A little while ago I wrote about the play in Birmingham that had to close when Sikhs rioted over the content. Himself no stranger to intimidation by religious extremists, Salman Rushdie has commented on the issue and lambasts the government for failing to protect both the playwright and the principle of free expression.

The Telegraph explains:

Mr Rushdie, 57, speaking at his London home, said: "It has been horrifying to see the response. It is pretty terrible to hear government ministers expressing approval of the ban and failing to condemn the violence, when they should be supporting freedom of expression."

His outburst was sparked by the refusal of Fiona Mactaggart, the home office minister, to offer support for either the theatre or the author following protests by a violent mob last weekend. Sikh groups organised the demonstrations because part of the play, which involves scenes of rape and murder, takes place in a temple, or gudwara. "The minister is sending entirely the wrong message," Mr Rushdie said. "It should be quite clear that, in this country, it is the liberty of any artist to express their view of their own society and their own community. Frankly, bookshops and theatres are full of things that would upset an interest group."

Mr Rushdie, who was born in India, said that the Sikh protestors had adopted the violent tactics used by Hindu nationalists on the sub-Continent. "This seems to be a trend that has come from India, where extremists have attacked a number of artistic and cultural events, with very little control. Works by some of India's most revered artists have been attacked by Shiv Sena [an extremist Hindu grouping], and now the Sikh community here are travelling down a similar path," he said.

British political leaders are allowing the mob — and religious mobs in particular — to take over communities if they don't stand firm against this sort of thing. Rushdie is absolutely correct in his position: however much a religious community may dislike the content of a play, book, or story, they have no right to censor and suppress it through violence.

Part of what it means to live in a diverse society is that you have to be tolerant of those who have adopted very different positions from yours — including very critical positions of your own. Sikhs in Britain are not living in a Sikh society that might be expected to enforce orthodoxies of thought and expression; they are living in Britain where orthodox Sikhs, dissident Sikhs, non-Sikhs, and even people who don't like Sikhs all have the exact same freedoms.

Read More:

• News on Free Speech and Civil Liberties
• Recent Books on Free Speech
• Court Decisions on Free Speech and Censorship