People take part in an anti-far right protest outside the London offices of the political party Reform UK, in London, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Over the past week, the UK has experienced severe social unrest. Since the murder of three young girls on July 29, violence and disorder have arisen in several towns. Over 400 arrests have been made in relation to disorderly rioting, and more than 140 have been charged. Rioters have attacked police, damaged mosques, set buildings and cars on fire, attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, and thrown petrol bombs.
BBC has labeled this “the worst unrest the UK has seen in more than a decade.”
What caused the rioting?
Current sources agree that the rioting was spurred on through the spread of misinformation. When Bebe King (age 4), Elsie Dot Stancombe (age 7), and Alice da Silva Aguiar (age 9) were stabbed to death, the police stated they were not investigating the crime as “terror-related.” However, after the attack, social media posts purported that the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a boat last year. These posts circulated an incorrect name along with rumors that the suspect was of Islamic descent.
BBC interviewed Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and Digital Humanities, who reposted the interview on X. (Dr. Jones is the author of Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media and Political Repression in Bahrain.)
Dr. Jones explains that he downloads X posts to analyze the spread of misinformation and disinformation (referring to falsehoods spread intentionally or in “bad faith” versus misinformation that may be spread unwittingly or in “good faith”).
These analyses can identify the key perpetrators of disinformation through the number of impressions a tweet/post receives. He claims it’s often fake accounts and the posts of influential people that are most incendiary.
Dr. Jones believes that X is being weaponized to spread rumors and hate speech, targeting minority groups and inflaming ethnic tensions that are “driving the violence.”
Causes for lament
It seems that there are two types of “evil” to be lamented here: the first is the hatred that we can assume was there before the widespread misinformation and its physical expression through violence, and the second is that platforms like X can be used as means to perpetuate violence and hatred.
As the prophets of the Old Testament lamented societal brokenness due to Israel’s sin and waywardness, and as the Psalmists grieved the injustice of oppressors, so too can we voice our grief at the state of our world:
Father, we lament our lack of peace. We lament the lack of unity across ethnic lines. We lament the hatred that can grow in our hearts that destroys. We lament the tragedies brought upon us by the invisible, spiritual forces that wage war against us, threatening to tear our societies apart. We lament death. We lament tragedy.
Widespread disunity
In the wake of 2020, the US experienced comparable social unrest. In response, our country and the body of Christ needed to lament evils buried in our history, as well as the present-day forces of evil and sin.
As a person who identifies with being cross-cultural, having spent several years living in Europe and several stateside, I’ve meditated on the phenomenon of racial discord: how arbitrary one’s appearance is and yet how divisive negative assumptions and beliefs about color and race can be. It is a baffling reality. And simply, heart-breaking.
In light of these recent events in the UK, I am reminded of how every country experiences its own kind of disunity across ethnic, racial, and cultural lines and how fundamentally unbiblical that is.
We lament our disunity.
Seeking shalom
How, in the face of these events, can we seek peace?
Since August 7, thousands of anti-racism protesters have rallied across several cities, including Belfast, Birmingham, London, Cardiff, and Glasgow, statistically some of the more ethnically diverse cities in the UK.
In Belfast, protestors waved signs reading “No to racism.” The organizers of the protests, United Against Racism, claimed the event was to be a “peaceful response to racist violence of recent days.” BBC writes that the violence had “largely calmed” down by Wednesday, 7 August, “when thousands of protesters chanting “refugees are welcome” took to the streets.”
BBC reports that “only a handful of arrests were reported” during the demonstrations and that they largely “passed off peacefully” in the following towns: Liverpool, London, Bristol, Brighton, Newcastle, Accrington, and Southampton.
While the ethics of participating in organized demonstrations is complex, this generally peaceful response gives me hope.
It reminds me of the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements—powerful societal responses that struck the match for restorative change.
What, then, can we know with certainty about how we can respond here and now?
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)”
We know we are to seek peace. Christ teaches that peacemakers are blessed, for they will be called sons of God.
We know we can pray and that when we humbly seek God, He hears us (1 Peter 3:12). Our God has the power to heal lands and peoples (2 Chronicles 7:14-15), and we can pray for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-13).
My exhortation to you is this: consider how blessed it is when brothers dwell in unity (Psalm 133:1) and pursue the shalom of heaven, where all peoples of every nation and tongue will be of one accord and praising His holy name.
How can you seek peace today?
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