0x4361696e65

The problem with the UK is the way in which our society still bends over backwards for religion.  One of the hot topics recently has been about schools in Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK, where its alleged that there were plans in some schools for an 'Islamic take over'.  There were some reports of teachers being fired for being the 'wrong gender', and supposedly boys and girls in the schools were being separated and put into same sex classes.  I think at one of the schools as well the signage was primarily in Arabic as well - something which the media loved.
 
Its not about one religion though, the same thing happens in the UK with 'faith schools' which are allowed to teach their religion exclusively and still operate as a normal school (the majority are Christian, and according to David Cameron, the UK is a Christian country).   I don't think this is something which should be promoted in the modern world really.  Ideally religion need only be taught in a class dedicated to it, much in the same way that everything else is taught (e.g. teaching geography in geography class), and schools shouldn't be allowed to pick and choose what religions they teach.  Regardless, in the UK, its far too easy to get off the hook with a lot of things that would be otherwise illegal or morally unacceptable by playing the religion card.  For instance its illegal in the UK to slaughter animals without stunning them first which apparently is a more humane way of doing things.  Islam and Judaism (and possibly other regions?) don't allow for this though, and demand that the animal be slaughtered alive by being beheaded.  It is a pretty gross process as far as I understand.  Of course, while this is illegal under UK law, there is for some unknown reason an exception based on religious grounds which basically means you can break the law in the name of religion.
 
Its important to understand as well that while you might argue that something like that is no big deal for the majority of people that oppose halal/kosher slaughter as they can simply choose not to eat it, its not that simple.  If you're selling meat, you don't want to have to pay for two different slaughter processes when you can just pay for one.  Therefore they pay for halal meat as it appeals to the lowest common denominator (non Muslims can still eat it, whereas Muslims can't eat non halal meat).  This results in quite a lot of meat in the UK which is sold being halal slaughtered as (as far as I know) you don't have to say it on the packaging (it might be hidden away on a website somewhere), so they simply create two brands (one halal, one 'normal'), but use the same meat for both.  This effectively results in the beliefs of the few being forced on the many - which is the problem of religion in the 21st century.
 
Let people come to the UK, let people practice their religions in the UK, but don't let them force it on others, and don't give any religion special treatment or a place in the law.