An American town has divided opinion after approving a 'whites-only' church.
The small farming town of Murdock in Minnesota has only 280 residents and has granted permission for the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) to set up their new facility.
The assembly is described as an international, white supremacist, pagan-like organisation that has been around since the mid-'90s.
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The AFA bought the former Lutheran church in June this year and they have now been given approval to set up their race specific church, which will act as 'gathering place for AFA members of the northern plains'. AFA members have to prove their strict European bloodlines if they want membership.
Despite cries from residents and people around America, the approval was given because it's allowed under First Amendment Rights.
Mayor Craig Kavanagh said: "We as the leaders of the City of Murdock want it to be known that the City of Murdock condemns racism in all of its forms: Conscious, Unconscious, any place, any time, now and in the future.
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"We are committed to building a community that promotes equal justice and opportunity to every single person regardless of their race."
When questioned by CNN, Kavanagh double-downed and insisted the same would be given to organisations that were solely made up of a different race.
"The Conditional Use Permit for the AFA is very controversial if you want to make it about religious beliefs, but what is failing to get mentioned is this vote was not about beliefs," Kavanagh said in a statement.
"This vote was about a zoning permit to let an old abandoned church be used for exactly what it was built for 'a church'.
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"Now I understand the beliefs of who will be using the church are much different from one another, but that is every person's 1st amendment right according to the Constitution."
A petition has been launched to raise awareness of the opposition to the move, with more than 125,000 people signing it.
The AFA has been branded an 'extremist group' and a 'neo-Volkisch hate group', and the organisation even admits to promoting 'great Aryan religiosity'.
However, the AFA denies they are racist.
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Allen Turnage, a folk assembly board member, said: "We're not. It's just simply not true. Just because we respect our own culture, that doesn't mean we are denigrating someone else's."
The AFA has praised the City of Murdock on their Facebook page for their 'fairness' in giving them 'this opportunity' to spread their word.
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