Censoring atheists at LSE is a victory for oppression

[rug]

Banning atheists for satirising religions at university freshers' fairs is a heavy-handed restriction on freedom of thought



'At the LSE, an institution which was notorious for anti-establishment, free-thinking radicalism, Abishek Phadnis and Chris Moos from the atheist society were summarily ejected from their own freshers’ fair.' Photograph: James Barr for the Guardian

Ally Fogg
theguardian.com, Tuesday 8 October 2013 06.25 EDT

In Tariq Ali's autobiography, Street Fighting Years, the veteran radical recalls his culture shock at arriving as a student at Oxford in 1963. His prior education had been under the military dictatorship of Pakistan, where he would not dare to share atheistic thoughts, even in whispers to his closest friends.

"When I first saw a pimpled youth, wearing a tattered crimson corduroy jacket standing on a chair in front of a stand at the freshers' fair and shouting at the top of his voice, 'Down With God,' I was both excited and moved. In fact I was a trifle incredulous, which must have explained the fact that I just stood there and stared. Finally, a bit embarrassed, the man in the corduroy jacket stepped down and recruited me to the Oxford University humanist group. I was to discover, much to my surprise, that debates here were much more stimulating than those conducted within the careerist confines of the Labour club."

Fifty years later, almost to the day, student atheist groups have been recruiting once again. At the LSE – an institution that in Ali's day was notorious for anti-establishment, free-thinking radicalism – Abishek Phadnis and Chris Moos from the atheist society were summarily ejected from their own freshers' fair by student union staff and security. Their offence was wearing T-shirts featuring cartoons from the hugely popular online comic series Jesus and Mo. They were told that wearing the shirts was creating an "offensive environment". The students then received a hand-delivered letter from the LSE secretary, asking them to refrain from wearing the T-shirts and warning that the school "reserves the right to consider taking further action if warranted".

Meanwhile in Reading, this year the atheist, humanist and secularist society has been expelled from the student union altogether. The decision follows a similar row at the 2012 freshers' fair, when the society decorated their stall with a pineapple, to which they had attached a post-it note bearing the name Mohammed. As the group explained at the time, in services to both historical accuracy and comedy: "After a few minutes, we were told by another member of RUSU staff that 'either the pineapple goes, or you do', whereupon they seized the pineapple and tried to leave. However, the pineapple was swiftly returned, and shortly was displayed again, with the name Mohammed changed to that of Jesus."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/oct/08/censoring-atheists-lse-oppression-religion