Beard-on-Beard Violence

I’m currently growing out my beard, in a Minnesota-lumberjack-Bon-Iver kind of way.  So you can imagine my horror to read of the internecine battle among Amish, causing some members of that community to attack others and cut off their beards:

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — A group of religious castoffs has been attacking fellow Amish, cutting off their hair and beards in an apparent feud over spiritual differences in the deeply traditional community, a sheriff said Thursday.

Members of a group of families disavowed by mainstream Amish have cut the beards off men and the hair off a half-dozen or more men and women, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. He said the cutting apparently was meant to be degrading.

But the real money quote of the story is this:

He said Amish-on-Amish violence “is extremely rare.”

via Beards, hair cut off in attacks on Amish – US news – Crime & courts – msnbc.com.