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David Myatt | |
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| Born | David Wulstan Myatt 1950 (age 74–75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Abdul-Aziz bin Myatt |
| Occupation(s) | Author, religious leader, andBritish far-right andIslamistmilitant[1][2][3] |
| Years active | 1968–present: 1968–1998 (Neo-Nazism) 1974-2016 (Order of Nine Angles) 1998–2009 (Islam) 2010–present (Numinous Way) |
| Known for | Neo-Nazism,Order of Nine Angles, Numinous Way |
David Wulstan Myatt[a] (born 1950), also known by the pseudonymAbdulaziz ibn Myatt al-Qari,[4] is a British writer, religious leader,far-right and formerIslamist militant,[1][2][3] most notable for allegedly being the political and religious leader of theWhite nationalisttheistic Satanist organizationOrder of Nine Angles (ONA) from 1974 onwards.[1][2][3] He is also the founder of Numinous Way.[5][6][7] He is a former Muslim.[7]
David Wulstan Myatt grew up inTanganyika, now part ofTanzania, where his father worked as a civil servant for the British government, and later in theFar East, where he studiedmartial arts.[8] He moved toEngland in 1967 to complete his schooling. He is reported to live in theMidlands.[9][10]
According toJeffrey Kaplan, Myatt has undertaken "a global odyssey which took him on extended stays in the Middle East and East Asia, accompanied by studies of religions ranging from Christianity to Islam in the Western tradition and Taoism and Buddhism in the Eastern path. In the course of thisSiddhartha-like search for truth, Myatt sampled the life of the monastery in both its Christian and Buddhist forms."[11]
Political scientistGeorge Michael writes that Myatt has "arguably done more than any other theorist to develop a synthesis of the extreme right and Islam,"[8] and is "arguably England's principal proponent of contemporary neo-Nazi ideology and theoretician of revolution."[12]
He described Myatt as an "intriguing theorist"[8] whose "Faustian quests"[8] involved studyingTaoism and spending time in aBuddhist and later aChristian monastery,[13] and allegedly involved exploring theoccult, andPaganism and what Michael calls "quasi-Satanic" secret societies, while remaining a committedNational Socialist.[13]
In 2000, British anti-fascist magazineSearchlight wrote that:
[Myatt] does not have the appearance of a Naziideologue ... [S]porting a long ginger beard,Barbour jacket, cords and a tweed flat cap, he resembles an eccentric country gentleman out for a Sunday ramble. But Myatt is anything but the countrysquire, for beneath this seemingly innocuous exterior is a man of extreme and calculated hatred. Over the past ten years, Myatt has emerged as the most ideologically driven nazi in Britain, preachingrace war andterrorism [...] Myatt is believed to have been behind a 15-page document which called for race war, under the imprintWhite Wolves.[14]
At a 2003UNESCO conference inParis, which concerned the growth ofantisemitism,Response, the magazine of theSimon Wiesenthal Centre reported that Myatt had been described as "the leading hardline Nazi intellectual inBritain since the 1960s [...] has converted to Islam, praises bin Laden andal Qaeda, calls the9/11 attacks 'acts of heroism,' and urges the killing of Jews. Myatt, under the name Abdul Aziz Ibn Myatt supports suicide missions and urges young Muslims to take up Jihad. Observers warn that Myatt is a dangerous man..."[15]
This view of Myatt as a radical Muslim, orJihadi,[16] is supported by ProfessorRobert S. Wistrich, who writes that Myatt, when a Muslim, was a staunch advocate of "Jihad, suicide missions and killing Jews..." and also "an ardent defender of bin Laden".[17] One of Myatt's writings justifying suicide attacks was, for several years, on theIzz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing) section of theHamas website.[18]
In addition to writing about Islam and National Socialism, Myatt has translated works bySophocles,[19][20]Sappho,[21]Aeschylus,[22][23] andHomer.[24] He has also developed a mystical philosophy which he callsThe Numinous Way[25] and invented a three-dimensional board-game, the Star Game.[26]
Myatt is alleged to have been the founder of the occult group theOrder of Nine Angles (ONA/O9A) or to have taken it over,[27] written the publicly available teachings of the ONA under the pseudonym Anton Long,[28] with his role being "paramount to the whole creation and existence of the ONA". According to scholar Jacob C. Senholt, "ONA-inspired activities, led by protagonist David Myatt, managed to enter the scene of grand politics and the global 'War On Terror', because of several foiled terror plots in Europe that can be linked to Myatt's writings".[29]
David Myatt has always denied such allegations about involvement with the ONA.[30]
George Sieg expressed doubts regarding Myatt being Long, writing that he considered it to be "implausible and untenable based on the extent of variance in writing style, personality, and tone" between Myatt and Long's writings.[31]Jeffrey Kaplan also suggested that Myatt and Long are separate people,[32] as did the religious studies scholar Connell R. Monette who wrote that it was quite possible that 'Anton Long' was a pseudonym used by multiple individuals over the last 30 years.[33]
TheOrder of Nine Angles (ONA) originally was aWiccan organization founded during the 1960s.[1][2][3] In 1974, it became atheistic Satanist organization once the leadership was allegedly taken over by David Myatt, previously known under the pseudonym of Anton Long,[3] a former bodyguard and supporter of theBritish Neo-Nazi leaderColin Jordan.[2][3] In 1998, Myatt converted toradical Islam while continuing to lead the Order of Nine Angles. In 2010, herepudiated the Islamic religion and publicly declared to have renounced all forms ofextremism.[3] The Order of Nine Angles identify as theistic Satanists and affirm to practice "traditional Satanism".[1]
The doctrine of the Order of Nine Angles is complex and multifaceted.[3] Sociologist of religionMassimo Introvigne defined it as "a synthesis of three different currents:hermetic, pagan, and Satanist".[3] Themedievalist and professor of Religious studies Connell Monette dismissed the Satanic features of the ONA as "cosmetic" and contended that "its core mythos and cosmology are genuinelyhermetic".[3] According to the scholar of Western esotericismNicholas Goodrick-Clarke, "the ONA celebrated the dark, destructive side of life throughanti-Christian,elitist, andSocial Darwinist doctrines", together with the organization's implicit ties toNeo-Nazism and the appraisal ofNational Socialism.[2]
The Order of Nine Angles believe that theseven planets and theirsatellites are connected to the "Dark Gods". Satan is considered to be one of two "actual entities", the other one beingBaphomet, with Satan conceived as male and Baphomet as female.[3] The organization became controversial and was mentioned in the press and books because of their promotion ofhuman sacrifice.[34] Since the 2010s, the political ideology and religious worldview of the Order of Nine Angles have increasingly influencedmilitantneo-fascist andNeo-Naziinsurgent groups associated withright-wing extremist andWhite supremacist international networks,[35] most notably theIron Marchforum.[35]
Myatt is regarded as an "example of the axis between right-wing extremists and Islamists".[6][36] He has been described as an "extremely violent, intelligent, dark, and complex individual";[37] as a martial arts expert;[38][39] as one of the more interesting figures on the British neo-Nazi scene since the 1970s,[38][40][41][42] and as a keyAl-Qaeda propagandist.[43] According to Daniel Koehler of theInternational Centre for Counter-Terrorism, Myatt "is a complex persona who defies simple answers to the question of why he changed groups and milieus so often and so fundamentally. It is also obvious, that during large parts of his life, Myatt was driven by a search for meaning and purpose."[44]
Before hisconversion to Islam in 1998,[45][46][47] Myatt was the first leader of the BritishNational Socialist Movement (NSM).[5][48] He was identified byThe Observer, as the "ideological heavyweight" behindCombat 18.[38]
Myatt came to public attention in 1999, a year after his Islamic conversion, when a pamphlet he allegedly wrote many years earlier,A Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution, described as a "detailed step-by-step guide for terrorist insurrection",[49] was said to have inspiredDavid Copeland, who left nailbombs in areas frequented by London's black, South Asian, andgay communities.[50] Three people died and 129 were injured in the explosions, several of them losing limbs. It has also been suggested that Myatt'sA Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution might have influenced the GermanNational Socialist Underground.[51][52]
In 2021The Counter Extremism Project listed Myatt as one of the world's 20 most dangerous extremists.[53]
Myatt joinedColin Jordan'sBritish Movement, a neo-Nazi group, in 1968, where he sometimes acted as Jordan's bodyguard at meetings and rallies.[54] Myatt later became the Leeds Branch Secretary and a member of British Movement's National Council.[55] From the 1970s until the 1990s, he remained involved withparamilitary and neo-Nazi organisations such asColumn 88 andCombat 18.[56][57] He was imprisoned twice for violent offences in connection with his political activism.[8]
Myatt was the founder and first leader of theNational Socialist Movement[58][59] of whichDavid Copeland was a member.
Myatt co-founded, withEddy Morrison, the neo-Nazi organization the NDFM (National Democratic Freedom Movement), which was active in Leeds, England, in the early 1970s.[60] Of the NDFM,John Tyndall wrote in a polemic against NDFM co-founder Eddy Morrison: "The National Democratic Freedom Movement made little attempt to engage in serious politics but concentrated its activities mainly upon acts of violence against its opponents. [...] Before very long the NDFM had degenerated into nothing more than a criminal gang."[61][62]
Myatt founded the neo-Nazi Reichsfolk group.[63][64] The Reichsfolk organization "aimed to create a new Aryan elite, The Legion of Adolf Hitler, and so prepare the way for a golden age in place of 'the disgusting, decadent present with its dishonourable values and dis-honourable weak individuals'".[65]
It is alleged that in the early 1980s Myatt tried to establish a Nazi-occultist commune inShropshire.[38] The project was advertised in Colin Jordan'sGothic Ripples newsletter,[66] with Goodrick-Clark writing that "after marrying and settling in Church Stretton in Shropshire, [Myatt] attempted in 1983 to set up a rural commune within the framework of Colin Jordan's Vanguard Project for neo-nazi utopias publicized inGothic Ripples".[67]
Michael writes that Myatt took over the leadership of Combat 18 in 1998, whenCharlie Sargent, the previous leader, was jailed for murder.[8]
In November 1997, Myatt allegedly posted aracist andanti-Semitic pamphlet he had written calledPractical Guide to Aryan Revolution on a website based in British Columbia, Canada by Bernard Klatt. The pamphlet included chapter titles such as "Assassination", "Terror Bombing", and "Racial War".[68] According to Michael Whine of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, "[t]he contents provided a detailed step-by-step guide for terrorist insurrection with advice on assassination targets, rationale for bombing and sabotage campaigns, andrules of engagement."[49]
In February 1998, detectives from S012 Scotland Yard raided Myatt's home inWorcestershire and removed his computers and files. He was arrested on suspicion of incitement to murder andincitement to racial hatred.[49] The case later dropped, after a three-year investigation, because the evidence supplied by the Canadian authorities was not enough to secure a conviction.[68]
In 1999, a copy of thePractical Guide to Aryan Revolution pamphlet was discovered by police in the flat of David Copeland,[69] the London nailbomber – who was also a member of Myatt's National Socialist Movement – which allegedly influenced him to plant homemade bombs targeting immigrants inBrixton,Brick Lane, and inside theAdmiral Duncan pub onOld Compton Street in London, frequented by the black, Asian, and gay communities respectively.[70] Friends John Light, Nick Moore, and Andrea Dykes and her unborn child died in the Admiral Duncan pub. Copeland told police he had been trying to spark a "racial war."[48]
Following the conviction of Copeland for murder on 30 June 2000, after a trial at the Old Bailey, one newspaper wrote of Myatt: "This is the man who shaped mind of a bomber; Cycling the lanes around Malvern, the mentor who drove David Copeland to kill [...] Riding a bicycle around his Worcestershire home town sporting a wizard-like beard and quirky dress-sense, the former monk could easily pass as a country eccentric or off-beat intellectual. But behind David Myatt's studious exterior lies a more sinister character that has been at the forefront of extreme right-wing ideology in Britain since the mid-1960s."[71]
According to theBBC'sPanorama, in 1998 when Myatt was leader of the NSM, he called for "the creation of racial terror with bombs".[48] Myatt is also quoted bySearchlight as having stated that "[t]he primary duty of all National Socialists is to change the world. National Socialism means revolution: the overthrow of the existing System and its replacement with a National-Socialist society. Revolution means struggle: it means war. It means certain tactics have to be employed, and a great revolutionary movement organised which is primarily composed of those prepared to fight, prepared to get their hands dirty and perhaps spill some blood".[14]
Myatt converted toIslam in 1998. He told Professor George Michael that his decision to convert began when he took a job on a farm in England. He was working long hours in the fields and felt an affinity with nature, concluding that the sense of harmony he felt had not come about by chance. He told Michael that he was impressed by the militancy ofIslamist groups, and believed that he shared common enemies with Islam, namely "the capitalist-consumer West and international finance."[72]
While initially some critics, specifically the anti-fascistSearchlight organization, suggested that Myatt's conversion "may be just a political ploy to advance his own failing anti-establishment agenda",[73] it is now generally accepted that his conversion was genuine.[74][75][76][77][78][79][80]
As a Muslim, he travelled and spoke in several Arab countries,[81] and wrote one of the most detailed defenses in the English language of Islamicsuicide attacks.[82] He expressed support for theTaliban,[6] and referred tothe Holocaust as a "hoax".[47] An April 2005NATO workshop heard that Myatt had called on "all enemies of theZionists to embrace theJihad" against Jews and the United States.[83]
According to an article inThe Times published on 24 April 2006, Myatt then believed that: "The pure authentic Islam of the revival, which recognises practical jihad as a duty, is the only force that is capable of fighting and destroying the dishonour, the arrogance, the materialism of the West ... For the West, nothing is sacred, except perhaps Zionists, Zionism, the hoax of the so-called Holocaust, and the idols which the West and its lackeys worship, or pretend to worship, such as democracy... Jihad is our duty. If nationalists, or some of them, desire to aid us, to help us, they can do the right thing, the honourable thing, and convert, revert, to Islam — accepting the superiority of Islam over and above each and every way of the West."[47]
In 2010, Myatt publicly announced that he had rejected both Islam[84] and extremism.[85]
The Order of Nine Angles and Terrorist Radicalization: The skull mask network's transformation into a clandestine terrorist network coincided temporally with the introduction of theOrder of Nine Angles (O9A) worldview into the groups' ideological influences. The O9A is an occultist currentn founded by David Myatt in the late 1960s in the United Kingdom. The O9A shares with otherpaganneo-fascists a belief in a primordial spirituality that has been supplanted by theAbrahamic faiths. Its doctrines are apocalyptic, predicting a final confrontation between monotheistic "Magian" civilization and primordial "Faustian" European spirituality. The skull mask network groups are not religiously monolithic, and most accept members who are not O9A adherents, but O9A philosophy has had a strong influence on the culture of the network. The O9A texts emphasize solitary rituals and the sense of membership in a superhuman spiritual elite. The O9A texts do not make social or financial demands on new adherents. Psychological commitment is instead generated through secrecy and the challenging, sometimes criminal, nature of the initiatory and devotional rituals. Because the rituals are solitary and self-administered, they create a set of shared 'transcendent' experiences that enhance group cohesion without the need for members to be geographically close to each other. Its leaderless structure and self-administered initiations make the O9A worldview uniquely well-suited to spread through online social networks, while the ritual violence used in O9A religious ceremonies contributed to the habituation of individual skull mask network members to violence.
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