In the song “Another Brick in the Wall,” the British rock group Pink Floyd rails against the psychic isolation induced by rigidly doctrinaire schooling. “We don’t need no education,” the lyrics go, a line whose bad grammar ironically proves just how badly they do need one. It then continues with the still ungrammatical but much more valid protest, “We don’t need no thought control.”

Now the Student Union of the prestigious London School of Economics (LSESU) has just laid another brick in that wall and strengthened thought control with its recent resolution to stamp out the mythical threat of Islamophobia on the LSE campus.

LSE is among the world’s most selective universities, with a highly international student body. It has produced many notable alumni in the arenas of law, economics, business, literature and politics, including world leaders and winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes.Everyone from Bertrand Russell and Friedrich Hayek to George Soros and Carlos the Jackal has studied there. Their Student Union itself is one of the oldest and most politically active in the United Kingdom.

In a recent resolution, the LSESU begins by listing various reasons for their concern about the issue of Islamophobia, evidence for which they cite from publications like the New Yorker, the UK Guardian, and the UK Independent:

That last point references an incident which seemed to have been the final straw. The LSE’s Atheist, Secularist, and Humanist Society had posted a cartoon featuring Jesus and Mohammed. The satirical cartoon incurred about forty (according to the LSESU) student complaints about the depiction of Mohammed that prompted an “emergency session” (for an interesting firsthand report from the session, read here). Apparently no resolution will be forthcoming denouncing Christianophobia.

Tellingly, the LSESU knitted its collective brow over “the rise of Islamophobia and the extreme right” but expressed no concern about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the UK, particularly in “Londonistan.” It complained about “Islamophobic offenses” in London but said nothing about the offenses of Muslim terrorism there, such as the ⁷⁄₇ bombings. Nor did it explain that that number of “Islamophobic offenses” includes any ludicrous accusation or perceived offense on the part of a Muslim, such as the outrageous incident in which a British Christian couple came under criminal charges for simply having a religious argument with a Muslim.

After being overwhelmed by this worrying tsunami of Islamophobia hype, the LSESU then asserted the following beliefs:

Why they bothered with the phrases “any particular religion” and “one religious group” is unclear, since Islamophobia is not about Lutheranism or Hinduism or reformed Zoroastrianism, but obviously about Islam. It’s also not clear how Islamophobia can be “a form of racism” if Islam is not a race; apparently they are simply stretching the definition to fit politically correct parameters. Also unexplained is how it’s possible to assert freedom of speech and thought, and the right to criticize religion, and yet be intolerant of anything or anyone that has “the effect of being Islamophobic.” According to their definition below, anything short of fawning flattery of Islam and Muslims will likely have “the effect of being Islamophobic.”

Refusing to let a lack of logic derail their momentum, the LSESU proceeded to make the following resolutions:

So LSE students can’t discuss the rampant Jew-hatred or exhortations to violence against infidels in the Koran, or they will be “dealt with swiftly and effectively.” They can’t express a dislike of Islamic architecture or they will be condemned as racist. They can’t label a Muslim as a barbarian or terrorist, even though many Muslims are doing a grand job of stereotyping themselves as such on a daily basis. Once again, it’s unclear how restricting free speech by enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws on non-Muslims will “enhance legitimate debate” about international conflicts.

Like many of the London School of Economics graduates of decades past, the students currently enrolled there may very well go on to become prominent and influential figures, if not actually world leaders. If they then bring to bear the same submission to Muslim hair-trigger sensitivity and the hostility to free speech that they have displayed in the Student Union resolution against “Islamophobia,” then their international impact will be devastating.

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