The organization explicitly advocates Neo-Nazism , drawing a significant amount of influence from James Mason and his publication , '' Siege '' , a mid-1980s newsletter of the National Socialist Liberation Front that paid tribute to Adolf Hitler , Joseph Tommasi , Charles Manson , and Savitri Devi . It was published into a book that is required reading for all Atomwaffen Division members . Mason , a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier who advocates murder and violence in order to create lawlessness , anarchy and destabilize the system , is the main advisor to the group . The group additionally advocates a revival of Italian Futurism , a pre-World War I avant-garde art movement which glorified " war – the world 's only hygiene – militarism , patriotism , the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers , beautiful ideas worth dying for . " Some members of the group sympathize with the Salafi movement and jihadism , forms of Islam . Atomwaffen Division 's founder , Brandon Russell , is alleged to have described Omar Mateen , who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and perpetrated the Orlando nightclub shooting , as " a hero " . A member of Atomwaffen Division , Stephen Billingsley , was photographed at a vigil in San Antonio , Texas , for the victims of the Orlando shooting , with a skull mask and a sign saying " God Hates Fags " . Other members have embraced Order of Nine Angles Satanism and Christian Identity , with some arrested for attacking gay men in Arkansas identifying as Phineas Priests
Orlando nightclub shooting
Orlando nightclub shooting
Atomwaffen Division