If you don't want flame wars then why you allow posts like this "Tell HN"? It's the nature of religions to dogmatically tell people how to live so any religions posts will undoubtedly attract flame wars; might as well post about Donald Trump trial and not expected political flame wars.
The onus is on commenters not to post inflammatory/aggressive/flamewar things, even when they find a topic activating. The idea on HN is to find the capacity to discuss topics, even divisive topics, thoughtfully and respectfully.
That's not so hard, since it's always an option simply not to post anything, and there is always plenty of other material to pay attention to.
About the "not post anything" part, is not as easy as you think, I hold myself accounttable to my actions and the lack thereof, so like many here of my most valued principles is to do good, as in "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing", so sometimes I weight the likelihood of being banned (or just disliked, in general) against any positive impact my comment might have even if extremely tiny, specially when discussing life and death issues such as religion, or in the words of Minoo Majidi: "If I don't go out and protest, who else will?"
There is always something more important, but we all can't be doing that, one powerful way to make a difference is pushing from all the angles and places, not only the ones deemed "important", that is it how it has always been, many one important parts of history started by two unimportant strangers socializing in some unimportant place.
Anyway, thanks for your work, I may disagree with some of your decisions but know most of your actions help make this forum worth reading.
I see where the confusion is coming from. Other hadiths in the same book seem to suggest this is moreso because blood itself is considered unclean. For instance:
> Sahih al-Bukhari 325 (Book 6, Hadith 30) #322
> Narrated 'Aisha: Fatima bint Abi Hubaish asked the Prophet, "I got persistent bleeding (in between the periods) and do not become clean. Shall I give up prayers?" He replied, "No, this is from a blood vessel. Give up the prayers only for the days on which you usually get the menses and then take a bath and offer your prayers".
"Assume good faith" would suggest that at the time the holy texts were written, bleeding was frequently associated with infection and disease. Germ theory came over a millenia later.
Islam gave rights to woman at a time when they were treated as property everywhere else in the world.
In modern time, I have never heard of someone disqualifying menstruating women from celebrating. Though they are not expected to fast or pray during that time. My wife missed the first and last week this month -__-
That is beyond the pale. As we've warned you before, and as you've continued to break the site guidelines, I've banned the account.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
Dan, are you sure you want to keep this level of incivility on the board?
Think again, if it is really proper to not encourage exchange and encourage instead perplexing """performance art""". Too similar to the directly anti-axiological "how does that make you feel".
I can see how much of an asshole I can be in some of those comments, but I can see at least one where you were a bit more stricter than was called for, I will not deny that such opinion is likely to be biased, ha.
Please don't use scarequotes to demean a religion and its adherents. Being welcoming of others with varied backgrounds is wonderful and something I'm hopeful more of us can do on HN; it's a great way to give broader perspectives a home and give us all more opportunities, both to connect as well as to build.
