Many European nations have taken secularism so far that religion itself has become a taboo in public debate. Many Europeans are so non-religious or anti-religious that they are greatly intimidated by Muslims who openly practice their faith and put their religious beliefs first in life. Europeans think this is medieval and that they are above it because they are so sophisticated and modern. Yet they are not willing to look at the obvious fallout of secularization. This has led to a special form of religious intolerance. Instead of being intolerant of those who belong to ANOTHER religion, many Europeans are intolerant of those who belong to ANY religion.

The fact is that Europe has removed the religious fanaticism of the middle ages, which is clearly a step in the right direction. Yet people have not replaced it with anything, and the result is that they are now stuck in a vacuum. The positive side of religion – or rather spirituality – is that it provides people with a sense of meaning and purpose that reaches beyond themselves. When people do not have this, they become entirely self-centered, and their personal lives quickly deteriorate into boredom and a sense of having no purpose and meaning. This leads to depression and escapism, which is responsible for a substantial part of the rising social problems in Europe, such a mental illness, depression, substance abuse, broken marriages and families, et-cetera.

Because of secularism, European governments have so far failed to address the core of this problem. I can assure you that the problem has no human solution. The ONLY solution is a spiritual solution, yet no European government can address this problem without finding a more balanced approach to spirituality and its role in society. Dealing with the Muslim immigrants actually provides Europeans an opportunity to move in this direction.

It would be completely unrealistic for Europeans to expect that Muslim immigrants would abandon their religion and become as non-religious as many Europeans. So Europeans simply have to – from the government down – become more tolerant of religious expression in their society. For example, there is no need to ban religious head dresses in public schools in order to maintain the separation of church and state. This is simply secular fanaticism pitted against religious fanaticism.

Kim: So are you saying that if a society has free speech, people should be allowed to say absolutely anything, even incite violence and hatred? For example, in several Europeans nations, resident Muslims demonstrated against the cartoons and some carried banners encouraging terrorist attacks as a retaliation. Some people say the police should have arrested them for inciting hatred, which is illegal in several nations.

Jesus: I will defend the right of these Muslims to say whatever they want in a – peaceful – demonstration, just as I will defend the Danish newspaper’s right to publish cartoons that depict the prophet Mohammed. What I will not defend is anyone’s right to take their so-called protests beyond the level of using words to where they actually attack other people or burn embassies. If a society has free speech and you say something I don’t like, then I can use my free speech to protest or counteract what you are saying. If I go beyond speaking out and start acting out, I have crossed an essential line.

It is a fact that many people in the West have not fully understood what it means to have and maintain a free society. They fall prey to the age-old rationale that the ends can justify the means, a rationale that springs from the mind of anti-christ. Thus, such people reason that in order to preserve freedom, it is necessary and justified for a government to restrict freedom. This is both true and untrue. It is necessary to restrict people’s freedom to act. But it is not necessary to restrict people’s freedom to think or speak.

There is a fundamental difference between saying that you will do something and actually doing it. If I attack you physically, I have violated your free will because you had no option to choose to avoid my attack. You cannot choose to make my actions undone because my actions have an unerasable physical effect. (However, you can choose to prevent my actions from starting a negative spiral of revenge, which is why I told people to turn the other cheek and forgive seventy times seven.)

If I attack you verbally, you have the option of choosing how you will respond to my words. You can choose to ignore my words as if you had never heard them, thus – in effect – making my words undone or of no effect for you. My actions can affect you without your consent. My words cannot affect you without your consent. You must choose to take offense before my words can affect you.

I agree that having free speech does not mean you have the obligation to offend others. Yet the fact is that Muslims do not have an obligation to take offense. As I said in our first discussion, the true message of the Koran is to rise above the consciousness that takes offense. If you feel offended, you have not fully surrendered to the Will of Allah.

If you do not have the self-control to prevent yourself from taking offense over what I say, then YOU have a problem and YOU must pull that beam from your own eye. It really is that simple.

Kim: So are you saying that a government should allow people to express hatred, even to encourage violence and make threats?

Jesus: If you have people in your country who are ready to use violence, wouldn't you rather know about it, so you can do something about it before it is too late?

You have a right to say that you will hurt others, but you do not have a right to carry out your threats. The reason is that a free, democratic society MUST give all of its citizens the maximum opportunity to learn their life lessons.

As I explain on this website, planet earth is a schoolroom. People are here to learn a lesson about life, and the ultimate outcome is that they rise above the dualistic, selfish state of consciousness that causes people to give and take offense, thus leading to conflict and violence. As I explain throughout this website, people are imprisoned by their own egos, and humankind is engaged in a process of freeing themselves from the ego and the consciousness of anti-christ.

People can learn the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is when they listen to their spiritual teachers and allow us to guide them to a higher state of consciousness. The hard way is to learn by allowing their own egos to interact with the egos of other people, thus wearing down each others rough edges. People learn by doing something that springs from the ego and then seeing the consequences of their actions in the form of other people’s ego-centered reactions. We might say that people can learn by voluntarily transcending the dualistic, ego-centered state of consciousness or by acting out this state of consciousness until they finally get tired of playing the game of “my ego against the world.”

Yet even when people learn the hard way, there are levels of learning as there are grades in a school. The lowest level is when people commit acts of violence that lead others to take revenge through violence, creating a seemingly endless spiral of violence and revenge. This is what you have seen taking place in the Middle East for thousands of years. And as you can see in the recent demonstrations and embassy burnings, some people in the Middle East are still trapped at this level of learning—they are still in kindergarten.

What has brought civilization forward is that some people have grown tired of learning the hard way, and they have modified their behavior. They are still often acting from the ego and their actions conflict with the egos of other people. Yet they have restrained their egos to – in most situations – avoid violence. They have learned to turn the other cheek to certain offenses. In many cultures this has largely broken the spirals of violence and revenge, which is the only reason democracy could emerge as a viable form of government. As long as people are still too prone to violence, only a totalitarian form of government has the ruthlessness to restrain them.

As I explain elsewhere, there are cycles in the spiritual growth of humankind, and this planet is in the process of leaving one cycle and entering the next. The most important lesson people should have learned over the past 2,000 year cycle was to respond to offenses without violence—by turning the other cheek. In the cultures where there is less violence, most people have learned that lesson to some degree.

The cultures that have not yet risen above the old ways, need to catch up quickly, and that is why extreme measures are called for in helping them see the need to change. Because too many Muslims still have not learned to turn the other cheek, it is necessary to provoke them into seeing the beam in their own eyes.

Nevertheless, my point is that humankind is entering an age in which they need to use peaceful means to rise above the ego-centered state of consciousness. And freedom of speech, expressed in a free and open debate, is the primary tool that can bring humanity forward. If you look at the world as a whole, you will see a great increase in communication. This is not only due to better technology but also to people’s willingness to talk about issues that were taboos just a few years ago. The cultures that are the most open are generally making the most rapid progress.

Europe is on the forefront of this development, while Muslim cultures are in the rear. Thus, Europeans can help Muslims catch up, and the obvious choice is to start with the many Muslims living in Europe. So far, there has not been sufficient willingness to openly debate the issues – from both sides – but hopefully the cartoon conflict will make it clear that avoiding dialogue is no longer an option.

Kim: Some people will say that if you allow people to openly encourage hatred and make threats, you simply allow tension to increase until it inevitably breaks out in violence. That is why several European nations have made it illegal, for example, to engage in anti-semitic speech. Most people seem to think it is okay to restrict extreme right-wing groups, such as Neo-Nazis. What is your response?

Jesus: As I said 2,000 years ago, you cannot serve two masters. You have to decide whether you want to be a democracy or a totalitarian regime. You cannot be both at the same time, and history has several examples of how trying to mix the two leads to an unsustainable situation. If a totalitarian regime gives people freedom, they will want more and their country moves toward democracy. This is what happened in the Soviet Union, and it is now happening in China and many nations in the Middle East. If a democracy restricts freedom, it will start a slide back toward totalitarianism. That is why the American government’s restriction of civil liberties under the guise of combatting terrorism simply will not stand the test of time—unless America becomes a totalitarian nation.