In this Aug 12, 2017 file photo, white nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, US. (PHOTO / AP)

The United States has become a breeding ground for a growing number of "active clubs" that train white supremacist extremists in martial arts, neo-Nazi ideology, and in defending their race against their perceived enemies, an expert on the groups warned.

The clubs are a part of the white nationalist movement and are present in at least 30 states, and "especially active" in Arizona, California, Montana, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, according to the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL.Last year, the clubs spread to several European countries, including Lithuania, Sweden and Estonia.

"Active clubs are a nationwide network of localized white supremacist crews that see themselves as fighters training … against a system that they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race," Morgan Moon, an investigative researcher for the ADL's Center on Extremism and an expert on active clubs, told China Daily.

"The crews aim to promote fraternity among like-minded white supremacists and what they refer to as 'white warrior spirit'."

Over the past few years, the Department of Homeland Security has warned that white supremacists are one of the country's greatest domestic terror threats. In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center — a nonprofit legal advocacy organization — said it documented 1,225 hate and anti-government extremist groups across the US.

In May, US President Joe Biden called white supremacy "the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland" during an address to Howard University in Washington, DC.

That same month, a group of young male members of various active clubs, dressed in tactical gear and masks, descended on a bookstore in Bozeman, Montana, to protest a drag queen story hour, National Public Radio reported.

Violent acts

The clubs were initially inspired by the Rise Above Movement, or RAM, a now-disbanded white supremacist group from Southern California.

In October 2018, eight members of RAM's California and Virginia chapters were arrested. They were charged with intent to promote, incite, participate in and commit violent acts in a riot in two cases.

RAM leader Robert Rundo, a self-professed white nationalist, is instrumental in recruiting new people to join the organization.

Amid a crackdown on RAM in 2018, Rundo fled the US to Eastern Europe. He was arrested in Romania this year. In Europe, he linked up with a network of other extremist groups.

Rundo produced instructional videos on Telegram and Media2Rise, an online platform for RAM. He has also taken part in a podcast with fellow neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin, from Germany.

They both advise listeners on how to avoid law enforcement and how to create active clubs to preserve their European heritage.

Moon said: "Like other white supremacist groups, active clubs promote 'the Great Replacement theory', a conspiracy about the impending destruction of the white race which they also refer to as white genocide."

Moon also said the ADL Center on Extremism also "monitors, exposes, and disrupts extremist threats and activity on the ground and online".

Agencies contributed to this story.

belindarobinson@chindailyusa.com