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The Aryan Nations, based in Hayden Lake, Idaho, embraces many of the philosophies of the Ku Klux Klan.

Members of the Idaho organization are gathered this weekend for their annual Aryan World Congress, which will attract several KKK members.

Saturday night at the Aryan compound, leader Richard Butler was scheduled to host a Klan-style cross burning or “cross lighting,” as the group prefers to call such events.

Like the KKK, the Aryans promote “white Christian heritage,” frequently by distributing literature throughout the Inland Northwest.

Their teachings that white people are the true Israelites are interwoven with a racist religious doctrine known as Christian Identity.

The Aryans and other white supremacists have sought to mainstream their beliefs by piggy-backing on social issues or current events.

Over the years, these issues and events have included the shootings at Ruby Ridge, reduced timber harvests and the closures of sawmills, abortion, interracial marriages and Gulf War Syndrome.

Earlier this month, the Aryans picketed a strip club in State Line, Idaho.

The only formal KKK organization in the Pacific Northwest is the Northwest Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Tacoma. It is headed by Kim A. Badynski, a former Illinois Klan leader who initially was attracted to the Northwest by the Aryan Nations.