Rahowa, an acronym for Racial Holy War, is the battle cry for the Church of the Creator (COTC), an organization that in the early 1990s

RAHOWA [Racial Holy War]! In this one word we sum up the total goal and program of not only the Church of the Creator, but of the total White Race, and it is this: We take up the challenge. We gird for total war against the Jews and the rest of the goddamned mud races of the world - politically, militantly, financially, morally and religiously. In fact we regard it as the heart of our religious creed, and as the most sacred credo of all. We regard it as a holy war to the finish - a racial holy war. -- RAHOWA! This Planet Is All Ours by Ben Klassen, founder of the Church of the Creator

was one of the most violent hate groups on the radical right and which has recently experienced a resurgence.

Fueled by militant racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, the organization has been responsible for, or connected to, at least one Florida murder, two conspiracies to commit hate crimes on the West Coast, and a planned secret police action against the African National Congress conducted in the waning years of South African apartheid. Police investigations into COTC leadership's connections to these criminal activities and the suicide of its charismatic leader, Ben Klassen, however, sent the organization into disarray for several years.

During 1996-97, however, the Church of the Creator (now known as the World Church of the Creator) has experienced a renaissance. Under the leadership of Matt Hale, an aspiring lawyer from Illinois, COTC has found a new center. The reappearance of Klassen's group is a disturbing development and illustrates the continuing and powerful influence of the Creator ideology on the far right, particularly among racist skinheads.

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