Helvetin Pastori/Pastor of Hell

On the 28 of December 2017, multiple protests across Iran broke out, as a result of long lasting economic hardship and governmental corruption. Now, about week and a half later, the protests are still going on, with tens of thousands of people in multiple cities across the country express their frustration with the theocratic government. During that time, a bit over 20 people have been killed and estimated 1000+ people having been arrested. Apart from this Iranians living outside of Iran have been organizing protests in other countries, including a protest in front of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki. This is the most unrest the Iranian government has faced in years, but, where is it coming from? What are the roots of this? In this post, I'll give you some of my thoughts on the matter. First of all, even though economic hardship and corruption have named as the spark for these protests,they have quickly turned into protests towards the government. Iran is officially an "Islam...

Recently news broke that the Syrian army had defeated the last stronghold of Isis in the country, with the remaining fighters fleeing into the desert being hunted by government forces. This has been presented as the final nail into the coffin of the Caliphate, but while that may be true, it's not enough to get rid of the group.  The simple reason is that Isis as a group is ideologically motivated. The group has been founded on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and ideologies can't be destroyed by force. If we wish to some day completely get rid of this, we have to support reformists within Islam and change the way we look at criticism of religion Now, I can already see the comments denying that Islam has anything to do with this and people calling me an islamophobe or racist for suggesting this. Admittedly, as a 20-year old man from a western country, who was originally raised Christian and later turned into an atheist, I'm not the best person to talk about this. T...