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Comment by guylhem | Hacker News Reader

If wearing a hijab cause people to call you names, throw bad looks or more generally makes you feel discriminated against, what about trying not to wear an hijab??

Maybe I'm clueless and prejudiced and all that but it seems to me that religion was a perfectly "open" choice, ie something you can change at any time.

Comparing that in any way to racism is insulting. People do not chose their ethnicity. People can chose their religion.

Your religion makes you feel bad? Then change it since you can!!

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Wearing a hijab doesn't cause anything. People having prejudice is the cause. The hijab just allows this white girl to experience it.

People CAN choose their religion, but should they based off of how other people make them feel about it?

You're missing a step... "Your religion makes you feel bad" NO! Other people make me feel bad about my religion. That's pretty obviously prejudice.

Also for most groups of people they don't chose their religion and can't simply change it (family pressures), and while what is described in the article refers to religion (hijab) having dark skin and speaking farsi or urdu is just as likely to cause the reaction in people due to fear of muslims, the prejudiced people are just as likely to filter on ethnic/nationality grounds as religious ones.

This "white girl trying to wear an hijab" screams to me as a kind of self sabotage. She won at the genetic lottery : she conforms to the usual expectations about "looking good" in the country she lives in - did she never realized that privilege/advantage before??

There's a big difference between knowing that you have an advantage and actually experience what's like not to have it. It's extremely easy to take things for granted, even if you once didn't have them; it's much easier if you had them all along.

People don't believe in a religion because it's convenient. If it were simple like that, everybody'd be atheist, there are no rules attached to that whatsoever.

People have a belief because they believe. Or perhaps because they think a certain lifestyle is a good one (isn't that what bhuddism is? I know too little about this...).

> People don't believe in a religion because it's convenient.

How is it convenient _not_ believing in a religion?

I'm sorry, my sentence was ambiguous and unclear. What I meant was that the reason people believe in a religion, is not because it is convenient. Also read the rest of the reply, it should make sense now ;)

Most religions impose obligations, from tithing to attending Mass. I don't see how it is not convenient.

Which is not to say that convenience should be the important factor in any such decision.

There are different schools of Buddhism. As it spread through SE Asia local peoples incorporated local customs,etc. For example, the 'laughing buddha,' was a Chinese fertility god, IIRC.

How many people simply have their religion forced on them?

I've known Muslim who'll eat pork when not in the presence of other Muslims who would frown on that. I'm not sure how important trying to remain within their community is to them, but maybe they would stop practising if they could do so without prejudice from their own community.

I think everyone needs a reality check.

I'm an atheist, but it's quite clear that many of my religious friends can no more easily change their religion than their ethnicity - particularly for reasons as absurd as other people holding unreasonable prejudices.

I suspect this may just be a case of lack of religious competition in the area your friends live and work in. I grew up in Utah, so of course few people changed their religions, but Mormonism is fairly successful at converting people outside Utah. They do so best by establishing communities and inviting others to join their fun activities. Sure, in America most conversions are just to a different denomination of "Christianity", but religious conversion happens all the time. (A Pew study indicated that 44% of Americans have a different religion than the one they were raised with.)

44%? That sounds extremely high to me. What sorts of explanation is offered for that?

Here's a link to the survey: http://www.pewforum.org/Faith-in-Flux.aspx

Oh, so by that logic I can treat converts to Judaism like shit, but I should be nice to people who are ethnically Jewish?

Do you think I should ask them first before acting like a prejudiced asshole? Or should I just try to guess based on appearance?

> Comparing that in any way to racism is insulting.

errr. prtty sure 'racism' was never mentioned. This is an issue of stereotyping and possibly also religious tolerance.

Sure you can change your religion, but do you really think that social norms should be enforced on wider society through ridicule? What century are we living in?

You're trolling, right?

Unfortunately not - sad truth.

I think you're mixing up fashion and religion.

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