• In doing so [punishing departing members], the defendants forcibly restrained multiple Amish men and cut off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers, causing bodily injury to these men while also injuring others who attempted to stop the attacks. In the Amish religion, a man’s beard and head hair are sacred.
• The U.S. Justice Department • Detailing the charges against Samuel Mullet Sr., the leader of a breakaway Amish sect which many have called a cult, though Mullet himself (perhaps predictably) doesn’t agree. The details of his deeds go somewhat beyond these grisly forced haircuts — he’s also alleged to have locked members in a chicken coop for days at a time, beaten people “who appear to disobey him,” and most salaciously, had sex with married women as a means to cleanse them of the devil. When asked by CNN last month if he had orchestrated the forcible shearings, his replied thusly: “Beard cutting is a crime, is it?” Due to the allegations involving a physical violation with a religious motivation, this would fall under the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, meaning that if convicted Mullet and six of his cohorts could face life in prison. source

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