According to a report from NBC News, a small Minnesota town has approved a permit for a “White-Only” church, but the town’s less than 300 people are fighting back.

The Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock, Minnesota had its permit approved by the city council, however, residents of Murdoch have garnered over 50,000 signatures in a petition to have the separatist church disbanded.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Asatru Folk Assembly as a “neo-Volkisch hate group” that conveys “their bigotry in baseless claims of bloodlines grounding the superiority of one’s white identity.”

City council members said that they dd not agree with the church’s views, but were legally obligated to issue a permit for the church.

“We were highly advised by our attorney to pass this permit for legal reasons to protect the First Amendment rights,” Mayor Craig Kavanagh said. “We knew that if this was going to be denied, we were going to have a legal battle on our hands that could be pretty expensive.”