Amish sect leader Sam Mullet, accused of orchestrating a series of beard-cutting attacks against other Amish throughout Ohio, will remain jailed pending trial in March on federal hate crimes charges.

Mullet is said to have issued death threats in the past and has complete control over his community.

The jailed leader of a breakaway sect of Amish accused of orchestrating a series of beard-cutting attacks on other Amish across Ohio has again asked a federal judge to let him out pending trial, saying he’ll allow electric lines to be installed at his house so that he can be monitored by the government.

Twelve members of an Amish splinter group in Ohio pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a spate of beard- and hair-cutting assaults last fall on other Amish.

Twelve members of a renegade Amish group were charged with hate crimes in the bizarre beard-cutting attacks on other members of the sect in eastern Ohio, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Samuel Mullet and 11 members of his group also face charges of conspiracy, assault and tampering with evidence in the case that has drawn worldwide attention to the insular community.

Three men from an Amish splinter group facing hate crime charges over beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio waived their right to a hearing on Friday and will remain behind bars.

On Wednesday, a federal magistrate judge in Youngstown, Ohio denied bond to four other members of the sect.

Four members of a breakaway Amish group charged with hate crimes were denied bond Wednesday.

The judge ordered them held, calling sect leader Samuel Mullet a danger to the Amish community.

Members of a breakaway Amish group charged with hate crimes will be arraigned in federal court in Youngstown, Ohio, on Wednesday.

The men who were allegedly attacked are believed to be former members of Mullet’s group who left over various disagreements.

Authorities raided the compound of a breakaway Amish group Wednesday morning and arrested seven men on federal hate crime charges in hair-cutting attacks against Amish men and women.

Among those arrested were the group’s leader, Sam Mullet, and three of his sons, said Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

An elderly Amish man was attacked by his own son, who a sheriff said cut the man’s hair and beard in the latest incident in a breakaway Amish community.

The man was attacked while visiting his son in the breakaway Amish community that’s home to five suspects charged in an earlier beard-cutting attack.

An Amish sect referred to as the Bergholz Clan is the subject of a federal investigation following a wave of Amish-on-Amish incidents, FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

law enforcement officials and members of the Amish community believe the sect’s leader has created a cult and is single-handedly behind the beard cutting incidents and other crimes in recent years

Five men suspected of forcefully cutting the beards of fellow Amish were arraigned Wednesday and each released on $50,000 bond posted by the leader of their breakaway group.

Meanwhile a former member has spoken out against the sect, warning that “if something is not done, there will be people that get hurt.”

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.

The attacks occurred over the past three weeks in the heart of Ohio’s Amish population, one of the largest in the United States.

According to a recent study in the Global Business and Economics Review, the failure rate of Amish businesses is less than 10% in the first five years, compared with 50% of small businesses in the U.S. over the same time period.Erik Wesner, author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, points out these five values as part of the secret of their success:• Never ask an employee to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. • Value relationships over onetime deals. • Cultivate a rigorous work ethic. • Learn to work outside your comfort zone. • It’s all in the details: make sure the product — or service! — you deliver is carefully crafted.

“We are supposed to be stewards of the land,” said Matthew Stoltzfus, a 34-year-old dairy farmer and father of seven whose family, like many other Amish, shuns cars in favor of horse and buggy and lives without electricity. “It is our Christian duty.”

But farmers like Mr. Stoltzfus are facing growing scrutiny for agricultural practices that the federal government sees as environmentally destructive.

Today’s Religion News Roundup: • Why the word should worry about Iran • A 666 license plate exchange • What could be worse than the Taliban? • Law aimed at hate group used to silence veteran instead

Also: • Germany bans Neo-Nazi youth organization, and • Jews in Brooklyn take the Amish on a walking tour…