The violence that has accompanied performances of Gupreet Bhatti's new play 'Behzti' (Dishonour) in Birmingham dishonours all Asians in the UK. The mob mentality, which resulted in bricks and bottles being thrown through theatre windows on Saturday 18 December, has forced the show to close early. In their bitter victory, the protestors have done a great disservice to us all. The freedom of speech is a fundamental right available to all ethnic minorities living in Britain and one that we have a right to EXPECT. We are some of the first to bleat about injustice when our voices are not heard and among the most vociferous when discriminated against. So why have Asians chosen to choke this fledgling play and what does it say about our own standards of moral censorship?

The forced closure is due mainly to outrage at the setting of the play in a Gurdwara, rather than the essence of the tale about an ageing spinster and her nagging mother. The darker elements of rape and murder are no doubt deeply disturbing, the sacred setting one step too far. But surely other measures would have been more effective? Gurpreet Bhatti is not a novice playwright and comes from the same community that she writes about. Peaceful protests, face-to-face dialogue and, heavens, perhaps even a few phone calls or letters of complaint could have made her change the setting of the play. There could have been calls to boycott the play. For fringe Asian Theatre, poor ticket sales and lack of funding are usually far more effective at shortening a run, than bricks through windows.

Violence and disorder in this instance have merely reinforced the widely held mainstream perceptions about the lack of tolerance in the Asian community. Asian women will be shaking their heads resigned to constantly having their views shuttered behind closed doors. This episode reflects the malaise gripping the Asian community - censure and prohibition in the heart of a country that embraces liberality and dialogue.

The backlash is that in extinguishing one flame, the protestors have merely lit a hundred others elsewhere. They have unwittingly provided the "oxygen of publicity" to what might otherwise have been a mildly interesting, but lacklustre play. One only has to think of Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' for comparison.

Death threats against the playwright and veiled promises of direct action against theatres that might stage the play in the future are all abhorrent. All Asians have the right to protest about the use of their religious iconography. Be they Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist or Christian. But peaceful protests are a far better reflection of the peaceful nature of our religions. If there is to be a battle cry, then perhaps we should take more care to choose our battles wisely lest we find that all our foot soldiers have deserted because they no longer want to be in the same army.