A hate crime !

Samuel Mullet - theintelligencer.net

It is the 8th October last that a group of men were arrested. But if this case has such impact, it is because of the particularity of the aggression. Indeed, victims and culprits are members of Amish splinter groups in Ohio. Victims were old members of community of a man: Samuel Mullet, who had run away his hold several years earlier. Victims had their beards and hair cut in a spate of assaults (7) by 7 men in retaliation. Rather than the physical pain or the cruelty (victims included a 14 y/o girl and a 74 y/o man) it's the symbolic of this action who is important: indeed once they are married Amish women do not cut their hair and men let their beards grow.

But who are the Amish and what are their beliefs? The first sizeable group of Amish arrived in America around 1730 in Pennsylvania. The Amish have settled in as many as twenty-four states. The population in the U.S. numbers more than 150,000 and growing, due to large family size (seven to ten children are common). All aspects of Amish life are dictated by a list of written or oral rules: the Ordnung. But it varies from community to community and order to order (5 various) which explains differences that we can see.
However we can distinguish some similarities:

• Amish clothing encourage humility and separation from the world, it is a very simple style (clothing is often made at home), avoiding all ornamentation (clothing is made at home with plain fabrics and jewelry are not permitted).
• The Amish are averse to any technology (for example electricity, television, automobiles & tractors, telephones ...) because they think it weakens the family structure and could create inequality. But it's on this point that differences are significant between ultraconservative communities and the more modern communities.
• The family is the most important social unit in the Amish culture. German is spoken in the home, though English is also taught in school (but only private institutions, operated by Amish parents). Amish marry Amish, intermarriages and divorces are not allowed.

Anyway, they have a peaceful way of life and they not asking for anything, so how such situations can happen? It is even not a attack of somebody who dislike their way of life however simply by the crazyness and the revenge of a man, discredit is cast on an entire community. But if authorities forced this community, who lives in total isolation, to live like "normal" Americans, would it be better? Who knows and who can judge their choice?