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Italian firebrand takes her fight to the ‘Islamo-fascists’ (ORIANA FALLACI ALERT)
The Sunday Times ^ | December 15, 2002 | Sarah Baxter

Posted on 12/14/2002 4:01:54 PM PST by MadIvan

THE door to her home in New York is barred and the police pass by every night. In Italy she is accompanied by bodyguards. There is no fatwa against Oriana Fallaci, but in France her opponents have tried to silence her in court.

The fiery Italian, once one of the world’s most uncompromising political interviewers, has stirred anger with The Rage and the Pride, a polemic on Islam and the September 11 attacks. She rarely meets the press herself, but has come out fighting after the failure of last month’s bid to ban her book in France.

“My rage hasn’t diminished,” she said. “I have contempt for a culture that puts my sisters under the burqa and cuts the hands off thieves. I would never have contempt for someone who says ‘I am a Muslim’, but I would ask ‘What kind of Muslim are you? Are you one of them?’ ”

By “them” she means “Islamo-fascists”, the admirers of Osama Bin Laden, whom she is determined to fight as bitterly as her father, a Tuscan resistance leader, fought Mussolini. “They are multiplying like protozoa,” she warns readers of her book. “There are millions and millions of extremists.”

Her views led the Movement against Racism in France to accuse her of inciting religious hatred. Its attempt to force the publishers to withdraw the book or insert a warning about its contents infuriated Fallaci.

“France guillotined thousands of people and subjugated Europe in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity, yet it wants to forbid my freedom of expression,” she said.

The legal action failed on a technicality, convincing Fallaci that the decision to drop the action was political. The Rage and the Pride has sold more than 1m copies in Italy and topped bestseller lists in France and Germany. Its success has persuaded her that a politically correct elite is out of step with public opinion.

Fallaci declared war on political correctness before the term was invented. She was a war reporter in Vietnam and after she criticised the Americans she was lionised by peace campaigners and invited by the communists to visit north Vietnam. But when she denounced Stalinist repression there, “Hanoi Jane” Fonda and the left turned on her in fury.

“I judged Hanoi and Saigon with the same heart and brain. There is red fascism and black fascism. The roots of illiberality are the same,” she said.

The world’s most notorious leaders opened their doors to her, from General Vo Nguyen Giap in Vietnam to Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. She admired Khomeini’s intelligence and made the severe cleric laugh by questioning him cheekily about a forbidden topic, the chador.

Even so, Fallaci is unforgiving: “You can be the most sympatico person in the world and be a bastard who kills us and destroys our civilisation. Everything started with him.”

Western culture is superior to that of the Arab world, she says — and she is angry with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, for backpedalling on this issue: “Not a single one of those countries has a drop of democracy. Our laws are superior. Our standards of living are superior. Our respect for women is superior.

“We are not beheaded if we cuckold our husbands. We don’t wear the burqa. This is superior, for Christ’s sake. In 1,400 years, Islam has never made an act of self-criticism. It is the immovable mountain.”

Fallaci never married her companion, the Greek resistance leader Alekos Panagoulis, who died in the 1970s, and to her lasting regret she miscarried a child. Now 73 and suffering from cancer, she lives alone in New York surrounded by her books and anti-fascist mementos from the 1930s. She had given up journalism for fiction until Al-Qaeda’s suicide pilots attacked her city.

She immediately declared war on Islamic fundamentalism. The Rage and the Pride, written in the weeks after the collapse of the World Trade Center, is a bitter and angry polemic. Muslim immigrants to Italy are denounced for urinating on Florence’s beautiful churches, for peddling drugs, pimping and turning its cities into casbahs. New York is depicted in a heroic glow, led by its mayor with the Italian name Giuliani.

The book was meant to be over the top, she insisted. “It’s an invective. I wrote it on the wave of a terrible trauma. If you ask me, do I repent what I have written, the answer is no.”

She condemns rampant anti-Americanism in Europe as suicidal. “America is us,” she writes in her book. “If America collapses, Europe collapses, the whole of the West collapses.”

The next edition of her book will be even more intemperate, she promises. “I don’t want the burqa. I want to stuff it in their throats.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: fascists; islam; islamofascists; italy; orianafallaci
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To: eddie willers
Truer words have never been spoken.

What is hard to understand is... why is Oriana so intent on reminding them?
Me? I don't care if they know it or not.

21 posted on 12/14/2002 6:29:09 PM PST by Publius6961
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To: VOA
I'm sure there are good, virtuous, kindly Muslims out there. But as time goes on, I wonder where "there" is.

I hear there is a nice little deli in the northern part of Ankara, Turkey, run by two old brothers who never married. I think they're the ones.

22 posted on 12/14/2002 6:34:47 PM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: MadIvan
I think there is a misprint in the article. It should read, "Movement for Racism", against the West that is.
23 posted on 12/14/2002 6:41:46 PM PST by junta
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To: A_perfect_lady
I hear there is a nice little deli in the northern part of Ankara, Turkey...

Well, Turkey does seem to be one of the few islands of sanity in the Muslim world.
The Israeli Air Force trains there (hard to train over Israel when you have to turn
around your jet every few minutes to stay in the border of your country!).
And a Christian ministry filmed a series on Bible history in Turkey...
no shooting, no threats, etc.

Too bad to hear that some more pro-Islamic types were voted into office
recently, if I understand it correctly.
24 posted on 12/14/2002 7:08:00 PM PST by VOA
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To: ErnBatavia
"You keep throwing around words like "Fallaci Alert", and pretty soon Bill Clinton will start lurking here...at least until his 'reading and comprehension' skills improve a bit. "

o

ic
25 posted on 12/14/2002 7:13:26 PM PST by freedumb2003
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To: MadIvan
Maybe there is hope for Europe after all.
26 posted on 12/14/2002 7:48:00 PM PST by Sparta
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To: MadIvan
What a woman!
27 posted on 12/14/2002 8:34:07 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: VOA; All
The Israeli Air Force trains there

Turkey put out the invitation to Spanish Jews in 1492 after they were kicked out of Spain.

Today, about one percent of Turkey's population is Jewish.

28 posted on 12/14/2002 9:36:01 PM PST by Lael
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To: Travis McGee; MadIvan; VOA; Sparta; A_perfect_lady
There seems to be a lot of sympathy for Turkey, her 'democratic' government, "enlightened way of life," etc. etc. developing on the site.

Folks, one ought to preface such remarks with "at least in comparison with Syria, or Iran." Yes, Turkey is a "secular" Muslim nation. But it is in very grave danger of becoming less "secular" with every passing day. It has never evolved a government structure that was able to better the lives of most of its citizens. In all fairness, it has tried mightily. However, now, the fundamentalists are gaining massive strength and are a real threat to undo the decades of progress.

29 posted on 12/14/2002 9:44:46 PM PST by Kenny Bunk
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To: Sparta
Maybe not. She lives in New York.
30 posted on 12/14/2002 9:48:59 PM PST by Tribune7
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To: Kenny Bunk
The military will stage a coup and take over if the Islamists get out of hand...at least I hope so.
31 posted on 12/14/2002 10:00:51 PM PST by SeenTheLight
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To: MadIvan
Pax Americana has allowed two generations of Europeans to landscape their grave yards. Aside from the post-war peace during which socialists pretended that socialism actually worked, the sharia in Eurabia will bring social order missing throughout 20th Century Europe.
32 posted on 12/14/2002 10:24:23 PM PST by SevenDaysInMay
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To: Kenny Bunk
If the mighty secular Attaturk bred Turks can't control Islamic fanaticism, it can't be controlled anywhere.
33 posted on 12/15/2002 12:47:44 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: MadIvan
Just recently bought a copy of her book "The Rage and The Pride", the translation is made by herself into English. I have tyo see ifd Rizzoli has a copy of the Italian as well. It should be a good read.

I will scan selct pasages via OCR when I get a chance and post them on FR.

34 posted on 12/15/2002 1:07:42 AM PST by Cacique
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To: VOA
Too bad to hear that some more pro-Islamic types were voted into office recently, if I understand it correctly.

Yes, we'll have to see how that pans out. Fundamentalists in Turkey, Marxists in Brazil, Zimbabwe fixing to nationalize the gas stations... this world is sinking fast.

35 posted on 12/15/2002 6:28:51 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: A_perfect_lady
A_perfect_lady wrote: "Fundamentalists in Turkey, Marxists in Brazil, Zimbabwe fixing to nationalize the gas stations... this world is sinking fast."

A fundamentalist Islamic govenment unseated in Ahfganistan, the backers of Islamic fundamentalism exposed, the potential for Iraq to shed a tyrant, freedom loving people taking to the streets in Venezula, a turn away from socialism (even if a small turn) in America. All in all, for every bad thing you can point out, you can probably find a good thing to counter point it.

Read the term Pax Americanus. I have faith, the peace created in the mid 20th century by the US and her allies will pale in comparison to what will be created in the 21st century and beyond.

36 posted on 12/15/2002 8:51:35 AM PST by Turbo Pig
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To: MadIvan
"Its success has persuaded her that a politically correct elite is out of step with public opinion.

We are the world,
We are the children,
We are the ones who make a better day
So lets start giving.

[This Public-Service-Announcement was brought to you by the AdCouncil]

37 posted on 12/15/2002 8:57:46 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: MadIvan
Kudos to Oriana!

Meanwhile, in Canada, the leftists continue their shameless arse-licking of the Islamo-terrorists.

We're coming to a cross-road, folks.
38 posted on 12/15/2002 9:02:21 AM PST by headsonpikes
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To: headsonpikes
Meanwhile, in Canada, the leftists continue their shameless arse-licking of the Islamo-terrorists.

It is really time that the Left came to terms with the fact that they have been wrong about virtually every important issue for over a century.

They believed that nationalising industries would be "fairer" and help the country to prosper. Nothing of the kind happened.

Many believed the USSR was a noble experiment. It killed 40 million of its own people and was a dreadful place to live. They also believed it could be dealt with peacefully - it took a principled, firm American President who stood up to the USSR to make it collapse.

They believed that redistributing wealth and government benefits would not hinder the nation. They believed that the lifting of sexual taboos would be not problematic. They believed that Middle Eastern culture, which binds women into servitude and ignorance is just as valid as Western culture.

Each and every time, they have been wrong. One wonders when the point is reached when they realise the tension between reality and their beliefs is untenable.

Regards, Ivan

39 posted on 12/15/2002 9:26:28 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
To your #39 I would add that this malicious ignorance by the Left has been pointed out to them since the early '40s by all sorts of writers, from ex-Marxists to Tories and libertarians.

Consider the power of self-delusion; it can vanish in a single moment, but it is fundamental to Socialism's prospects.

That's why all socialism tends to totalism-- if the people ever actually gave thought to their situation, they'd overthrow the regime in a day.
40 posted on 12/15/2002 9:58:39 AM PST by headsonpikes
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