The whole world witnessed disastrous scenes of social unrest in the United Kingdom in the first week of August 2024. It was truly unexpected from such a developed country. The main reason was a mix of religion & immigration issues. I even learnt a new word from the media- islamophobia. It would seem that some limits have been crossed.

I also reflected on the role of religion in our lives. On one hand, I realise regretfully that religion is unable to leave a positive & permanent influence on its followers. Devotees are more bent on blindly following rituals & festivals just to earmark their belonging & identity to a specific religion. On the other hand, the religious leaders are powerless to the ever-increasing materialism & addictions of the modern world. Apart from that, very few people make the effort to understand that the greatest religion is the religion of love, compassion & humanity.

I am convinced that in most religions that this simple saying cannot be denied. Then, why do we have to see such awful scenes of human delirium? It is to be understood that tolerance is decreasing & abuse of migration is also being observed. Attachment to religion, values & cultures must be thoroughly understood before accepting immigration. This is the responsibility of all governments. Had there been carefully designed rules & regulations on immigration, especially on the practice of religious activities, rituals & festivals, we would not have witnessed the chaos in UK. To govern is to anticipate. What are the governments of countries with a very high rate of immigration anticipating in terms of immigrant population, etc? Nothing. Then, leaving such a sensible matter open is likable to playing with fire.

Immigrants must also play their roles responsibly & should not forget that they are NOT in their homeland. They should also refrain from having the mindset of CONVERTING their locality in ways to make it resemble more & more their homeland. Because the management of immigrants has not been effectively performed by all concerned governments, that is why from time to time, we see an outburst of emotions which escalates to social disorder.

Now, the truth is that it is relatively easier to manage most immigrants except those from the Muslim community. There is a general world-wide association of violence & extremism with Islam but this is not 100% true. It cannot be that all Muslims are violent. But Islam is a religion that stands apart from all the other religions, not because of alleged claims of superiority but due to particular attitudes & behaviours. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world due to bigger-size families & due to a higher rate of conversion. I believe we must try to understand why such a situation prevails.

Then, the role of social media must also be carefully scrutinised. Business leaders together with politicians have successfully created a virtual world which has become another addiction, just like hard drugs. And the sad thing is that nobody is addressing this problem seriously. The freedom on social media is stunning- the contents & comments can be very rude, immoral & unethical- yet, they are published & also widely disseminated. Clearly, the laws governing social media in all countries are out-of-date & cannot tackle the pace & the dangerous part of social media. It would seem we have become prisoners of yet another of one of our creations just like industrialisation, fast food & the digital world.