How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost

American Enterprise Online ^ | October 23, 2002 | Oriana Fallici

[Paul Ross]

	January/February 2002 issue		Page images of this article
	How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost On October 22, 2002, Oriana Fallaci addressed an audience at the American Enterprise Institute. Following are short excerpts from her talk. Ms. Fallaci, a native of Florence, Italy and a life-long journalist, caused turmoil across Europe with the publication of her book The Rage and the Pride, calling the West to stand up to the Islamic world. I don?t hide. I never have. I stay at home because I like to stay at home, and at home I work. I have not appeared in public for at least ten years. No interviews, no TV. Why am I here, then? Because, since September 11, we are at war. Because the front line of that war is here, in America. Because when I was a war correspondent, I liked to be on the front line. And this time, in this war, I do not feel as a war correspondent. I feel as a soldier. The duty of a soldier is to fight. And to fight this war, I deploy a personal weapon. It is not a gun. It?s a small book, The Rage and The Pride. My soldier weapon is the weapon of truth. The truth that begins with the truth I maintain in these pages:  From Afghanistan to Sudan, from Palestine to Pakistan, from Malaysia to Iran, from Egypt to Iraq, from Algeria to Senegal, from Syria to Kenya, from Libya to Chad, from Lebanon to Morocco, from Indonesia to Yemen, from Saudi Arabia to Somalia, the hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. And the followers of Islamic fundamentalism multiply like a protozoa of a cell which splits to become two cells then four then eight then sixteen then thirty-two to infinity. Those who are not aware of it only have to look at the images that the TV brings us every day. The multitudes that impregnate the streets of Islamabad, the squares of Nairobi, the mosques of Tehran. The ferocious faces, the threatening fists. The fires that burn the American flag and the photos of Bush. ?The clash between us and them is not a military clash. Oh, no. It is a cultural one, a religious one. And our military victories do not solve the offensive of Islamic terrorism. On the contrary, they encourage it. They exacerbate it, they multiply it. The worst is still to come.? President Bush has said, ?We refuse to live in fear.? Beautiful sentence, very beautiful. I loved it! But inexact, Mr. President, because the West does live in fear. People are afraid to speak against the Islamic world. Afraid to offend, and to be punished for offending, the sons of Allah. You can insult the Christians, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Jews. You can slander the Catholics, you can spit on the Madonna and Jesus Christ. But, woe betide the citizen who pronounces a word against the Islamic religion. My small book is not tender with Islam. In certain passages, it is even ferocious. But it is much more ferocious with us: with us Italians, us Europeans, us Americans. I call my book a sermon?addressed to the Italians, to the Europeans, the Westerners. And along with the rage, this  sermon unchains the pride for their culture, my culture. That culture that in spite of its mistakes, its faults, even monstrosities, has given so much to the world. It has moved us from the tents of the deserts and the huts of the woods to the dignity of civilization. It has given us the concept of beauty, of morals, of freedom, of equality. It has made the unique conquest in the social field, in the realm of science. It has wiped out diseases. It has invented all the tools that make life easier and more intelligent, those tools that our enemy can also use, for instance, to kill us. It has brought us to the moon and to Mars, and this cannot be said of the other culture. A culture, which has produced and produces only religion, which in every sense imprisons women inside the burkah or the chador, which is never accompanied by a drop of freedom, a drop of democracy, which subjugates its people under theocratical, oppressive regimes. Socrates and Aristotle and Heraclitus were not mullahs. Jesus Christ, neither. Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo, and Galileo, and Copernicus, and Newton and Pasteur and Einstein, the same. My book is also a j?accuse. To accuse us of cowardice, hypocrisy, demagogy, laziness, moral misery, and of all that comes with that. The stupidity of the unbearable fad of political correctness, for instance. The paucity of our schools, our universities, our young people, people who often don?t even know the story of their country, the names Jefferson, Franklin, Robespierre, Napoleon, Garibaldi. And no understanding that freedom cannot exist without discipline, self-discipline. I accuse ourselves also of another crime: the loss of passion. Haven?t you understood what drives our enemies? What permits them to fight this war against us? The passion! They have passion! They have so much passion that they can die for it!  Their leaders, too, of course. I met Khomeini. I discussed with him for more than six hours in calm, and I tell you that that man was a man of passion. I never met bin Laden. But I have well observed his eyes. I have well listened to his voice. And I tell you that that man is a man of passion. We have lost passion. Well, I have not. I boil with passion. I, too, am ready to die for passion. But around me, I see no passion. Even those who hate me and attack me and insult me do this without passion. They are mollusks, not men and women. And a civilization, a culture, cannot survive without passion, cannot be saved without passion. If the West does not wake up, if we do not refind passion, we are lost. To quote from my book: ?The problem is that the solution does not depend upon the death of Osama bin Laden. Because the Osama bin Ladens are too many, by now: as cloned as the sheep of our research laboratories?. In fact, the best trained and the more intelligent do not stay in the Muslim countries... They stay in our own countries, in our cities, our universities, our business companies. They have excellent bonds with our churches, our banks, our televisions, our radios, our newspapers, our publishers, our academic organizations, our unions, our political parties?. Worse, they live in the heart of a society that hosts them without questioning their differences, with- out checking their bad intentions, without penalizing their sullen fanaticism. [?I]f we continue to stay inert, they will become always more and more. They will demand always more and more, they will vex and boss us always more and more. ?Til the point of subduing us. Therefore, dealing with them is impossible. Attempting a dialogue, unthinkable. Showing indulgence, suicidal. And he or she who believes the contrary is a fool.? This is what I write about Europe: ?Identical [are our] faults, the cowardices, the hypocrisies. Identical the blindness, the deafness, the lack of wisdom, the masochism?. Identical the ignorance and the lack of leadership that favors the Muslim invasion. Identical the fad of the Politically Correct that encourages it. To believe me, you only have to observe the financial club you proudly call European Union. A club that only serves to impose the rhetorical nonsense called common currency?to pay fabulous and undeserved salaries (tax free) to the members of its inept and useless Parliament?. ?A club that shelters more than 15 million sons of Allah and God knows how many of their terrorists... A club that fornicates like a whore with the Arab countries and fills its pockets with their filthy petrodollars. The same petrodollars with which the Saudi Uncle Scrooges buy our ancient palaces, our banks, our commercial and industrial firms. A club, moreover, that dares to speak of cultural similarities with the Middle East?. [Y]ou chatterers, you mentally retarded[!] Where the hell is the cultural similarity with the Middle East, you cretins, you silly clowns?!? At Mecca? At Bethlehem, at Gaza, at Damascus, at Beirut?!? At Cairo, at Tripoli, at Nairobi, at Tehran, at Baghdad, at Kabul?!? ?When I was very young, about 17 or so, I longed so much for a united Europe! I came from a war in which the [Europeans] had pitilessly slaughtered each other: remember? The damned Second World War. Plunged up to his neck in the brand-new struggle, my father preached the European Federalism.... He held rallies, he spoke to the crowds, he chanted: ?Europe! Europe! We must make Europe!?? ?But this frustrating and disappointing and insignificant Financial Club?[with] its sons of Allah who want to erase my civilization, this European Union, which chatters of Cultural-Similarities-with-the-Middle-East and meanwhile ignores my beautiful language, meanwhile sacrifices my national identity, is not the Europe I dreamed of when my father chanted, Europe-Europe. It is not Europe. It is the suicide of Europe.? Page images of this article January/February 2003 issue The American Enterprise Online ?TAEmag.com

[Paul Ross]

Thank God some folks in Europe are seeing what we see. It appears that the Italians overall have the clearest vision there, even more on target than the British.

[davisfh]

Yes. Thank God indeed. I believe that they are much closer to the problem than we are and have a greater reason to fear what they see.

We need to get past this politically correct habit of saying that there are good Muslims out there. Show me some of them.

[Sparta]

The way to defeat Islamofascism is to defeat the Arab savage culture by instituting Western values in the Arab and Islamic lands. Let the Islamic religion survive in a Westernized world, if it can.

[beckett]

I wonder if this is the same article she wrote for Financial Times (FT). I tried to read that one last week but a subscription ($90; yeah, right!) was required.

[11B3]

Good Muslims? They're the ones taking dirt naps.

[realpatriot]

"People are afraid to speak against the Islamic world. Afraid to offend, and to be punished for offending, the sons of Allah."

Piss on allah.

[RLK]

Give this woman a Pulitzer Prize.

[F16Fighter]

Observe the financial club...proud[ly] called the European Union....

A club that shelters more than 15 million sons of Allah and God knows how many of their terrorists....

A club that fornicates like a whore with the Arab countries...

But this frustrating and disappointing and insignificant Financial Club [with] its sons of Allah who want to erase my civilization, this European Union...is NOT Europe. It is the suicide of Europe.

Great find.

Seems there are indeed those in Europe who understand what the actual ramifications of the "Son's of Islam's" infestation really means.

The Bush Administration ought to take heed -- not ONE MORE son of Allah should be allowed permanant entry into the United States of America.

[Porterville]

Too much of a defeatist for my blood; I think we are doing just fine with our passions; our zeal will not consume us, but our enemies hatred will snuff them out.

[GirlShortstop]

Western society superior to Islam, says Berlusconi ~FR
...he declared that he and his host considered that the September 11 attacks "are attacks not only on the United States but on our civilisation, of which we are proud bearers, conscious of the supremacy of our civilisation".

"We should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion."   As if to rub salt in the wound, he added: "This respect certainly does not exist in the Islamic countries."

I admire what these paisans have to say more and more!  The closer to the front, the more truth can be heard.  Great post.

"If we continue to stay inert, they will become always more and more. They will demand always more and more, they will vex and boss us always more and more. 'Til the point of subduing us. Therefore, dealing with them is impossible. Attempting a dialogue, unthinkable. Showing indulgence, suicidal. And he or she who believes the contrary is a fool."

[GirlShortstop]

 
FYI, Islam info.

[etabeta]

Oriana Fallaci unfortunately does not speak for Italians and the rest of Europe, she is her own individual who has the courage to shout loud and clear what others are afraid or unwilling to say. In Europe (hated by the so-called intelligentia) she has been vilified and her book "The rage and the pride" considered a manifesto that promotes hate crime, I usually get an earfull when I praise her with my european friends and relatives. What is maddening is that they have not even read her books but their attacks are based on what they read in the press or by what some ultra liberal intellectual has said (they also have always sided with Arafat and think the Israelis are bastards). Regards from a disgusted freeper.

[etabeta]

Berlusconi was candid but he was made to recant publicly his comments. He also has business deals with the Arabs.

[maranatha]

Last week I saw on the news a Muslim in America who was arrested for financing Muslim terrorists, but some months before the arrest, the Justice Depatment had done something to stop his money business while investigations were going on and he filed a suit claiming discrimination! The gall, the in-your-face offense of these people is hard to believe. Can you believe that Arabs are now complaining to the U.S. authorities claiming "discrimination" because the U.S. is going institute strict border patrol near Michigan. Thank God for this writer. May there be thousands more.

[VRW Conspirator]

IMO, the worst thing that the Islamo-terrorists can do is to have any more major terrorist attacks here in the States. The Jihadists offer a merit of truth when they call America decadent and lazy. But they do not see is that when they punched America in the eye on 9/11/02, they general attitude of Americans changed to a sober and deliberate one. If those idiots hurt us again, the attitude will turn to a downright meanness. All the world's whiner's could not deter the will of the USA then.

[Uncle Bill]

Bump!

[knighthawk]

Thanks for the ping. It's an older article, but will be actual for years to come. Until the West is lost.

[abu afak]

Bravo, bravo, bravo.
RIP.

[KeyLargo]

Woman Wearing Hijab Asked To Leave Bank Reporting Anne State CHICAGO (CBS) ―

Shani Smith says a security guard at a Citibank branch told her she could not conduct transactions unless she removed her hijab.

A Chicago woman says she was hassled by a security guard when she walked into a bank, because of something she was wearing. CBS 2's Anne State reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it's considering a lawsuit.

The group says the woman deserves an apology.

Shani Smith says she is a recent convert to Islam. When she prays, she asks for guidance to walk the straight path. She says her faith helped her handle a tough situation at a Citibank at west 79th Street and Damen Avenue.

Smith says she was humiliated.

"I was hurt. I sat in my car and cried," she said.

Smith says she was wearing a hijab. She wore a brown hoodie to cover her neck. In her religion, she says, modesty is important. She says the bank security guard got angry with her.

"He said, 'I'm sorry, you can't do any transactions here, ma'am, unless you remove your head gear.' And I said, 'excuse me?'" Smith said.

Smith says a bank employee still waited on her. She was not required to remove her hood. But she says the guard kept yelling the entire time. He allegedly said, "Don't pull the religious card."

"Everyone was really shocked," Smith said.

A statement from Citibank said they are "…committed to treating customers with service that is respectful and responsive. We do not condone discrimination within our business."

It also says Citibank security guards generally will ask customers to remove their hoods upon entering a branch for security reasons, but "under no circumstances would a customer be required to remove religious attire. We regret any inconvenience Ms. Smith experienced."

Good enough?

Smith laughed and said, "no." She thinks the guard needs sensitivity training. http://cbs2chicago.com/local/bank.hijab.citibank.2.1358244.html