HN threads don't need to be technical, scientific, or engineering. They just need to be intellectually interesting (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

Anything as prominent in humanity and history as religion is certainly that. However, flamewars destroy intellectual interest (put bluntly, they're predictable, nasty and dumb), and it's nearly impossible for a large community to discuss religion without religious flamewar (the most predictable, nastiest, and dumbest of all flamewar). That's unfortunately the other issue with stories like this, besides the run-of-the-mill controversy that you correctly point out.

i believe that flagging my comment was not an attempt to avoid flamewars, but plain censorship of a honest intellectual question that any society taking a stance, against or in favor of multiculturalism (that is, hosting non-integrated completely different cultures within its borders), must confront sooner of later when things like this lecturer's ordeal start happening.

The article was a concrete instance of the abstract dilemma i posed in my comment, so it was on-topic and necessary imho.

You can call it censorship if you want—people mostly use that word nowadays to express a feeling—but the moderation point is that you plainly broke HN's rules with https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34298516, and doing that will get you banned here.

i disagree that it was against the guidelines - after all, it did generate some interesting intellectual comments.

either way, your home your rules, so whatever. (which, ironically, confirms my original point...)