THE comedy actor Rowan Atkinson is taking centre stage at Westminster tomorrow in a bid to persuade the government to drop a “harsh” new law devised to punish extremists who incite religious hatred.

The Blackadder star will tell MPs and peers that the legislation will catch comedians in its net. Atkinson, who impersonated the Archbishop of Canterbury in one Blackadder episode and gave mock sermons from the pulpit in Not the Nine O’clock News, says it will criminalise satirical sketches about religious figures.

It could also outlaw such Blackadder characters as the “baby-eating” Bishop of Bath and Wells who disposed of his opponents with a red hot poker.

The actor is being backed by an all-party group of MPs, the Barnabas Fund, which campaigns to help persecuted Christian minorities and those who have converted to the faith, and the National Secular Society.

Atkinson, 50 next month, will tell the meeting that he could be prosecuted for such past skits as showing hundreds of Muslims bowed at prayer with a voiceover saying that the search for the ayatollah’s contact lens goes on.

He will also give a warning that the law could ban films such as Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which was criticised on its release in 1979 for being anti-Christian.

Atkinson first took up the cudgels against the proposed law three years ago when it was to have been included in an anti-terrorism bill promoted by David Blunkett, the home secretary, in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

It was dropped from that act but has been included in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, which is due to get its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday. This would make it an offence to use words or wave a banner deemed to incite religious hatred. The maximum penalty would be six months’ imprisonment. Existing public order offences cover only racial hatred.

Atkinson will argue that while the government will claim comedians are not a target, the new law will attack freedom of speech.

“Freedom of expression must be protected for artists and entertainers and we must not accept a bar on the lampooning of religion and religious leaders,” he said yesterday.

“There is an obvious difference between the behaviour of racist agitators who can be prosecuted under existing laws and the activities of satirists and writers who may choose to make comedy or criticism of religious belief, practices or leaders, just as they do with politics. It is one of the reasons why we have free speech.”

Opponents of the bill say there is already sufficient legislation to deal with attacks on religion. Last week a minister in an obscure sect called Church of England (Continuing) was ordered not to go within 30 metres of a Mormon church or to telephone its members after being accused of bombarding them with 4,000 telephone calls and text messages.

Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, is one of the organisers of tomorrow’s rally at Portcullis House, the block of MPs’ offices opposite the Commons. He said: “In a liberal society we have to allow religions to be lampooned and criticised.”

But Nigel McCullough, the Bishop of Manchester, said bishops in the House of Lords would support the new measure. He said that while religious communities such as Judaism and Sikhism were already protected against incitement to hatred, the law needed to be levelled to give protection to other religions, especially Islam.

“Equality before the law is important. All those who experience harassment and threats because of their religion, or lack of it, are entitled to protection,” he said.

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