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# Giving power to the bigots or much needed protection from hate-speech?
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18948/
- Published: 2005-03-08T19:03:46.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:33:00.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:15

Last night [Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4109017.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net), the British-Sikh playwright, won the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her play, *Bezhti* ("Dishonour"), which was forced to close down a week after its opening in Birmingham (in December 2004) following violent protests from the local Sikh community.

*Bezhti* is referred to in Salman Rushdie's 7 February openDemocracy article (["Defend the right to be offended"](http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-5-57-2331.jsp)) where he attacks the British government's [proposed legislation](http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/faith/crime/faq.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) to ban "hatred against people because of their religious beliefs". Rushdie argues that the law will essentially undermine the principle of free speech and "will unleash some major expressions of intolerance" - as the author of *The Satanic Verses* he would potentially be liable for prosecution. Various blogs have picked up Rushdie's article including [cultural pickings](http://culturalpickings.blogspot.com/2005/03/anti-religious-hate-bills.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), [pseudo magazine](http://pseudomagazine.blogspot.com/2005/02/bad-weather-is-gods-way-of-telling-us.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), [bdandy](http://bdandy.blogspot.com/2005/02/more-on-british-lefts-hatred-for-free.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), [quarks daily](http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/02/a%5Fresponse%5Fto%5Fr.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) and [kitab khana](http://kitabkhana.blogspot.com/2005/02/right-to-be-offended.html?ref=opendemocracy.net).

His piece also triggered a powerful [reply](http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-5-57-2349.jsp) from the proudly "chutnified" writer Shakira Hussein, who agrees that we should retain the right to offend but must "ditch the right to incite hate". Yesterday - after [Lisa Appignanesi](http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-5-57-2354.jsp) joined the fray - Shakira came into the openDemocracy forums in [defence](http://www.opendemocracy.net/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=101&threadID=43949&messageID=59126#59126) of her argument. You can follow and contribute to the discussion [here.](http://www.opendemocracy.net/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=101)