Source: The Scotsman

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=641712005

On June 11, 2005 The Scotsman ran an opinion piece by Joyce McMillan on the proposed religious hatred bill in the U.K. legislature. McMillan writes about the law's potential effect on the arts: "In the Birmingham case [of the Sikh boycott of the play 'Dishonor'], and in many others, the police apparently felt unable or unwilling to defend the theatres involved against the threat of criminal violence. And even where the police were prepared to meet the challenge, many local authorities - including Birmingham - have tended to assume almost without question that avoiding disorder is the top priority, and that rules against giving offence to minority groups designed for routine service provision can simply be extended to the arts, without any thought being given to their potentially devastating impact on free expression and free speech.

So it's perhaps hardly surprising that figures from the world of literature and the arts - including Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson and Salman Rushdie - have been among the most vocal critics of the government's planned legislation on incitement to religious hatred...Among those common values [in a multicultural society] must be...the value of freedom of speech and expression, the right to challenge, shock and create without which our societies cannot move forward."