly mentioned at all. There is a growing body of
>studies concerning the wider pagan revival but that was not the topic of
>the interview and will neither be the focus of my forthcoming study.
>However, I do will make the distinctions clear)=20
>
>2. The line 'everybody supports the Unambomber' is somewhat taken out of
>context. It should have been made much clearer that I here talked about the
>radical environmentalist subsection of racist Odinism where one does find
>considerable support for the Unabomber. The word 'everybody' was a casual
>metaphor that I would never use in writing. It came in the course of a 4
>hours something transatlantic interview over the phone and I am sorry for
>having made that slip.
>
>A note to introduce myself:
>
>I am an Associate Professor of the History of Religions at Stockholm
>University. I did my PhD on Black religious nationalism with a focus on
>the Nation of Islam. It was based on field research and taped interviews
>with Minister Farrakhan and his top lieutenants and from the feedback I've
>got from the Black Muslims I can assure you that they feel accurately
>portraid. In case you're interested you can make up your own mind by
>reading IN THE NAME OF ELIJAH MUHAMMAD: LOUIS FARRAKHAN AND THE NATION OF
>ISLAM (Duke University Press, 1996).
>
>Since 1996 I have been doing a series of fieldworks in the radical
>right/White religious nationalist milieus, publishing (in Swedish) a
>comparative study of black and white separatism named RASRISK (Federativs
>f=F6rlag, 1998). During the course of that study, I was fascinated with the
>Odinist/racist heathen tendencies within the Aryan revolutionary milieu and
>decided to make that the topic of my next study. As with my former studies,
>it is based on field research and taped interviews and aims at portraying
>the multifaceted scene as accurately as possible. Contrary to lumping all
>pagans and fascists together, it discusses at length the variations of
>viewpoints that exist both within and between the many different pagan (and
>fascist) milieus. Hopefully, it will come out as a nuanced,
>thought-provocing and stimulating reading.
>
>May the Gods and Goddesses enlighten your path
>
>Mattias Gardell

----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------

Also see "The New Romantics," published by the Southern Poverty Law
Center in Intelligence Report, Spr '01.
<http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-index.html

> (Front page)
<http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-4q9.html> (Direct link to the article).

In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam

By Mattias Gardell.

Clarification concerning the article THE NEW ROMANTICS in the Spring 2001 issue of Intelligence Report. An Apologetics Index research resource

Clarification concerning the article THE NEW ROMANTICS in the Spring 2001 issue of Intelligence Report.

Clarification concerning the article THE NEW ROMANTICS in the Spring 2001 issue of Intelligence Report.
An Apologetics Index research resource