New guidance for Odinists after fears of 'far-right' views investigated

'ETHNO-SPECIFIC' GROUP SAYS ENGLISH SHOULD MARRY 'AMONG THEIR OWN KIND'

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

Ralph Harrison, director of the Odinist Fellowship, inside the 16th-century Odinist Temple in Newark

(JOSEPH RAYNOR)

A GROUP promoting the “old religion of the English people” from a Nottinghamshire temple has been issued with new guidance after being accused of promoting far-right ideology.

The director of the Odinist Fellowship repeatedly denied the group was racist when the Post spoke to him earlier this year, despite the religion calling for the country to “once more become the good, true English land”.

A book published by the organisation also talks about people choosing marriage partners “from among their own kind” and the Odinist Fellowship’s website says the religion is “ethno-specific”.

The group, which operates out of a 16th-century temple in Newark bought at auction 10 years ago, has been named in a report for two years running on the state of the far-right in Britain.

Hope Not Hate, which describes itself as an anti-racist research organisation, says Odinism is “racially exclusive” and has a “long history in the extreme right”.

The Odinist Fellowship’s director says he would have to be “stupid” to allow the group to become racist.