Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, Islamic Hate Groups Active In Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, PA - Pennsylvania has among the highest number of hate groups in the nation and three of them are active in the Pittsburgh area, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate activity.

The SPLC defines hate groups as organizations having beliefs or practices “that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” Only four states have more organized hate than Pennsylvania: California, Texas, New York and Virginia, where a white nationalist gathering last weekend resulted in the death of an anti-racism protester.

The SPLC website has an interactive map showing the location of hate groups state by state. The map was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports, according to the SPLC.

According to the map, the following hate groups are active in southwestern Pennsylvania:

• The Daily Stormer

One of the most notorious neo-Nazi websites, the Daily Stormer is looking for a new home online after being evicted by both Google and web hosting company GoDaddy. The Daily Stormer got the boot following a post disparaging the victim of last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The post called Heather Heyer, who died when a man drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, “fat and a drain on society.”

"Despite feigned outrage by the media, most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness," the post stated.. "A 32-year-old woman without children is a burden on society and has no value."

The SPLC characterizes the Daily Stormer as “dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism, primarily through guttural hyperbole and epithet-laden stories about topics like alleged Jewish world control and black-on-white crime.”

• American Freedom Union

Headquartered in Hampton, the American Freedom Union describes itself as “the largest nationalist political organization in the U.S. We are always pro-American in outlook; we believe in taking care of America first.”

Don Wassall is the American Freedom Union’s executive director. According to the SPLC, Wassall was once the leader of Council of Conservative Citizens chapters in Nevada and Pennsylvania. He has run the American Nationalist Union and its newspaper The Nationalist Times since 1985. Wassall was prominent in the Populist Party during its brief existence: during that time, he worked on former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s 1988 presidential campaign.

• Nation of Islam

Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam (NOI) has grown into one of the wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America. The SPLC says “its theology of innate black superiority over whites and the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders have earned the NOI a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.”

The NOI is headquartered locally at the Muhammad Mosque Number 22 on South Avenue in Wilkinsburg. The contact listed on the mosque’s website is Jasiri X, The biographical information on Pittsburgh rapper and activist Jasiri X’s personal website does not mention any NOI involvement and notes his music and activism have drawn accolades from the Urban League, Omega Psi Phi, Black Man Can, the New Pittsburgh Courier and the Black Political Empowerment Project.

Pittsburgh also has a branch of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, which the SPLC identities as a black separatist organization. According to the SPLC, black separatists typically oppose integration and racial intermarriage, and they want separate institutions -- or even a separate nation -- for blacks. Most forms of black separatism are strongly anti-white and anti-Semitic, and a number of religious versions assert that blacks are the Biblical "chosen people" of God.

In Pittsburgh, the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ is located on Brushton Avenue in Homewood. Its website does not provide a contact name.

Photo: Ku Klux Klan members participate in cross and swastika burnings after a "white pride" rally in rural Georgia in 2016. Photo via Associated Press.