Militia Leaders May Be Cooling Rhetoric

Many militia leaders with white supremacy beliefs are “re-packaging themselves” to become more acceptable to the political mainstream, says a regional Jewish leader.

Marvin Stern, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations that some militia groups appear to be avoiding bigotry.

“This way they’re able to mainstream themselves in the political process and become more widely acceptable,” Stern told task force members Wednesday in Coeur d’Alene.

But many of those militia leaders, including those associated with the Militia of Montana, have past ties with racist organizations and anti-Semitism, Stern said.

Such militia groups pose an “insidious threat” because of the influence they are spreading, including into political offices, Stern said.

The ADL official also said extremist rhetoric - as Israel witnessed with the assassination of its prime minister - often leads to violence.

People of various religious and ethnic backgrounds need to “break out of their silence” and fight racism and intolerance at every level, Stern said. , DataTimes