People have the neo-Nazi group National Alliance all wrong, according to its chairman, Erich Gliebe. The National Alliance is about love, not hate, he proffers.
Tell that to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists the National Alliance as a "hate group" and says it and other racist and anti-Semitic groups have gotten smarter over the years about how they market their message.
The National Alliance is just one of 13 hate groups operating in the state, says the Montgomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization, which tracks hate group activities nationally. The groups range from the Great Tennessee Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Essex to the white nationalist group Center for Perpetual Diversity in Gaithersburg.
"We don't consider ourselves a hate group," said Gliebe, whose group's Maryland unit is headquartered in Baltimore but has members across the state. "Our members love their race, and they're concerned about the future well-being of their race."
In April, Gliebe said in a podcast, "One might think that President Obama would continue the trend and take a new look at positions and policies that have held the reins in America for quite a few years. But there is a limit to Obama's willingness to turn over a new leaf, and you'll never guess what powerful group of people it involves. … Is it any surprise that we are talking here about the Jews?"
The recent slaying of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., by James W. von Brunn, 88, of Annapolis has drawn renewed attention to groups such as the National Alliance.
Though these groups do not release membership numbers, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that Maryland's hate groups have about 2,000 members, said Mark Potok, editor of the center's "Intel Report."
Of the 13 hate groups in Maryland, two are listed as affiliated or holding the views of the white nationalist movement, one is a racist skinhead organization, four are KKK organizations, four are neo-Nazi groups and, in a possible reflection of the state's diversity, two are black separatist organizations.
Making the hate list is a reflection of the group's stated beliefs, Potok said. "It has nothing to do with criminality or violence or potential violence," he said. "It's strictly a matter of ideology."
Maryland politicians need to be aware of the groups not to enact laws against them, but to understand how they "poison" the political discourse on issues from immigration to hate-crimes legislation, Potok said.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," was criticized by many conservatives when it was leaked in April for warning of the increased danger from the right wing by groups with white supremacist and anti-government views. The conservatives claimed that the report smeared all right-wingers.
But in the wake of the von Brunn shooting, along with other incidents, Potok believes the author of the report was vindicated.
"In a sense, we are in a perfect storm of factors that favor the continued growth of these groups and a real spate of domestic terrorism," Potok said.
The recession, anti-immigrant fervor and the election of the nation's first black president are all contributing to a rise in extremism, he said.
Such groups are dangerous even when they do not advocate violence because they promote an atmosphere of hate that can incite others to commit violent acts, Potok said.
But leaders of the hate groups are distancing themselves from von Brunn.
"Advocating illegal activity is foolish," Gliebe said. "I thought what James von Brunn did at the Holocaust Museum accomplished nothing."
On his Web site, Gliebe wrote: "‘I'm suggesting that we take on the System, not as individuals, but as a group, a group that — for the foreseeable future — chooses to abide by the laws of the land because that behavior is in our own best interest at the moment. If conditions change, then our position on that issue might change."
Maryland has some "real aspects" of the South, Potok said. "I'm not suggesting it's a hotbed of hate. But that's where Lincoln was afraid to travel through Baltimore during the Civil War.
"Maryland has changed, the upper South has changed, but there are some who still hold the old views."
In general, hate groups have become better at couching their language to appear less extreme, Potok said.
"These groups often say they love the white race, they're merely standing up for their own people," he said.
For example, the Council of Conservative Citizens claims it is a mainstream organization, but "one needs to spend just 30 seconds on their Web site to see how false that is," Potok said. "They may say it's all about loving white people, but the reality is they see an enemy is attacking the white people."
Sidney Secular, a retired federal worker in Silver Spring and chapter director of the Maryland, D.C., and Virginia chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, insists the conservative organization is not a hate group, as the Southern Poverty Law Center describes it, but is about promoting love and pride in white people.
"We wouldn't hurt a fly," said Secular, 68, who has been associated with the group since the 1990s.
"We just believe in old-fashioned Americanism, old-fashioned conservatism, the 1950s style of conservatives," he said.
In the latest edition of the Citizen Informer, Secular wrote: "The White race is on the verge of physical extinction, of literally disappearing from the face of the earth."
Secular blames the current state of affairs on "secular humanism, socialism, communism, liberal democracy, liberal religion, civil rights, multiculturalism, diversity, feminism, New World Order, etc."
He says many of the movements are "largely Jewish in origin," but he adds that they are abetted by "morally denatured White people." He says these whites believe that Caucasians are "inherently evil."
In an interview, Secular, who had worked as a contract specialist for the Small Business Administration, said he developed his views over a period of time.
"I've been a liberal, atheist, agnostic, everything at one point," he said. "A person just changes over time."
Secular said the CCC is made up of people of different ethnic backgrounds.
"I'm partially Jewish, so we're not anti-Semitic," he said. "We want to be all inclusive." He said his group has 90 members scattered throughout the region.
Of the Holocaust Museum shooting, Secular said it hurts the segregationist movement. "(Von Brunn) just gave the other side an excuse to crack down more," he said.
Keeping track
Law enforcement officials said they were aware of the groups in Maryland, but declined to say whether they monitor their activities.
"Any individual or group espousing criminal acts is a group or individual of concern to law enforcement," said State Police spokesman Greg Shipley.
"All of these groups that generally we're talking about have a right to exist and say the things they say because of the First Amendment and freedom of speech," said Bret Kirby, supervisory special agent of the FBI's Baltimore field office.
The FBI does not care if individuals belong to a group, only if they are planning to commit federal crimes, Kirby said.
James Schneider, executive director of the Gaithersburg-based Center for Perpetual Diversity, also described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he urges political change, not violence.
Schneider, 47, a retired engineer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and now a real estate investor, said he believes whites should return to Europe and blacks to Africa, because segregation is the only way to resolve racial discrimination and other problems.
The rise of nationalist parties in Europe has given him hope that countries there will crack down on immigrants who are reshaping that continent demographically, he said.
Having a black president has been good for his movement, and he does not believe Obama will be the "worst president we'll ever have," Schneider said.
"A lot of people who felt like I do didn't like (John) McCain at all because of his stance on immigration reform, so a lot of us felt it would be better to have a black president so whatever he did would be out in the open," Schneider said.
But Schneider said he was pleased to see the nation's first black president continue with the tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate War Memorial on Memorial Day, even though some had urged against it.
"It was interesting he did that," Schneider said.
