Your Royal Highness, it is God’s will that you have been entrusted with heavy responsibilities in these very critical moments in our nation’s history. Please allow me to address you, not only as a citizen addressing his ruler but also as someone appealing to your Arab and Islamic sentiments as one who is tirelessly endeavoring to raise the nation from where it has currently fallen.
Your Highness, some people claim that since the situation we are now facing calls for national unity and for the leadership and the people to stand together, there is no room for offering advice or expressing an opinion. In my view, this is a serious mistake and an erroneous interpretation of the true spirit of national unity and cohesion. Giving advice at dark moments becomes a duty and failure to do so renders us useless. National unity is not served by merely hailing and praising but should be found in the hearts of the faithful and the sincere working to deliver their country and nation from all threats.
Your Highness, an unjust war has just begun. You were right to stress that the Kingdom would not join in a war resulting in the loss of innocent Iraqi blood. This aside, it is time for us to move into a new era that will lead the nation from a state of inaction to one of positive confrontation against any aggressor who violates the sovereignty and sanctity of countries and murders our brethren wherever they are. On the internal front, we hope to see each individual fashioned to become part and parcel of his nation, aware of his responsibilities and ready to sacrifice to serve its objectives.
Your Highness, every citizen is willing to offer all they possess, including their lives, if the conviction is created inside them that sincerity prevails from top to bottom. Every individual must sense this equality as reality, without discrimination and favoritism for anyone, no matter who they might be. For any one to claim honestly that he or she is different, it must be made perfectly clear that that claim can only be based on the size of their sacrifices and contributions made to their nation. It is time to energize and activate our civil institutions so they may play a supportive role in serving the nation’s interests and stimulating leadership policies. The call for incorporating the principles of freedom of choice, accountability, freedom of the press, intellectual pluralism and for professional organizations to play a more active role, all this comes within our religious teachings.
Your Highness, our youth need to be directed by planting in them the noble characters that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, set for the nation’s youth. This can be done not only through military service but through active engagement in community service.
Your Highness, you presented an initiative for reform at the Arab League because you realized the need for change. We hope to see those principles become reality and we are confident their enforcement at the regional level will enable us to do the same at the national level.
Your Highness, it pains us when we find ourselves shackled by the restraints of reality, unable to help our brethren except by a few written words or a silent prayer and supplication in the dead of night.
I appeal to Your Highness to open the way for an extensive popular effort on all fronts in support of our nation so that it will be able to repulse the risks descending on it from all sides. Danger is about to knock upon our doors. We hope you will reward the hand that is being stretched out in unity so that we can stand together in the face of danger.
Arab News From the Local Press 23 March 2003
