Assalamu Alaikum: We, the people of Arabia, are
outraged at the public policies that are hurting our children, our
families and our country. We are dismayed that after investing over $250
billion in weaponry, our country is still unable to look after its own
defence. We are shocked when we learn that our national debt is $100
billion and climbing, and our budget deficit is deteriorating. We are
ashamed when we see our basic human rights being violated and our freedom
being depressed. We are scared at the way drugs, crime and corruption are
spreading everywhere and threatening our children, our families and our
homes.
We say the tragic price our children, families and country is paying
demand something to be done to end what's going on. The reason for all
these wrongdoings is with you. King Fahd! We see you as amoral, profoundly
committed only to your own political and financial advancement, ruthless
in getting your way and untrustworthy in accounting for your actions. We
see you as antithetical to our values, our pocketbook and our future. We
see you as a disgrace to your office, worse than that, a disgrace to
Islam. And we see your government as a family-based autocracy that behaves
like an army of occupation, which is wasteful, out of control and prey to
all sorts of special interests. We see your government as an 18th-century
horse and buggy system that's trying to operate in a 1995 sophisticated
world of politics and economics.
Our children, families and country are being hurt too much and we
believe it is unconscionable for us to remain silent. Our simple
understanding of the Shura system is 'it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish the government'. Therefore, we are determined to
participate fully in the running of our country, to break your monopoly on
power, stop the waste of country's wealth, reform the judiciary and
determine foreign and other policies. We are Muslims. We do not like
shallow pomposity and we do not like kings or royal government. We want to
change Arabia to a country in which the true belief in Allah is once again
at the center of definition of the Arabian peninsula.
We want a government in which the State is subservient to the best
interests of the individuals who compose it. A government that works for
us and is not captured by Fahd, Sultan, Naif, Salman or any other amir.
Specifically, we want an Islamic form of government, a free enterprise
economic system, a legal system which guarantees individuals equal right
to jobs, education, health-care and freedom of expression, including
criticism of our own government.
We want respect of human rights in a framework of Shura. We urge you to
get out of the way and let the good Muslims of this nation do the
necessary reform. Thank you and God bless you.
Mohammad H. Siddiq, Lincoln, Nebraska,
