Seven Ohio men arrested over Amish hair-cutting attacks

2011-11-24 07:23:15 GMT+7 (ICT)

CLEVELAND (BNO NEWS) -- Seven members of an Amish community in Ohio were arrested on early Wednesday morning on hate crime charges following a series of Amish hair-cutting attacks, the U.S Department of Justice said in a statement.

A criminal complaint filed in Cleveland charged seven men with attacking others because of their actual or perceived religion. The maximum potential penalty for these violations is life in prison, the statement said.

According to an affidavit from the Department of Justice, the men forcibly restrained multiple Amish men and cut off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers, injuring them and others who attempted to stop the attacks. In the Amish religion, a man's beard and head hair are sacred.

The spate of assaults, which have received international media coverage, have been blamed on a breakaway Amish group. Among the defendants are breakaway Amish group leader Samuel Muller Sr. and three of his sons, prosecutors said.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-11-24

Seems almost comically tame considering the degree of religiously motivated violence we get from (ahem) other religions.

"a breakaway Amish group"? Sounds like something The Onion would report.

The maximum potential penalty for these violations is life in prison, the statement said.

You have got to be kidding?

Those Amish sure know how to have a good time

Not sure it is related but there are some very active Christian fundamentalist sects who have been actively "stealing" away traditional Amish. These new groups remain Amish but they actually do outrageous things like drive cars instead of horse and buggies and they openly study scripture. The traditional churches are much more dictatorial, but its all relative. When a traditional Amish joins one of these new sects, they are formally excommunicated from their original churches and communities, and quite commonly old friends and even close family members are directed to no longer see them. You can imagine the stress with such situations.

Edited November 24, 201114 yr by Jingthing

Seems almost comically tame considering the degree of religiously motivated violence we get from (ahem) other religions.

It all depends on whether or not we go per capita or simply gross numbers. I am assuming you mean gross numbers so I will guess Islam. But, if we go per capita I get a much different answer.

And I think we will keep our speculation to the Amish in this thread.

Next the Amish terrorists will be adding hot peppers to shoofly pies!

Edited November 25, 201114 yr by Ulysses G.