In Tolerance or Death!, Bruce Bawer argues that “European culture leaders should smack down fanatical Islamists,” rather than “bend over for them”:
Defenders of this many-fronted assault on free speech routinely tag critics of Islam as racists. Of course, Islam is not a race but a religion whose ideology should, in a democratic society, be entirely open to criticism — and, for that matter, to parody and mockery. Outraged by the House of Commons measure, comedian Rowan Atkinson (who plays the character Mr. Bean on television) commented: ‘For telling a good and incisive religious joke, you should be praised. For telling a bad one, you should be ridiculed and reviled. The idea that you could be prosecuted for the telling of either is quite fantastic.’ Atkinson was nearly alone among British authors, artists, and entertainers in his vocal criticism of the bill.