Church Identified As Hate Group Gets Permit in Rural Minnesota

MURDOCK (AP) --The city council in a small Minnesota farming community has voted to grant a permit that allows a Nordic heritage church that has been identified as a white supremacist group to gather at an abandoned church.

The vote Wednesday night came after the council in the Swift County community of Murdock was advised by the city attorney that rejecting the Asatru Folk Assembly's request could violate its religious rights.

Council members, who were meeting online because of the coronavirus pandemic, kept video cameras turned off and refused to identify who voted for or against the permit.

Area residents have protested the AFA and its plans. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the AFA as a hate group.