The Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society at University College London has started an online petition as part of its defence to the latest example of attempted censorship of images of the prophet Muhammed. A few days ago the society received an email from an official at the student union requesting they take down their an image from the group’s Facebook page after a the union had received several complaints. The image is used by the society to promote a Facebook event for its weekly pub social in London. The image used is the one shown above. I know. Shocking isn’t it. The image is taken from the well know web comic, Jesus & Mo. The general basis of the comics is that they feature Jesus and Mohammed in everyday environments discussing matters of philosophy and theology in a light hearted way.
According to the request, the complaints are partly to do with image of Muhammed – which under Islamic teachings is prohibited, and partly to do with the image depicting Muhammed near alcohol. Alcohol is also prohibited under Islamic teaching. The union requested the image be removed and to inform the union when this request had been carried out. Unlike most previous examples of this kind of censorship, where media outlets can’t seem to surrender quickly enough, the society has not backed down. Their stance has been backed by the National Secular Society as well as the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, an group which represents the interests of all student secular groups. A petition has been launched to stop UCL Union trying to force the removal of the image.
In response to complaints from a number of students, the University College London Union has insisted that the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society remove the following image from a Facebook event advertising a pub social. It has done so on the grounds that
This is a gross infringement on its representatives’ right to freedom of expression taken by members of the first secular university in England. All people are free to be offended by any image they view. This does not give them the right to impose their beliefs on others by censoring such images.
We the undersigned urge the University College London Union to immediately halt their attempts to censor the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society and uphold its members’ right to freedom of expression.
You can sign the petition here.
Group member Alex Gabriel published the entire interaction between the president of the society and a Muslim student. Throughout the exchange, both are polite but the conversation ends quickly with the Muslim student elevating their complaint to the UCL Union. One of the Islamic groups at UCL has put up their own statement arguing that the society should take down the image. The crux of their argument is there is a difference between freedom of speech and freedom to insult.
Once a particular act is deemed to be offensive to another, it is only good manners to refrain from, at the very least, repeating that act. In this particular case, when at first the cartoon was uploaded, it could have been mistaken as unintentional offense. When certain Muslims voiced their offense over the issue, for any civil, well-mannered individual or group of individuals, it should then be a question as to the feelings of others and the cartoons should then have been removed.
All I can really say about this very tenuous reasoning is that society wouldn’t function if we had to live like this. I’m offended by the idea of Islam considering the Qur’an the final world on all matters of any importance. I’m offended by the Catholic dogma that condoms are sinful. Does this mean that Islam and Catholicism immediately have to shut up shop because I’m offended?. Of course not. The president of the society is absolutely right when he says that nobody has the right not to be offended.
