Many parts of the UK are diverse, both religiously and culturally. People who say this is new, or somehow portray this as the UK being taken over by some religious group need to check their history. We created our own religious authority in 1534 because the pope wouldn’t let our king annul another marriage.
The British Empire was around for nearly 400 years, to think culture and religion went one way is societally naive. The major cities, especially London, are a cultural melting pot and one will see every ethnicity walking around and working. The UK still has a global trade network, the Commonwealth, which has 56 independent countries from across the globe as members, some of which gain citizenship benefits in the UK. Some peoples are even eligible to a political vote. Google it, it’s genuinely interesting what it tries to stand for and do.
There have been laws and legislation to prevent discrimination since the race relations act of 1968. The laws have had multiple updates, the most recent one the Hate Crime legislation which came into force early 2024.
This gave UK courts the ability to impose more severe penalties covering crimes against race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity.
This year there have been a number of very violent ‘protests’, which also resulted in a number of riots and injuries. The driver of the protests was illegal immigrants, some of whom had been linked to crimes of sexual assault, and some false online information linking specific individuals to killings.
Certain groups used the opportunity to promote Islamophobic and misogynistic ideologies.
The UK government came down hard on the protesters that were identified, using the updated directives, including people who posted online statements inciting and condoning violence. Children as young as 11 and as old as 81 were involved in the riots, identified and prosecuted. Note that children were caught on camera being encouraged by ‘adults’ to throw bricks at peoples heads.
I haven’t seen the specific or general media that people are referring to, but I’d guess it’s linked to the 2025 riots and subsequent prosecutions. What perhaps isn’t communicated is the simple point, actions have consequences. Even online.
All of this aside. The fact that individuals and groups in the UK are legally allowed and regularly do post, write, protest, and even get paid to communicate diverse opinions that invoke debate from all sides, be they right, left, liberal and everything in between, demonstrates that the UK has a very strong freedom of speech. What is not legal is if someone is inciting others to violence or hate, though hate can be subjective.
Was some of the sentencing severe, yes, overly harsh, potentially, politically motivated, probably. This is still freely debated and discussed in the UK today, both online and in the media.
I don’t mean this to be a political point, I’m just trying to say that internet news should be taken with a very VERY big pinch of salt.
