Oriana Fallaci Tribute (Vanity)

11/29/05

[dervish]

I was at a tribute sponsored by Center for Popular Culture (David Horowitz) honoring Oriana Fallaci, the Italian Journalist now living in NYC who has come out strongly against Islam in the post 9/11 world.

Attending were Daniel Pipes, who introduced her, Robert Spencer who will be writing about the event in Frontpage, Norman Podhoretz, Frank Gaffney, Phyllis Chessler, John Fund of WSJ, Josh Gerstein of NY Sun, and assorted other who I probably did not recognize. It was an honor to be there. Fallaci is very sick and near death. But you would never know it from the fire in her speech. She spoke for almost an hour.

She began by saying that people live in denial. Appeasement is easier than fighting. People get tired.

Woven throughout her talk were references to Alexis DeTocqueville's comments on how authoritarian systems try to attack democracy by turning people who speak the truth and go against the tide into pariahs and objects of scorn. They attack the “soul of freedom.” She was talking about herself and how she has been maligned by the leftists in Italy and Europe even now she is being sued in Italy for a hate crime against Islam in her book "The Force of Reason." Yet Islam which is full of hate is above Western reproach. Santa Claus offends Muslim children so he is banished. Muslims defile and urinate on Christian sites in Italy and that is tolerated as free expression. The Mayor of Murano changed the planned name of a street from “The martyrs of Nassiriya” (in memory of the Italian servicemen killed in a terrorist attack there), to “Yasser Arafat Street”.

She chastised President Bush for calling Islam “a religion of peace.” “Shut up Bush” she says to herself “but he doesn’t listen to me.”

“Moderate Islam is our invention, there is Islam and that is all,” she said. She referred to the Koran as the ‘Mein Kampf’ of Islam.

On the French riots she commented that of course they were Islamic. Other poor residents of French slums were not involved only Muslim youth. Why else were the rioters yelling “Allah Akbar” as they pillaged.

She spoke warmly of her meeting with Pope Benedict XVI who she admires greatly, and said if an atheist and the Pope can find common ground in the threat to European and Western civilization there must be truth there. She praised the religious of Europe as more tolerant of differing beliefs than the secular – Pope Benedict did not berate her on her atheism.

On the political left and right she said she was on neither side, and had gripes against the right as well. She was especially angry at Secretary Rice and the State Department for pushing Europe to include Turkey in the EU. Rice may be a very smart person but she knows nothing about Turkey, their human rights abuses, their women taking up the veil again. She described the right and left as jockeying for the football of power. She called herself a revolutionary on no side whose weapon was words. She praised the audience for participating in what she believes is the struggle of our times.

Terrorism is not the greatest threat; immigration is. By the year 2100 Europe will be majority Muslim. Europeans will be described as Natives the way American Indians who were conquered by the West are now. The Muslims do not even want to assimilate. They do not embrace their new country with loyalty or love. The French rioters do not want to be called French. The struggle according to some Muslims is not whether the Muslims will dominate Europe but whether they will be able to impose Sharia. She repeatedly called it Eurabia and mentioned Bat Yeor as a reference.

She closed by saying that it gave her great comfort to know that as her life ebbed others like those in the room tonight would continue the war. She said that at the end she would cross herself because even though she was an atheist “you never know.”

[FreedomPoster]

Anger and Pride by Oriana Fallaci.. Her first essay about 9/11

The Rage of Oriana Fallaci

[angkor]

Here's the full text of The Rage and the Pride, which is available as a published book and also is out on the Internet in several other forms beside this one.

[Tolik]

Tribute to Oriana Fallaci.

Thank you, dervish for an excellent reporting.

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[Arthur Wildfire! March]

'They attack the “soul of freedom.”'

[marron]

Thank you for posting this. I love and admire Oriana Falacci.

[Rummyfan]

Oriana Fallaci is one of the great voices of the West and she will be sorely missed. Wish I could have been there. I wonder if C-SPAN will broadcast this at some point?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, Dervish, for the topic and the ping.

[MizSterious]

A most pingworthy article! Dervish, great reporting.

[an italian]

I've hear from it...

And as she said, TO HELL THE NOBEL PRIZE AND HONOR TO WHO THAT DOESN'T WIN IT...

[an italian]

really interesting!

to oriana, go girl!!!

[Convert from ECUSA]

Thanks for the ping, SunkenCiv, and thanks for posting this, dervish! Oriania has chutzpah in the good meaning of that word, and "at the end she would cross herself because even though she was an atheist “you never know.”" An opening (even if a small one) in the heart of a valiant lady that tells it like it is about our enemies, may graces be granted to her.

[Berosus]

I for one cheer every time a liberal sees the light. The same goes for Ed Koch, Zell Miller, etc.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Awesome summary!

I wish I could have been there.

:)

I'm still stewing over the fact that I won't be able to get a copy of her new book until the end of January.

[dervish]

Est 200 people attended, and about fifty/fifty men and women.

CSPAN will not carry it. Ms Fallaci would not permit audio, video or pictures due to her ill health. Also Fallaci is using the talk in her final book which she is she is writing now. Of this book she said "I hope this book helps me die a little less."

The audience was enthralled and stayed mainly quiet not interrupting very often with applause. I think they feared for her health. I know I did.

[durasell]

I've read R&P. Basically a Fallaci rant, which is always fun. Her better books are Inshallah (brilliant) and Interview with History.

[durasell]

She's not only an atheist, but was also a vocal critic of the Vietnam War as well as Afghan assistance during the 1980s. She's probably the only journalist who spoke out against Vietnam, Kissinger, Nixon and Jane Fonda in the same paragraph. Her interview with Kissinger is a classic Fallaci hatchet job. On the other hand, she also despised (detested) Arafat. She also, for reasons I can't remember, also disliked the Pope.