Are you sure the attackers motives were directed towards the mans beliefs or were they directed at the man himself. I understood it that they just didn't like the guy, for whatever reason. So in my eyes that wouldn't be a hate crime against the Amish beliefs, but a simple assault....big difference.
The Amish sect that Mullet Sr ran was under tight control by him...so much so, 6 families left that sect because he expelled one family so they left in protest over that. The 300 leaders of the Amish met and decided that the excommunication of that one family, conducted by Mullet Sr and carried out by his idiot sons and their buddies was improper. So, the sons and buddies went on a rampage. In two cases, they knocked on the first two families doors, pulled the men out on the porch and shaved his beard in front of his family (an enormous no-no in that religion) and in the third example, Mullet wrote 5 letters to the third family asking to stop the feud and meet with him. The man agreed and was met by the sons and buddies for a shave and a beating.
Mullet and his boys are complete idiots. I ran the article on ABCNews.com by my wife, the lawyer, and she agreed completely that it qualified for a hate crime, both by law and in spirit.
