Okaz

I believe in the principle of giving others a second chance, and when it comes to the relations between citizens and their nation, of giving them a third and even a fourth chance.

Every human being can be influenced by ideas, information and pressures that form opinions and convictions. However, one’s position with regard to these influencing factors might change. There may also be a change in the influencing factors, such as the correcting of information, or the revealing of new facts.

Therefore, we must not hold a person captive to his previous stance against his nation, without taking into consideration his current stance.

We must also differentiate between objective criticism and destructive criticism, between those seeking to introduce reform and those seeking to satisfy their own interests.

However, at times we do not need to read others’ intentions in order to understand their thoughts on stances and opinions, which do not seek to create reform, but rather to take advantage of circumstances.

In the wave of the so-called Arab Spring, many on social media dropped their masks which used to hide their racist, regionalist, sectarian and secessionist positions.

They saw a false hope on the horizon, which quickly disappeared with the winds of the Arab autumn.

It may be wisdom and justice to overlook the mistakes made in expressing opinions and stances whose motive is to create reform with sincere and good intentions, but what we cannot ignore is practicing hypocrisy in order to achieve personal interests at the expense of one’s nation.

It is not acceptable to have superficial change while previous negative convictions continue to be concealed behind fake masks. By allowing this to continue, we are permitting the wrong people to be in the wrong place, which results in enabling them to harm society. It would be as if we were rewarding them at the expense of sincere people!