NJHATEGROUPS

The Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights

Crosswicks House, Post Office Box 1974
Bloomfield, New Jersey USA 07003
Tele/Facsimile: (862) 823-1767 E-Mail: HumanRights@post.com

RACIST, RIGHT-WING, HOMOPHOBIC AND HATE GROUPS LOCATED OR ACTIVE IN THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defines a hate group as one "having beliefs or practices that attack or denigrate an entire class of people, typically for their beliefs or immutable characteristics." That same organization lists (for the year 2000) 12 such groups in the state of New Jersey comprising the World Church of the Creator (a racist, neo-Nazi group with cells in Bridgeton, Hamilton, Island Heights, Jersey City and Trenton); Hammerskin Nation, a racist/"skinhead" organization with its roots in Harrison, the neo-Nazi National Alliance in Hewitt, the black separatist/racist Nation of Islam in Newark and New Brunswick, the black separatist/racist New Black Panther Party in Newark and Trenton, and the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations Alliance located in North Bergen.

That list is in the opinion of the Hirschfeld Centre far from complete. While some may object to their inclusion in the Hirschfeld Centre's own list of "dangerous groups," the following - by their policies, practices, beliefs or statements - all fall within the definition of such groups elaborated above by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Most of these are of a religious or quasi-religious character, and some occupy a mainstream position in Amercian religious and social life, unsurprising given the relatively recent development of a movement advocating homosexual equality and visibility and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered civil rights. In the opinion of the Centre and its associates, however, that "mainstream" patina, as well as the political influence, resources and numerical strength of these organizations render them more and not less dangerous to civil society and the achievement of genuine equality.