Press Advisory: LSE Student Union accused of 'rank hypocrisy'

PRESS ADVISORY

Student Rights has today accused the London School of Economics Student Union (LSESU) of 'rank hypocrisy' after a statement from the LSESU on the ongoing 'Jesus and Mo' cartoon issue stated: "There is a special need in a Students' Union to balance freedom of speech and to ensure access to all aspects of the LSESU for all the ethnic and religious minority communities that make up the student body at the LSE."

Raheem Kassam, director of Student Rights said: "The London School of Economics has played host to some of the nastiest, most divisive characters in the recent past and yet the student union has the gall to criticise the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist (ASH) society for posting cartoons. This hypocritical attitude not only proves that they do not believe in the equality of students across campus, as many objections have been made on previous occasions to incidents, only to be ignored, but also that the LSESU's attitude towards the posting of religious cartoons puts them in bed with some very dangerous people who insist that this kind of behaviour should result in the punishment of those who print them."

The London School of Economics Student Union has effectively promised to disbar the ASH society for their actions - a move being called 'an attack on secularism'. 

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association (BHA) commented: "The officers of LSESU ASH have clearly been reasonable in their dealings with their union and it is clearly unreasonable for a simple satirical depiction of religious figures to be deemed tantamount to intimidation of religious students. The freedom to criticise all sorts of beliefs and hold them open to satire as well as intellectual critique is a vital generator of intellectual progress – something which universities should safeguard."