"New research, presented Friday by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), warns the past several months have seen a proliferation of small, loosely affiliated combat sports and fitness clubs — known as Active Clubs — that publicly advertise fitness, self-improvement and brotherhood...

'They are trying to build a militia undercover,' said Alexander Ritzmann, a CEP senior adviser and the author of the new report. 'The underlying assessment is there is no leadership in the U.S. for targeted violence, for a strong national event or leadership. But once such a thing occurs, you need soldiers.'"

"The festivals — which are often declared political events, making them harder to ban and ensuring that any profit will be tax-exempt — typically feature a right-wing extremist speaker or seminar, according to Hans-Jakob Schindler, the Berlin-based senior director of the Counter Extremism Project. And while mixed martial arts tournaments in Europe typically feature fighters from different racial groups, these events allow only white fighters to take part. ...
But the message underpinning the events, said Alexander Ritzmann, a senior adviser at the Counter-Extremism Project, is clear: 'that whites are under threat on all kinds of levels.'"

"One reason for the discrepancy is the far right’s efforts to recruit veterans and service members to their cause, said Josh Lipowsky, a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project who authored a report last year about far-left extremism. Lipowsky determined that today’s far-left groups lack the organizational structure used by the far right.

The Patriot Front, a white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group, takes applications from prospective members, many of whom claim to have ties to the military. Far-left movements tend to comprise more broad ideological positions rather than forming into specific groups with such bureaucratic entrance procedures, Lipowsky said."

"Counter Extremism Project analyst Josh Fisher-Birch says that Mason's frantic response to the cell's attacks shows he's worried about being perceived as soft."

"'If their message is "white people are superior," the pool is smaller. So, they look for on-ramps to recruitment,' said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher with the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project....

Rural areas are seen as fertile ground for white nationalism. They tend to be more conservative, less trusting of government and white, said Fisher-Birch with the Counter Extremism Project.

'Maine is attractive for a number of different reasons. It has the largest percentage of people who identify only as white. That’s a big point for these groups,” he said. “But because it has many parts that are so rural, they see opportunity in building community, living off the land and off the grid.'"

"The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) made a historic breakthrough when it won a district election on Sunday thanks to an “unfortunate intersection” of flashpoints over immigration and the Ukraine war coinciding with the vote, extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler said....

Mr Schindler, a director at the Counter Extremism Project and former German diplomat in the Middle East, said several crises had 'deeply ingrained a sense of insecurity into society'.

'There was Covid, and then when Covid was slightly more under control, the Ukraine war started,' he said."