Atomwaffen also draws influences from Nazi esotericism and the occult, and its recommended reading material for aspiring initiates includes the works of Savitri Devi and Anton Long of the Order of Nine Angles, a notorious British neo-Nazi leader with a violent criminal history.[1][2] Some members of the group also sympathize with the Salafi and jihadist 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".