The predominance of Muslims and former Muslims on the front line here is no accident. The Zaire-born Swedish integration minister, Nyamko Sabuni, has been under police protection since speaking out against female genital mutilation and honour killings. As with the cases of Hirsi Ali and Rushdie, it is when someone “from their own side” speaks out that hatred spills over into violence.

So there are obvious choices to make. Will we quietly accept that we live de facto under some of the strictest laws of the sharia? Or will more public figures do Islam the decency of giving it the same place as other ideas in our culture? A place where films are made, books and articles written, cartoons cartooned and religious and political opinions voiced which tell truths, lambast, lampoon and offend, but which afford Islam the dignity of equality.

The BBC and many other media have been cowed. Some artists have finally had the courage to admit they are scared. But we need them to do better than that. We need people with a voice to show that they aren’t scared. Pace the notably unfunny Khomeini, there are lots of jokes in Islam. And that is the sound we should hear — the raucous noise of unfettered debate, laughter and often inevitable offence. Intimidation has been very successful in preventing that offence, and in the process Muslims have been cocooned and the most reactionary versions of their religion accepted as the norm. The antidote is not concession, flattery or silence. The answer is noise.