OAK CREEK, Wis. (CBS) — People of all faiths, and from all over, paid their respects Friday for the six victims who were killed at a massacre at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., this past Sunday.

As CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez reports, the funeral was at the Oak Creek High School gymnasium, at 340 E. Puetz Rd. in Oak Creek, and huge crowds turned out.

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LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports

One mourner observed that the shooter tried to divide people, but accomplished the exact opposite. Instead, Roman Catholics, Jews and Sikhs all pulled together.

They filled the parking lot of the high school, and many other lots, and were also dropped off by the busload to honor innocent victims.

Mourners were greeted by the sound of traditional Sikh hymns. Six coffins were lined up, with six photographs of those taken by the gunman, as people file past to pay respects.

“We’ve got buses coming in from Phoenix, from Chicago, from all over the country; people from London, Canada, California, you name it,” said spokesman Darian Rodriguez-Heyman.

Relatives of one of the victims described the tremendous outpouring of support.

“The cooperation we’re getting is 98 percent of people are with us, and 2 percent, I just don’t get,” said Jagjit Singh Kaleka, the older brother of slain temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka. “They are not going to go away. They’ll stick around. You and I have to deal with it, one way or another. That’s why we are together. That gives us the courage to deal with the problems we are facing.”

Even police officers at the service appeared moved. One was seen one comforting another at the combination visitation and memorial.

Relatives of the victims, Sikh leaders and even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder were to make remarks at the funeral. After that, victims’ families will gather privately for cremations.

One family member said it warms his heart to see the news media and the public learning more about Sikhs, such as how to pronounce the name of the faith correctly, and the traditional Rumala, or headdress, that women are asked to wear during services.

He says the gunman may have had hate on his agenda. But on Friday, the atmosphere was one of love and understanding.

On Sunday morning, gunman Wade Michael Page, 38, opened fire on worshipers at the temple, or gurdwara, with a 9mm handgun, without saying a word.

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Six of his victims died, and three others were critically wounded, including a police officer who responded to the shooting.

Police returned fire and wounded Page, and he shot and killed himself afterward.

In addition to Kaleka, killed in the massacre were Bhai Seeta Singh and Bhai Parkash Singh – both granthis, or priests; Bhai Ranjit Singh – a raagee, or cantor; and Subegh Singh, a member of the sangat; and Parmjit Kaur Toor, also a member of the sangat and the only woman who was slain.

Six of his victims died, and three others were critically wounded, including a police officer who responded to the shooting.

Police returned fire and wounded Page, and he shot and killed himself afterward.

The motive for the shooting has not been revealed, but in the wake of the massacre, it was learned that gunman Page had ties to white supremacist groups. He headed what’s being called a white-power band called “End Apathy,” and, in 2005, Page gave an interview to the white supremacist record company Label56, in which he described his band as being inspired by “trying to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back.”

He also applied to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan at one point, according to published reports.

In other I-can’t-believe-it news: Wade Michael Page, who shot himself in the head after killing six people at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, was a frustrated neo-Nazi who participated in the white-power music scene.

So why is the Fox News/Conservative Christian/Right-Wing Republican Party Machine going crazy all of a sudden? Because news services have reported that Page, unlike Holmes, was once in the military. By simply including that fact in his bio, the “lamestream media” has once again showed their utter hatred for all things American.

Look, Page got kicked out of the military because he was a drunken loser. This in no way reflects poorly on our military. Page was a drunken loser his entire miserable life. Period.

I haven’t heard anyone try to make the case that this evil person did what he did because he was once in the military. So, all you Right-Wingers, can we stop sniping just long enough to give the Sikh temple victims a moment of silence?

Wade Michael Page, the gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin before being killed by police, was deeply involved in the “hate rock” scene — a shadowy world of hundreds of performers in the U.S. and Europe, most of them playing metal or hardcore punk. Some also play country, folk and other genres.

Largely unknown to most Americans, this musical subculture is an integral part of neo-Nazi circles, offering a way for like-minded followers to connect with each other and socialize, recruit new members and raise money for their cause.

“It really was a good political weapon for the agenda,” said Jason Stevens, who once fronted a white-power band called Intimidation One in Portland, Ore.

Page once played guitar and bass with Intimidation One, as well as in bands called Definite Hate and End Apathy.

Stevens, who turned his back on white supremacy in 2004 and now owns a small business, said he was shocked to hear that a friend he remembered as “mellow and quiet” had committed such a heinous crime.

The two last talked on the phone in 2010, and Stevens said Page was “his usual laid-back self.” At the time, Stevens said, he had a job at a Colorado metalworking shop.

Stevens said money raised by his band’s tours and record sales was often funneled to legal defense funds for white supremacists charged with federal crimes, including Randy Weaver, whose 1992 standoff with federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, left a U.S. marshal and two Weaver family members dead.

The music “brings in more revenue than virtually anything else,” said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University at San Bernardino, who has consulted for the FBI and other federal agencies on white supremacists.

The National Alliance, a prominent white-power organization, sometimes cleared $1 million a year in profit from music, books and magazines, video games and other supremacy products, Levin said.

One of the most influential white-supremacist record labels, Resistance Records, often sold hate-rock albums for $14.88 — “14″ represented the 14 words in a popular skinhead mantra, and “8” pointed to “H” as the eighth letter of the alphabet.

“Doubling it up stood for ‘Heil Hitler,’” said Todd Blodgett, a former Reagan White House aide who once had an ownership stake in Resistance Records but later informed on white supremacist groups for the FBI.

Senior leaders of the groups see hate rock as the most effective way to recruit young followers, said Blodgett, who said he never held racist views but got wrapped up in far-right organizations without knowing the full implications of their beliefs.

The band now viewed as the pioneer of hate rock was called Skrewdriver, hailing from Britain’s skinhead scene in the late 1970s and pioneering a genre called “Oi,” which sounds similar to punk bands of the period such as the Sex Pistols.

The genre quickly spread to the U.S. and mushroomed in the early 1980s. In more recent years, the Internet enabled much wider distribution of the music, with many of its record labels run by a single person with a post-office box.

Not all the music is abrasive. Current performers featured on the Resistance Records website include Saga, a Swedish singer who sings about how “this is the way my race ends” in a lilting voice that recalls Sarah McLachlan. Some white supremacists also play folk, which they have rebranded as “volk” music, using the German word for “people.”

Still, aggressive punk and metal are hate rock’s main outlets. That was what Page played while fronting End Apathy. Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center tried to decipher Page’s lyrics, but found them mostly unintelligible beyond choruses of “Sieg Heil.”

On Monday, Label 56, the Baltimore-based outfit that released End Apathy’s music, removed from its website all images and products related to the band, and denounced Page’s actions. An email inquiry did not get an immediate response.

Hate rock concerts and festivals are commonly held on private land. Smaller shows are held at clubs or bars, with the groups often concealing their ideology from venue owners.

“You’ll see a lot of machismo, a lot of aggression,” said Pete Simi, a University of Nebraska-Omaha social scientist who’s done field research into hate groups and attended shows.

“It’s a very hyper-masculine space. The men will have their T-shirts off, and most are heavily tattooed.” The gatherings often include “rough dancing that looks like a brawl,” and fights are common. Stabbings are not unusual.

Simi also knew Page, having spent time with him during research in southern California in 2001 to 2003. The two then fell out of touch.

Asked if Milwaukee police tracked hate metal groups, spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said via email that authorities “are aware of the threats by groups who are contributors to acts of domestic terrorism.”

Matthew Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, declined to say if the agency specifically tracked hate rock groups but said it’s focused “on preventing violence that is motivated by extreme ideological beliefs.”

Levin said it can be difficult for law enforcement to focus specifically on certain individuals well-known in hate-rock circles unless there’s evidence they’ve committed some type of crime.

Mark Pitcavage, an investigator of right-wing groups for the Anti-Defamation League in New York City, said acts of right-wing extremism are at the highest level since the mid-1990s, around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. He credited federal authorities for staying on top of the threats, but said it often takes incidents such as the temple attack to get the public’s attention.

Stevens recalled the hundreds of hours he spent with Page in vans and cars as they traveled to gigs around the U.S. and Europe.

“You get intimate with people. You get to know their secrets and stuff,” Stevens said. “This was a guy, I never even seen him get in a fight — even when riots broke out at the shows. When I heard what happened, I felt sick.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

31-year-old Cook was arrested Tuesday evening, August 7th on tentative charges of being a felon in possession of a weapon. The weapon was reportedly found in Cook’s home after she was questioned by authorities following the shooting, and her home was searched.

Officials showed up at Cook’s home Tuesday and confirmed to FOX6 News Cook was taken into custody. Cook has not yet been officially charged.

FOX News reported Tuesday the weapon found in Cook’s home was not related to the Sikh Temple shooting. South Milwaukee police are meeting with the FBI, however.

In a statement released Thursday, the law firm said:

“Misty Cook has retained the lawyers listed below to represent her. We have opened the channels of communication with the proper authorities. Because this is an ongoing investigation we are ethically bound to not further comment on this matter. Ms. Cook has also been advised to not comment. Accordingly, at this time, there is no need to contact us or Ms. Cook.”

CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.

For example, Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic makes an observation:

There is, however, another factor that likely explains some of the reticence of some Americans, including professional commentators, to focus very much attention on the Oak Creek massacre.

Their disinclination to grapple with it has less to do with the victims than the gunman. The key factor isn’t that they’re Sikhs; it’s that the apparent homegrown terrorist — a term virtually no one would object to had a murderous Muslim burst into the Sikh temple — was perpetrated by a white guy.

Hold the victims constant and give the perpetrator the last name Mohammed. Does anyone think for a moment that such an attack wouldn’t still be the most discussed story at Fox News and National Review? And at various network news shows and unaffiliated newspapers for that matter?

Instead Wade Michael Page was the gunman.

Attacks like his are disconcerting to some white Americans for a seldom acknowledged reason. Since 9/11, many Americans have conflated terrorism with Muslims; and having done so, they’ve tolerated or supported counterterrorism policies safe in the presumption that people unlike them would bear their brunt. (If Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD sent officers beyond the boundaries of New York City to secretly spy on evangelical Christian students or Israeli students or students who own handguns the national backlash would be swift, brutal, and decisive. The revelation of secret spying on Muslim American students was mostly defended or ignored.)

In the name of counterterrorism, many Americans have given their assent to indefinite detention, the criminalization of gifts to certain charities, the extrajudicial assassination of American citizens, and a sprawling, opaque homeland security bureaucracy; many have also advocated policies like torture or racial profiling that are not presently part of official anti-terror policy.

What if white Americans were as likely as Muslims to be victimized by those policies? What if the sprawling national security bureaucracy we’ve created starts directing attention not just to Muslims and their schools and charities, but to right-wing militias and left-wing environmental groups (or folks falsely accused of being in those groups because they seem like the sort who would be)? There are already dossiers on non-Muslim extremist groups. In a post-9/11 world, Islamic terrorism has nevertheless been the overwhelming priority for law enforcement, and insofar as innocents have suffered, Muslims have been affected far more than any other identifiable group, because the bulk of the paradigm shift in law enforcement hasn’t spread beyond them.

Would that still be true if the next terrorist attack on American soil looks like Oklahoma City? How would President Obama or President Romney wield their unprecedented executive power in the aftermath of such an attack? Who would find that they’d been put on no fly lists? Whose cell phone conversations and email exchanges would be monitored without their ever knowing about it?

Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog has an answer, and it’s depressingly likely that he is correct:

We might have a serious counterterrorism crackdown against whites in the near future, but we absolutely won’t have a serious counterterrorism crackdown against right-wing whites. If a future large terrorist attack is conducted by a Weathermen-like group, the hammer will come down on lefties; by contrast, if the next big attack is like Oklahoma City, the reaction will be … well, like the reaction to Oklahoma City: there’ll be no crackdown on like-minded people, no significantly stepped-up surveillance, no nationwide cloud of suspicion, no wave of new laws. That’s for non-whites and lefties only.

The key factor isn’t just skin color — the ’60s and ’70s leftists who were tracked by law enforcement were mostly white. The key factor is that right-wing extremists share a lot of beliefs with the mainstream right — they’re anti-cultural elite, anti-urbane, distrustful of government, unswervingly opposed to gun control, and fed up with programs meant to help non-whites, the poor, women, and gay people. That’s the resemblance that matters in this society, not skin color; that’s why we’ll never consider a serious crackdown on right-wing extremism, however organized and violent right-wing extremist groups become. No liberal or left-centrist president would dare challenge the pro-”regular American” bias that protects right-wing extremists, and no Republican would even dream of cracking down on the far right.

I don’t generally predict the future, but I will say that I would not be surprised if the next large-scale terrorist action to take place on U.S. soil were the work of the home-grown right-wing fringe rather than Islamists.

Hate has been the reason in past for organized and individual acts of violence. One common reason for hate has been envy. Envy has long been held to be a harmful emotion involving the desire to deprive others of the qualities or possessions that they possess and we covet (Belk 2011). Envy at its extremes is of two types – Benign envy and Malicious envy. Benign envy aims to level up. For example when our friend gets a good boss, we usually end up saying – “I am envious of your job”. This is not destructive. Malicious envy on the other hand is destructive.

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Due to different governments, different backgrounds and other factors, every person does not get every good thing in life. Hate related violence as experienced by Indians in Australia or other countries has been due to the envy of locals. Locals found the lives of Indian immigrants much better. They were envious. When this envy was benign, it lead to healthy competition. When this was malicious it lead to unhealthy destruction or hate crimes. The massacre in  Oak Creek, Wisconsin is an example of malicious envy against Sikhs who have been doing extremely well.

Hate crimes have happened in India against Indians. A political party in an Indian state launched an entire campaign of hate against Indian migrants. The anti-migrant sentiment was again due to loss of jobs of locals to “outsiders”. If Indians can consider other Indians as outsiders and can be envious, it is quite possible for other migrants to face similar situations. At the end of it what we get is heinous crimes and in worse situations as sometimes experienced in India – political support.

To explain the reason in a  simplistic manner, the hater says,

If my world is a living hell,
How can you live so well?
If you’ve taken my space,
I’ll make you feel my pain.

The case of Wade Michael Page is isolated and I really appreciate the present social system in the United States that despises any racial discrimination. But in future to make this system better we would need economists to work on reducing the collective malicious envy of a population. It makes more sense in a country like India, which is highly sensitive to communal riots and communal agendas of political organizations. Equal opportunities will reduce malicious envy of one race,cast or religion towards the other. It will also reduce migration. If people are living well, why should they participate in a hate movement at all?

I’d like to express my condolences to the deceased and their relatives in this massacre. May their souls rest in peace.

The tragic shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin is yet another example of hatred bred by American Islamophobia. And the media, the ones who have been fanning the anti-Muslim flames since 9/11, are complicit with this crime. Rather than reporting on facts in a dispassionate and nonpartisan way, they spread hysteria and appeal to the most xenophobic and ignorant of their viewership.

The mainstream coverage of this event is being framed in the same manner as the James Holmes shooting. We’re led to believe that this is just a random case of a lone wolf, sociopathic loser who acted on his own craziness, and that nothing could have been done to stop him or to prevent another one like him from doing the same thing. Moreover, the network anchors refuse to refer to either shooter as a domestic terrorist. There’s no question that if either shooter were a Muslim or of Arab descent that he would have been branded a terrorist and nobody would think twice about it. In the case of Wade Michael Page, the man who killed 6 innocent Sikhs, it’s especially confusing since he clearly carried neo-Nazi beliefs in his deranged mind. By definition, his pursuit of violence to achieve political aims would make him a terrorist. But he’s a white man. So they marginalize him by labeling him the committer of a hate crime, and then they act indignantly on the airwaves as if they can’t see why this happened.

Haven’t you noticed how every news story involving Muslims involves some radical blowing something up or stoning a woman to death for adultery or some other act of barbarism? How the coverage of any political struggle in the Arab world (such as the one in Egypt) is presented to us from the perspective of the US and Israeli military leadership and not from the people on the ground? Americans are being presented with an extremely one-sided view of Middle Eastern affairs and this leads them to a classic blame the victim mentality. How many of the casual viewers of Fox News or CNN have extensive experience living in an Arab country to be able to determine how prevalent these issues actually are? The media is indeed, as Malcolm X once said, the most powerful force on the planet. It’s no wonder that they’ve managed to make Islam synonymous with terrorism in the mind of the average American idiot.

So when America’s hatred of Muslim and other Asiatic religious minorities begins to boil and victims of this bigotry protest, how does our fair and balanced media respond? They say it’s the responsibility of moderate Muslims to march in the streets against the so-called terrorists and reclaim their religion. There are many things wrong this stance. First of all, the term “moderate Muslim” is inherently offensive as it implies that only those who practice Islam in moderation are nonviolent. In other words, they’ve mistakenly conflated the politics of a few militant groups with the practice of the entire religion. Second of all, these American Muslims, who they condescendingly refer to as “moderate,” are in no ways responsible for the actions of any suicide bomber or Taliban leader who are living in a completely different reality than they are.

Now the average Joe in Wisconsin, who sits on his couch wearing a wife beater and jean shorts, taking gulps from his canned beer, is not going to raid the next house of worship or convenience store with a 9 millimeter. He’s probably not going to set a mosque on fire like the guy from Joplin, Missouri did (by the way, when he threw that flammable object at the mosque, do you think he was wearing a WWJD bracelet? Or is that passe?). But he will become a racist as he’s brainwashed on a nightly basis by the likes of Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Of course, the radicals are subject to this same mental conditioning that millions of other peons undergo. As opposed to simply sharing their bigotry with co-workers at the water cooler or friends at the bar, they plot ways to manifest their hatred. And that’s how you end up with 6 peaceful worshippers dead.

Finally, I just want to say my heart goes out to the Sikhs who were terrorized last Sunday. As a person of Middle Eastern ancestry, I know what it’s like for people to look upon you with suspicion. For years I felt ashamed of being associated with the country my family emigrated from, and only recently have I shook off that foolish feeling. I admire the way the followers of your faith have manage to respond to this senseless attack in such a loving and forgiving way. I hope the writers of cable news are paying attention.

OAK CREEK — Authorities are still speculating as to the motive that drove 40-year-old Wade Michael Page to open fire Sunday morning inside the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek. The investigation thus far has uncovered Page’s deep roots in the white supremacy movement. According to a man who knew Page well, Page’s hatred was born during his service in the military.

Page’s journey from a boy growing up in Denver who enjoyed camping to a white supremacist band member, and eventually, the Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooter may have begun at Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina. Page served in the Army from 1992-1998.

University of Nebraska criminology professor Pete Simi spent a fair amount of time in communication with Page from 2001 to 2003 for his research into white supremacists for books like “American Swastika.”

“He told me if you don’t go into the military racist, you’ll certainly come out one,” Simi said.

After the military, Simi says Page pivoted his hate towards all non-whites.

“What he explained to me is that he began to see how unfair the military system was organized and that African-Americans were promoted ahead of whites for affirmative action. They were coddled and not disciplined when they should have been,” Simi said.

Simi says he believes the 9-11 terrorist attacks enraged Page.

“We had an email exchange after 9-11 and he felt that America needed to just go to the Middle East and bomb all of it. I don’t know that we’ll ever know Page had it in his mind that he was attacking Muslims or if it didn’t really matter much — he was attacking non-whites and that’s what really counts,” Simi said.

Simi says he is certain Page’s breakup with Misty Cook two months before the shooting, along with a drinking problem and an inability to hold down steady work likely helped land Page in Oak Creek Sunday morning.

Simi says Page was aware of white supremacists growing up in Denver through some fringe elements of the punk rock movement, but Simi says he never identified with them until he enlisted.

CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.

Page became a full, or patched, member of the Hammerskin chapter last October and appeared to be rising quickly in the organization, according to postings on Crew 38, the online forum for Hammerskin Nation (HSN). This year, in fact, his girlfriend, using the name “LuluRoman” on the forum, directed all regional inquiries regarding Northern Hammerskin events to Page.

It seems that Page, who was a mainstay with several hate rock bands, gained prominence in the organization in less than a year. Last October, the Crew 38 forum buzzed with excited commentary about Hammerfest, an annual skinhead rock festival. One commenter named “38Florida” offered congratulations to “Harley, Larry, Jason and Wade –– the newest members of the HSN.”

In the early hours of the following morning, Page responded under the name “End Apathy.” “Had an awesome time and I am honored to have earned the Crossed Hammers. HFFH!” he wrote. (HFFH stands for the group’s mantra, “Hammerskins Forever, Forever Hammerskins,” and “Crossed Hammers” is a reference to the patch worn by members.)

The Hammerskins is one of the oldest, most violent and most dominant skinhead groups in the United States. Unlike other groups, the Hammerskins managed to organize quickly nationally under decentralized leadership.

The Hammerskin Nation is now seeking to distance itself from Page, however. It has locked its online forum to all but a select few and stopped accepting applications for new users. The sudden attention to security comes as the FBI treats the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism.

Late last night, Page’s girlfriend, Misty Cook, a 31-year-old nursing student and waitress with whom he once lived, was arrested on gun charges, the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee reported. Cook was barred under federal law from owning guns due to a 2005 felony conviction for eluding a police officer.

Like Page, Cook has long history on the racist right. She reportedly had deep association with Volksfront, a competing skinhead organization with far-flung international ties.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: Neo-Nazi Killer Wade Page was Member of Hammerskin Nation | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center.

In eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province, during the celebration of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, a Muslim extremist detonates a vest packed with explosives and kills three members of the U.S. military and three civilians. While family members mourn loved ones lost in the atrocity, radical elements like the Taliban and al Qaeda celebrate.

A powerful sense of truth and justice surges in the hearts of all those affected, yet two “communities” — attackers and survivors — couldn’t disagree more on the justice of what has happened.

One society condemns a behavior, another praises it. How do we know who is right?

The owners of a fast-food restaurant chain donate money to organizations that seek to strengthen the traditional family; reporters, politicians, and gay activists rise up to protest the “hatred” and “intolerance.” Is there no way to discern the truth of the matter? Is it all just a matter of opinion?

No one on either side of these conflicts believes it is just a matter of opinion. Everyone is passionately convinced about the truth — but Truth appears to be hopelessly confused about what is true.

We are a world of many tribes, and some of those tribes have declared war on others. In each of the cases above, one tribe will not rest until its enemy has submitted and accepted the warring tribe’s “truth.” Even some anti-war activists seem to be perfectly willing to use violence to make their point.

Is submission to the stronger power the only peace we can find? Is war the only path to peace? Is there no way for all our tribes to know what is just and true for everyone, everywhere, all the time?

Not if religious and moral truth is just a matter of what an individual or tribe believes it is. And, sadly, pretty much everyone believes just exactly that. Every religion has its revelation. Every tribe has its wise men. Every atheist and skeptic has his dawkins. Each community passionately believes its truth — and dismisses those who disagree as fools, infidels, or haters.

This rant was triggered by an op-ed published in today’s on-line edition of the Salt Lake Tribune. The article, entitled “Truth in Mormonism,” was written by Ed Firmage Jr., a former Mormon who had an epiphany in grad school that all religion is “a pious fraud.”

Mr. Firmage, who now sees himself as a skeptic, tells us that “religious truth is a matter of what you believe,” that ultimately “the truth of religion, if it has any truth, … is not what you believe but what you do.” If we could all just understand that religious truth is what transforms us, not what our creeds tell us, we could avoid “the usual sectarian disputes” and focus on “things that can unite us in common cause.” “Humanity today faces challenges greater than any in history,” Mr. Firmage says. “These are decades that need a saving truth, not of creeds but of faith in action, faith directed at solving the real problems of our time.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yet everyone in the three examples I cited above has a faith, and the aggressors all believed their actions were directed at “solving the real problems of our time.”

Contra Mr. Firmage, religious and moral truth cannot simply be a matter of what an individual or group believes. The world cannot be united in common cause without some way of agreeing on the values that define the “real” problems of our time and give us guidance on solving them.

Mr. Firmage, like everyone else, would be only too glad to help the rest of us understand the truth that will unite us — as long as everyone is rational enough to see things the way he does. He probably misses the irony that his epiphany about the truth of religion and the importance of faith in action actually is just another religious truth.

I don’t mean to be hard on this fellow. He isn’t any more deluded than other skeptics who have found an intellectual insight they believe transports a person above tribal superstition. But the fact is, he can’t point to any evidence that makes his “truth” — his opinion — any better than that of the neo-Nazi or Islamist. Even if everyone agreed with his perspective, agreement is no indicator of truth. Humans, even the smart ones, are notoriously blind to our own prejudices and faulty assumptions.

So what is the solution? Is there nowhere in the real world we can look for proof of what is true and just? Is there no one whose “faith in action” shows us a path forward that everyone can agree is good?

I think proof beyond reasonable doubt is available, but many people — most people, actually — won’t like it.

I guess we’re all entitled to our own opinions — or we used to be, anyway. And we all get to live with the consequences of thinking that religious and  moral truth is just a matter of what you believe.

God help us all.

—–
Cross-posted from kainos.

This hate-filled subculture of neo-Nazi bands has been around since the early days of punk rock in the 1970s, but has edged uneasily into the spotlight following the shooting deaths of six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin by alleged gunman Wade Michael Page.

Page spent years playing bass and guitar in bands that railed against a racially integrated America. His last endeavor, End Apathy, sang of compassion as a weakness and called America a “sick society.”

“There is a whole underworld of racist bands unknown to the public,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks right-wing extremism “Music is their single most important recruiting method, more than any other factor.”

Page is typical of the scene’s regulars, said Arno Michaels, a Milwaukee-based writer and peace activist with the group Life After Hate. Michaels played in white-power punk bands for years, leaving after the birth of his daughter and after seeing friends die in street clashes.

“When I got into the punk scene, I enjoyed the aggression and rebellion,” Michaels said. Wearing a Nazi swastika “created an environment where the world responded with hate and violence, which to me justified what I was doing.”

Page became involved in white-power punk after attending 2000’s Hammerfest, a fascist-punk festival hosted by the Nazi group Hammerskin in Orlando, Fla., according to an interview with Page posted on the website of Label 56, which released his albums.

In 2001, Page joined a Nazi band called Youngland that was based in Orange County, Calif., playing with the group for about two years, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“Orange County is a huge white power music scene,” said Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the ADL. “There are a lot of white power bands and there are a lot of places they can play. It’s a hot spot.”

Exact figures for the secretive scene’s reach are difficult to come by. Potok estimates there are several hundred bands, including ones based in Europe.

Most performances are underground and unadvertised, to avoid drawing attention from authorities and to prevent adversaries from disrupting the event and attacking show-goers.

An invitation to a white-power punk show more often comes as a phone call or text message.

“Most common is they announce the event, and they say if you want info, contact X,” Pitcavage said. “If you contact X, they will contact you back if you did not raise any flags with them. They have learned the hard way to evolve.”

Then it gets more cryptic. “You make contact and are told to travel to a gas station,” Pitcavage said. “You will meet up with three generally intimidating large people covered in tattoos. Once they approve you, you will be given directions to the venue.”

Mainstream venues can be deceived into accidentally hosting neo-Nazi shows. In 2009, the Doll Hut in Anaheim openly talked to the OC Weekly about unwittingly hosting a white-power concert falsely booked as a wedding reception, and fearing violence, the venue let it run its course before publicizing the scam.

“Concerts are booked under completely false pretenses,” said Aaron Flanagan, an analyst with the Center for New Community, which tracks hate groups. “They’re booked as a birthday party, as an anniversary or a showcase. Then the VFW Hall or the American Legion Hall does not realize what they got into until people show up.”

From the earliest days of punk, bands have occasionally flirted with Nazi imagery. Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ singer Siouxsie Soux wore swastika armbands for shock value.

But underneath the antagonistic mainstream punk scene, a more troubling variant took root. In the ’70s, the fascist English political group National Front organized punk shows to recruit disaffected young men and women into its ranks.

Other left-leaning and inclusive punk scenes fought against this ideological strain. One of hard-core’s pioneering bands was the all-black D.C. group Bad Brains, and the leftist San Francisco band Dead Kennedys fought back with a 1981 single railing against “Nazi Punks.”

“Punk is such an extreme form of music, it’s always attracted different types of extremes,” Dead Kennedys founder Jello Biafra said in an interview Tuesday.

Years ago, Biafra recalled, he was at a club when members of Britain’s National Front – a white power group – were hanging out with the road crew of a British punk band. “It creeped me out,” he said.

While openly neo-Nazi speech is often banned in Europe, the scene found a home in America, with its broad free-speech laws and history of radical-right subcultures. American white-power groups initially shunned rock music (preferring country, bluegrass and Wagner) until finally embracing its recruitment potential in the ’80s.

William Pierce, the “Turner Diaries” author and leader of the American neo-Nazi group National Alliance, bought a majority share in the fascist punk label Resistance Records in 1999, writing in the National Alliance Bulletin that “As Resistance Records regains strength, that acquisition should add an increasing number of younger members, in the 18-25 age range, to our ranks.”

Some Nazi punk groups took the Wisconsin shooting as a rallying cry. But others feel that Page’s rampage has instead cast unwanted attention on their fringe culture.

“We do not wish to profit from this tragedy financially or with publicity,” Label 56 said in a statement Tuesday. “Please do not take what Wade did as honorable or respectable and please do not think we are all like that.”

One thing that the bands don’t stand for is musical proficiency. It’s all about the attitude and ideology.

“It’s simple, infectious and streamlined and packaged to point to emotion rather than logic,” Flanagan said. “It’s about accessing anger.”

From the Los Angeles Times 09.08.12. Report by  August Brown And Todd Martens

The authorities said police responders shot Wade Michael Page, 40, in the stomach, but they did not fire the fatal shot, as they had initially said.

At a news conference, the FBI also confirmed Page’s ex-girlfriend had been arrested on a weapons charge.

There is no suggestion Misty Cook, 31, was involved in Sunday’s attack.

FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson confirmed on Wednesday that she had seen video footage in which a police officer shot Page in the stomach.

“It’s an amazing shot, and thank goodness,” she said.

“Subsequent to that wound, it appears that Page died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Agent Carlson added.

‘No clear motive’

She said Page, a heavily tattooed Army veteran who performed in white-power bands, was still the only suspect.

Dozens of people who knew him were being interviewed, although officials have not yet “clearly defined a motive” for the shooting in a Milwaukee suburb, Agent Carlson added.

Federal officials were not investigating Page before the shooting, she said. He bought the gun used in the attack at a nearby gun shop days after he moved to Cudahy, Wisconsin.

His relationship with Misty Cook, a nursing student, ended earlier this year.

She was found to have a firearm at her Milwaukee home when police called to interview her about Page.

Cook is prohibited from keeping a gun because she has a previous conviction for fleeing and eluding a traffic officer.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Sikh, to express his condolences over the tragedy, the White House said.

Hundreds of people held another vigil on Tuesday night for the victims.

Temple member Karan Singh Toor said he felt proud to be an American when he saw people of different races attending.

Other temple members have said they knew of no previous threats to the place of worship, and that Page had never been seen there before.

The dead were five men and one woman, who ranged in age from 39 to 84.

Three others injured in the attack remain in critical condition.

On Wednesday, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said Lt Brian Murphy, who was shot multiple times as he tried to help a victim, was improving.

“He was up walking yesterday,” Mr Edwards said. “He’s progressing amazingly and we’re very, very thankful for that.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19183359

Feds: Temple Shooter Committed Suicide With Head Shot – Yahoo! News.

Without any remorse, I wish the soul of this racist toilet residue=eternity in hell. This Aryan-Wannabe, clearly had established concern for his muddled mindset, on more than one occasion, but according to 2nd amendment misinterpretation, this asshole, and others like him, have, and still insist that regulation equates with the perceived of loss ones “rights.” Wade Michael Page is the type of rectal sludge that can’t be processed by a sanitation plant. His humanity card was given up long ago, when he began the demented and demonic thought process that led to this tragedy. Because of this, I hope the Devil is giving him the warmest of welcomes.

-Daryl- 

Related articles

• Sikh temple gunman died by own hand: FBI (news.yahoo.com)
• Good Riddance: Feds Say Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooter Wade Michael Page Committed Suicide After Catching A Shot In The Gut From Cops (bossip.com)

OAK CREEK — Amarjit Kaur is the only Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting victim who has been treated and released from the hospital. Kaur survived the shooting, but the friend she was with Sunday morning was killed. Kaur says the shooter — 40-year-old Wade Michael Page had an expressionless face as he fired the gun.

“He just look at me. I look in his eyes. He`s wearing glasses and he just goes ‘ta-ta-ta.’ He just unload the gun in front of me. I want to step back, but he didn’t give me a chance,” Kaur said.

Kaur had been praying with a friend in the temple’s blessing room when shouts drew them into the hallway. Kaur said with his face expressionless, he raised his weapon toward the women.

“I’m stunned over there. I’m not able to think anything over there — not even do I stay or run? Nothing coming in my mind,” Kaur said.

A round of shots was fired, and a bullet grazed Kaur’s arm. Another hit her friend, Paramjit Kaur, who died at the scene.

“I don’t know why this thing happened to her,” Kaur said.

Kaur ran into the temple’s kitchen, found an apron to wrap around her arm and ran with others to hide in a pantry — listening to the sound of gunshots.

“I didn’t call even my son. Only pray to God — he help us, he’s going to save us,” Kaur said.

The group waited in silence until police entered the temple. Kaur was taken to Wheaton-Franciscan Hospital, treated and released.

Kaur said she doesn’t know why she survived and others died, but said with certainty she forgives the gunman.

“Sometimes people get mad. They don’t know what they have to do, and maybe that’s why he has done this thing. I’m not mad with anyone,” Kaur said.

Kaur said she was partially shielded from bullets by a pillar in the temple. She said she is grieving for her friend, whom she went to temple with every day to pray before work.

CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.

(CNN) — When Wisconsin temple gunman Wade Michael Page arrived at Fort Bragg in 1995, the sprawling Army base in North Carolina already was home to a small number of white supremacists including three soldiers later convicted in the murder of an African-American couple.

The killings launched a military investigation that tightened regulations against extremist activity, but some say such influences persist in today’s armed forces.

“Outside every major military installation, you will have at least two or three active neo-Nazi organizations actively trying to recruit on-duty personnel,” said T.J. Leyden, a former white power skinhead in the U.S. Marines who now conducts anti-extremism training.

Page died in a shootout with police responding to his attack Sunday on a Sikh temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Hill that killed six people and wounded four, including a police officer.

He had ties to white supremacist groups and the FBI acknowledges it knew of him, though no formal investigation ever took place.

According to Pete Simi, a University of Nebraska criminologist who knew Page, the military experience at Fort Bragg helped instill Page’s allegiance to the white power movement.

“What he told me during the course of our time together was that he really started to identify with the neo-Nazism during his time in the military,” said Simi, who met Page in 2001 while doing a study on white power groups in California. “And specifically, what he told me at one point was that, if you join the military and you’re not a racist, then you certainly will be by the time you leave.”

In particular, Simi told CNN, Page’s military experience bolstered his perception that “the deck was stacked against whites.”

“He came to feel that there was preferential treatment for African-Americans in the military and whites were always on the short end of the stick,” Simi continued. “And the more he got into the Nazi ideology, the more he came to see all of society in that way.”

While Page knew about neo-Nazis and racist skinheads before joining the Army, “he really started getting into it during his time in the military,” said Simi, author of “American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate.”

Page joined the Army in 1992 and ended up at Fort Bragg in 1995, around the time that the base became the focus of white extremism in the military when three members of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed there were arrested in connection with the murder of an African-American couple in nearby Fayetteville.

Investigators found neo-Nazi materials in the barracks of the men, and all three were eventually convicted. The case prompted a military review that determined 22 soldiers at the base had past or present links to skinhead groups, though investigators concluded there was no organized extremist movement operating among the more than 14,000 troops of the 82nd Airborne at the time.

Those who served with Page say he showed racist tendencies then.

“He was involved with white supremacy. He talked about the racial holy war a lot,” said Chris Robillard, who met Page at Fort Bragg in 1995 when both were doing psychological operations training.

While describing Page as a close friend and a kind person, Robillard also said that “when he’d rant, it would be about mostly any non-white person.”

“I know everyone is going to paint him as a racist with hatred, but that’s not how I remember him,” Robillard said. “The racial holy war talk I always took as something he would vent about, and not act on it. I never pictured him as someone who would do anything. I thought maybe he was just saying it for attention.”

To J.M. Berger, a counterterrorism analyst and editor for IntelWire.Com, the military attracts extremists because of the weapons training it provides.

“One thing that we really have to keep in mind is that extremists are often explicitly interested in joining the military because they get training that they can use later,” Berger told CNN, adding that “there have been some explicit discussions among leaders of some of these groups that their followers should join the Army to get trained.”

In talking to military veterans, Berger said, he hears “different things from different people.”

“Some say that there’s not a massive problem. Others have expressed concern to me about what they’ve seen in the ranks,” he continued. “And, you know, the military is a massive operation like the U.S. population. There are going to be some people who are problems.”

Page received a general discharge under honorable conditions from the Army in 1998 due to “discreditable incidents,” according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of not being identified.

Robillard said Page showed up drunk for duty one morning, which led to his eventual discharge. The two men parted ways until 2000, when Page visited Robillard at his home in Arkansas.

“He had gone through a dramatic change,” Robillard said of the meeting, the last time he saw Page in person. “His talk about the racist war was … more like he really did believe it.”

Leyden, the former white supremacist who wrote the book “Skinhead Confessions: From Hate to Hope,” said he openly displayed his extremist leanings while serving in the Marine Corps in the late 1980s.

“I used to hang a swastika flag on my wall locker and everybody in my unit all the way up to my commander knew it,” he said. “The only time they ever asked me to take it down was when the commanding general would come through, just so they wouldn’t get in trouble. And afterwards, I would put it right back up and they were perfectly fine with it.”

He noted that his brother’s unit had less tolerance for such displays.

“His commanding officer went to the barracks and anything that was racist or seemed to be racist, he made them send it home,” Leyden said. “So it really depends on the commanding officers and who’s in charge of that base.”

After the 1995 murder case involving the three Fort Bragg soldiers, the Army appointed a task force to investigate the extent of white supremacists in its ranks and also started including training against extremism.

According to the Department of Defense website, the task force visited 28 installations and interviewed more than 7,500 soldiers. It found that less than 1% said they had seen soldiers or civilian employees involved with extremist groups.

A decade later, the Southern Law Poverty Center reported in 2006 that some high-profile members of extremist groups were serving in the U.S. military.

According to the organization, which tracks hate groups in the United States, the presence of extremists in the military increased with the need to bolster ranks for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.

OAK CREEK — FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson announced during a Wednesday, August 8th media briefing investigators are casting a wide net — trying to determine motive in the Sikh Temple shooting that left six dead and three critically wounded. Officials say 40-year-old Wade Michael Page opened fire inside the temple. Page was shot in the stomach by an Oak Creek police officer, before taking his life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Investigators said Wednesday they have interviewed over 100 people, and have over 100 leads in the case. They say there is no indication Page was targeting Muslims and mistakenly killed members of another religious group — though that is one of many potential motives law enforcement is looking into.

The FBI says they believe Page is the only gunman responsible for the shooting — an incident they are looking into as a potential domestic terrorist incident.

A national security source says they are contacting anyone Page may have come into contact with to see whether he had any help in carrying out the shooting — including whether he was given money, information or other assistance in planning the attack. Investigators say the scope of this investigation is worldwide, and they are looking into Wade’s travels overseas, and his time spent playing in approximately 10 bands — most linked to hate music.

The FBI is also looking into Page’s former employers and friends he had contact with, dating back to his childhood, in an effort to understand what drove him to kill.

“We’re going to try to talk to anyone he may have had contact with or anywhere he may have been,” Carlson said.

Lt. Brian Murphy

Two Sikh priests remain in critical condition at Froedtert Hospital, along with Oak Creek Police Lt. Brian Murphy. Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards updated Murphy’s condition Wednesday.

“He was up walking. They had him sitting up for a period of time. He was progressing amazingly and we’re very, very thankful for that,” Chief Edwards said.

BMO Harris Bank has established a fund to benefit the Oak Creek Police Association and Lt. Brian Murphy — announced during Wednesday’s press briefing.

It is unclear at this time when the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek might reopen.

Funeral services for the six who lost their lives will be held Friday, August 10th at Oak Creek High School.

CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) – Hours after our story aired Tuesday tying accused Sikh temple gunman Wade Michael Page to the Mid Cities Civic Association, the group changed their policy about renting space to skinheads.

“We don’t approve of it and we won’t rent to them again,” said Nick Curry, Association President.

Page is known as a member of the Confederate Hammerskins, a white supremacy group, and was known to play in a white power rock band that performed at the civic association clubhouse on multiple occasions over the past few years.

Curry wanted to set the record straight Wednesday. He claims he did rent the non-profit facility to the Hammerskins, but claims he didn’t know how extreme their message was and has never endorsed their values..

“Absolutely nobody here supports that mentality, not the members, the leaders, the officers or the organization itself,” said Curry.

When asked if he regretted the several rentals to the white supremacy group, Curry admits he felt it was morally wrong and a mistake. However he claims the non-profit struggles to make ends meet and often gives away all of their rental profits to worthy causes. The facility costs five hundred dollars to rent out for the night.

“When you’re so tightly funded and you’ve got to get some money in here to keep it open, you don’t have much option you got to do what you got to do sometimes,” said Curry.

Looking back Curry says they money wasn’t worth being tied to such a tragedy.

“To ensure the safety of everyone we will not rent to them again, ” he said.

RELATED:

• Alleged temple shooter attended Chesterfield white supremacist event
• Wisconsin gunman’s Army base had white supremacists

SOUTH MILWAUKEE — FOX6 News has learned Sikh Temple shooting gunman Wade Michael Page’s ex-girlfriend, Brenda “Misty” Cook was also heavily involved with the white supremacist movement. Cook was taken into custody by police on tentative charges of being a felon in possession of a gun after officials reportedly discovered the weapon in Cook’s apartment when questioning her following the shooting.

FBI Special Agent In Charge Teresa Carlson said during a media briefing Wednesday they believe Page acted alone in Sunday’s shooting, and they do not believe Cook, nor the weapon found at Cook’s home were in any way connected to the Sikh Temple shooting.

Cook was not allowed to have a weapon after the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office says Cook was sentenced in 2005 for a felony count of evading an officer. Felons cannot possess guns.

Cook’s neighbors in South Milwaukee told FOX6 News Wednesday they believe Cook was released from police custody and may have left the state. A downstairs neighbor said Cook loaded her things into her mother’s car and took off.

Lonnie Nasatar with the Anti-Defamation League says Page and Cook were well known message board contributors on the skin-head website “Hammerskin.” Nasatar says his organization has followed the two for the last few years in terms of their involvement in racist skin-head organizations.

Page started a hate-rock band in North Carolina called “End Apathy.” Pictures shared by the ADL show Cook attending white supremacy gatherings.

“We watch these groups because we are always worried about when ideology turns to action,” Nasatar said.

Cook was a waitress at the Prime Table Family Restaurant just down the street from the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek.

FOX6 News has learned Page and Cook broke up about two weeks before the shooting.

CLICK HERE for additional coverage on the Sikh Temple shooting via FOX6Now.com.

MILWAUKEE — Members of the Sikh community reacted to new developments following the Sikh Temple shooting on Sunday, after a media briefing Wednesday morning. FBI Special Agent In Charge Teresa Carlson announced the gunman, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the scene Sunday. Officials initially believed Page was fatally shot by Oak Creek police.

Members of the Sikh community Wednesday reacted to the news Page had turned the gun on himself. They say they believe Page’s actions Sunday, killing six at the Oak Creek temple, were premeditated and his death was part of the plan.

“He already had his mind made up.  He wasn’t going to leave the Sikh Temple alive, regardless if he were going to be killed by the officers or if he was going to commit suicide.  Either way, his wish did come true,”  Balhair Dulai, a member of the Sikh community said.

Instead of projecting anger, Sikhs are extending their sympathies to Page’s family who says they’re also grieving following the shooting.

“We are sorry that we lost seven people, including him.  His mom, the stepmother, the whole family is affected and I think we should stand with them also,” Dr. Harcharan Gill said.

Sikhs say they are thankful for the show of support from around the world, through vigils and donations.  They hope to turn this tragedy into a positive lesson — that the Sikh faith is one of compassion and love, not one surrounded by hate.

“We as Sikhs don’t believe in hate.  We are a peace-loving community.  The only thing we’d like to stress right now, is let’s get together and educate so this will never happen to anyone else and no one gets hurt,” Dulai said.

CLICK HERE for additional coverage of the Sikh Temple shooting via FOX6Now.com.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.