wild, many of the examples given, not all, were evident in the Christian religion not so long ago. I believe religious belief has everything to do economic status. As wealth increases people tend trade off spirtual wealth for material wealth. Our gratification now largely comes from our possessions, those in poorer countries only have religion to give meaning to their lives. There are a lot of little similarities that we tend to forget about. The wearing of the veil by muslim women is not that far from the veil that my grandmother would wear at times, as would all respectable women. A respectable man would have to wear a hat, and many still do. The dress code of our grandparents is not all that far from the present day dress code in Islam.
