Neo-Nazi Gets University to Pull Master's Thesis on His Views
A university student who wrote about a Kiwi extremist's views on neo-Nazism and satanism wants his thesis back on the library shelf after complaints from the subject resulted in it being taken off.
Roel van Leeuwen's masters thesis on the link between neo-Nazi and satanist beliefs in New Zealand had won him class honours but a few weeks ago it was quietly pulled from Waikato University's library and online publication when the subject, Kerry Bolton, complained to the vice-chancellor.
Mr Bolton was a former secretary of the New Zealand branch of the extreme-Right organisation National Front, a one time spokesman for splinter group New Right, and in the 1990s published occult pamphlets.
Mr van Leeuwen, 39, said his work, Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path; a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis, was accurate and not designed to attack Mr Bolton.
"But it's hard not being critical when you're writing about [neo-Nazi and satanic topics]. There is some good work in my thesis and I would like to see it back on the shelves.
"I understand the university has a responsibility to investigate a complaint ... but as a general principle these kind of beliefs need to be discussed in New Zealand."
Mr van Leeuwen, a philosophy student specialising in alternative spiritual beliefs, said the thesis was a literature review that analysed what Mr Bolton had written, focusing on how neo-Nazi thought was repackaged for a younger generation.
Read entire article at Dominion Post
Roel van Leeuwen's masters thesis on the link between neo-Nazi and satanist beliefs in New Zealand had won him class honours but a few weeks ago it was quietly pulled from Waikato University's library and online publication when the subject, Kerry Bolton, complained to the vice-chancellor.
Mr Bolton was a former secretary of the New Zealand branch of the extreme-Right organisation National Front, a one time spokesman for splinter group New Right, and in the 1990s published occult pamphlets.
Mr van Leeuwen, 39, said his work, Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path; a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis, was accurate and not designed to attack Mr Bolton.
"But it's hard not being critical when you're writing about [neo-Nazi and satanic topics]. There is some good work in my thesis and I would like to see it back on the shelves.
"I understand the university has a responsibility to investigate a complaint ... but as a general principle these kind of beliefs need to be discussed in New Zealand."
Mr van Leeuwen, a philosophy student specialising in alternative spiritual beliefs, said the thesis was a literature review that analysed what Mr Bolton had written, focusing on how neo-Nazi thought was repackaged for a younger generation.