'Harry Potter' author takes a swipe at Christian fundamentalists, defends Donald Trump's 'right to be a bigot'

British author J.K. Rowling had expressed her discomfort toward people who say, "I'm praying for you."

"I had no idea the phrase, 'I'm praying for you,' could sound so intimidating," she said on Monday during the 2016 PEN America Literary Gala, as quoted by the Washington Examiner.

The author of the "Harry Potter" books was retelling her experience at a toy shop in New York when a Christian fundamentalist confronted her and said that line. It was part of her speech that centers on freedom of expression, something that PEN America had been focused on for 90 years.

"My critics are at liberty to claim that I am trying to convert children to Satanism," she said. "And I'm free to explain that I'm exploring human nature and morality — or to say, 'You're an idiot,' depending on which side of the bed I got out of that day."

Rowling is firm supporter of freedom of expression, and said that it makes her uncomfortable that intolerance toward alternative viewpoints -- or those views that don't agree with one's own -- is spreading, that there are "demands that unwelcome and inconvenient voices be removed from public discourse."

To emphasize her point, she said that there is a petition to have presidential hopeful Donald Trump be banned from entering the United Kingdom. The petition has garnered around half-a-million signatures and was debated over at the British Parliament.

"I find almost everything that Mr. Trump says objectionable," Rowling said. "I consider him offensive and bigoted. But he has my full support to come to my country and be offensive and bigoted there. His freedom to speak protects my freedom to call him a bigot. His freedom guarantees mine."

She said that by seeking the removal of the freedoms of an opponent simply because they offend a person means that that person is akin to tyrants who punish -- imprison, torture, and kill -- others for the same justification.

Rowling received the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award at the event, which was held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.