In fact, the current theology and practice of this pagan Viking religion is doctrinally LGBTQIA-supporting, inclusive to all (regardless of culture, race, gender, sexuality, etc.), rejects militarism, and has called out any white supremacist, MRA, genocidally racist version of pagan religious practice based on the medieval Viking past outside of Iceland, as one that does not adhere to their theological and doctrinal interpretation-вЂњГЃsatrГєarfГ©lagiГ° rejects this as a misreading of ГЃsatrГє.вЂќ

They are not interested in addressing the actual practiced religion of ГЃsatrГє, which Iceland has recognized as a formal, organized religion since 1973. Odinism and the Sons/Wolves of Vinland are violent white supremacist groups that fetishize and glorify their cherry-picked version of the medieval past and particularly a pagan, Northern European medieval non-Christian religious past. They have more recently gotten push back from Swedish live action role-playing groups, including Vikings against Nazis, and academics who point out that the Vikings were not a pure white maritime culture but were much more akin to the practices of multiracial pirate culture of the early modern period. Their ideology centers on using a non-Christian religion to claim not only a pure white cultural past that they can link up, vis-Г -vis Vinland (the failed medieval Viking settlement in North America described in The Vinlands Saga), but a warrior culture they can align with their visions of toxic and racist masculinity that undergirds menвЂ™s rights activism (MRA). Odinists have been identified as violent white supremacists for several decades. Their religion, based on a pagan medieval Scandinavian religion, enacts вЂњgroup rituals (including animal sacrifice) and hold fights between members to test their masculinity.вЂќ They have been regularly connected to Aryan and alt-right violence, such as Jeremy ChristianвЂ™s May 2017 attack in Portland, Oregon.

They practice a form of toxic masculinity based on their ideas of how the barbaric warriors of medieval Northern Europe functioned as a violent warrior comitatus. The Odinists, often called the Wolves or Sons of Vinland, claim their religion is based on a medieval, pre-Christian Scandinavian belief that worships the god Odin and is organized into warrior gangs. I will discuss two different examples of how they use, abuse, and exploit ideas of white medieval religions in order to push their violent racist vision. The alt-right is interested in using the medieval European past because it sees this historical epoch as a space of pure white religious and racial culture. Their message is intended to incite violent racism, xenophobia, toxic masculinity, Islamaphobia, and anti-Semitism. Almost all the major nodes of this universe are attached to specific iterations of the medieval past. The best article that explains this universe is Joseph BernsteinвЂ™s Buzzfeed piece from 2017, вЂњAlt-White: How the Breitbart Machine Launched Racist Hate.вЂќ With evidence from a trove of leaked emails and documents, Bernstein maps all parts of the alt-right universe how they are connected and deliberately take orders from Steve Bannon to infiltrate, normalize, and make racist and gendered hate mainstream. The alt-right is a specific political and social ecosystem that has many nodes. Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue Topic

Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy.Towards a Global Culture of Safeguarding.Revitalizing Global Religious and Interfaith Networks.Religion and the Future of Global Governance.Politicization of Religion in Global Perspective.The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power.

Deus vult white supremacy