"Those sons of bitches were raping little girls down in Texas. I knew it and they knew I knew it, and this battle rages on today."

high rates of genetic disease due to inbreeding. In the UK the Pakistani community accounts for 30 per cent of all births with recessive disorders, despite representing 3.4 per cent of the birth rate nationwide, due to the prevalence of first cousin marriages. In the FLDS community a rare genetic malfunction called fumarase deficiency is causing severe mental retardation among other congenital complications and a high incidence of domestic abuse is present in both populations.

The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church was headed for many years by Rulon Jeffs, a.k.a. “Uncle Rulon,” until his death in September 2002, when the sect was taken over by his son, Warren Jeffs. According to Jon Krakauer in Under the Banner of Heaven:

Comparing this with the Muslim concept of freedom as “perfect slavery,” we see an eerie similarity. Both systems remove the power of choice from individuals who are most often born into the system rather than having chosen it originally. Both seek obedience through coercion, threats and fear. Both construct crude clan systems that militate against the state by claiming the loyalty of believers first and foremost. Both systems set up a state within a state and claim legal authority over territory and believers.

For women, being born into polygamy is to be born into slavery. The individual will of women over their most basic life choices is utterly coerced. Young girls are often incestuously abused by male family members and then married off to much older men, who must (one would imagine) enjoy the thrill of coercing young women into strict obedience in every particular. And along with polygamy comes arranged marriage in both Muslim and Mormon polygamous populations. 

Krakauer: