Oriana Fallaci, my Hero, Passes Away

     “I leave shreds of my soul on every experience.” - Oriana Fallaci

And so she did. She left shreds of her soul on my soul. I loved that woman.

Oriana passed away  in her beloved Firenze (which she said was destroyed and stolen by the barbarians.) My heart is broken. A warrior in the fight against militant Islam. G-d bless her soul.

Phyllis Chelser pointed out to me that despite Fallaci selling millions of books, she was not heroized by the Italian intellectual establishment who turned against her (and in her view became “fascists”.) She could not risk returning to either Italy or Switzerland due to the Islamic lawsuits against her which might have meant her imprisonment upon landing.

Europe is dead and Fallaci fought to revive the corpse.

The last time I saw Fallaci was at her last public appearance. David Horowitz  of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Editor in Chief of FrontPageMag  had presented Fallaci with the Anne Taylor award

Oriana Fallaci -  frail, tiny hit that podium running. She looked up at us and said "you are my comrade in arms. Our opponents are leftists. Conservative are too genteel. You are warriors and warriors can not get tired."

"The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage". In describing despotism, Fallaci said the despot ignores the body and attacks the soul. Because it is the soul the despot wants to put in chains. The despot wants to put the soul in shackles. "You are free not to think. Think as I do".

The Truth Inspires Fear".

"Europe overflows with the witch hunts.... hits any one going against Islam. It overflows the with  New Inquisition. Trying to muzzle. Oh yes, like your Ward Churchills, your Noam Chomskys, your Louis Farrakhans and your Michael Moore's etc. TRAITORS! against which all antidotes seem to fail. Combined Neo nazi islamo fascism" [Atlas note: Fallaci spit these names out with such repulsion and utter contempt........riveting]

"The Deaf remain the deaf, the blind remain the blind and both of them end up with ............brand of shame."

Islam has no sense of justice. The crime? The crime of opinion. A crime now disguised as re-education of Islam. Religious racism xenophobia.

Like love, hate belongs to  human nature. Should there be a penal code for the persecution for "hate"? "Can we judge? Yes! It can be judged but only on a moral basis. For instance the moral basis of religion, the Christian religion, is based on love, not on a political basis or a criminal basis"..........."It grants me the right to love who I want but also the right to hate who I want."

"It is my sacrosanct right! Those that hate me try to silence me with penal codes."

"And the West directs a hate towards itself. The West has lost its spirituality.It stands silent in the slander of Islam. "The censure of Europe".
"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder," the historian Arnold Toynbee wrote.

On August 27, 2005, Fallaci had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo with whom she found a kindred spirit and whom she believes understands the mortal threat faced by Christianity by the evil of Islamofascism. The Pope loves her work. "I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger." I had asked Ms. Fallaci whether there was any contemporary leader she admired, and Pope Benedict XVI was evidently a man in whom she reposed some trust. "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple! There must be some human truth here that is beyond religion." More here

Fallaci claims to be neither left nor right. She despises the left for the obvious reasons and holds the right in contempt for being weak. For not taking a hard stand and making the tough choices.

"Don't believe in a dialog with Islam. That's a naivete. It can only be a monologue. They do not believe in pluralism. There is no such thing as a "moderate Islam" and a Radical Islam. There is only one Islam."

I too believe this as much as it pains me to say it. I would like nothing better to believe that there is a side we can do business with, talk to. But that is self deluding.

Fallaci:"The real enemy is Islam and the most catastrophic threat is immigration not terror. It is immigration. And they do not integrate in Europe. Maybe in the USA but not in Europe. Those riots in France are a result of that very thing". The Chinese, Vietnamese etc immigrants are not rioting and tearing down the very fabric of society.

"They [The Islamists] are very patient. And Clever."

"This war needs boldness."

"WAKE UP WAKE UP. WE ARE AT WAR. WAR HAS BEEN DECLARED ON THE WEST AND WE MUST FIGHT. One or the other must perish."

And so she has spoken. And we, who stand on her shoulders, will pick up the mantle and carry on. Thank you Orianna, go with Gd.

The Roman Candle, excellent piece over at The Weekly Standard. Robert over at Jihadwatch, whom I greatly admire, has a wonderful tribute here;

I invite you, then, on this day of sadness and loss, to pay tribute to Oriana. There is no way we can make up for what we have lost in her. But the best way we can pay tribute to Oriana is by becoming Oriana. Let there be a hundred new Orianas today, a thousand new passionate and articulate and absolutely unbowed defenders of Western culture and civilization, with a fine contempt for all the many weapons of physical and psychological intimidation that the jihadists and their non-Muslim allies and tools in the Western media and government establishments use to try to silence and discredit us.

Buy her books. Give them to your friends and coworkers. Explain to them why she said -- as is quoted in the obituary linked above -- that "Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam." Explain to them why that matters for so much that they hold dear. Enlist them also in the anti-jihad resistance.

And when we prevail, we will be able to memorialize her fittingly, as a light that shone in our darkest days.

May her memory be eternal.

UPDATE: Hanson on Fallaci
Ledeen on Fallaci

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Comments

[Richard Davis]

Orianna was a true leader in this war against the monsters. She will never be forgotten.

Pamela, you are carrying on and shouting her same messages, her same warnings. You are, indeed, her comrade.

[Charlie Bravo]

She was indeed a hero.
I published my hommage to her on KillCastro this morning, as soon as got the sad news.(and the tale of how I got acquainted with her work in Havana)
http://www.killcastro.com/blog/2006/09/ciao-oriana.html

[JasonP]

You have to admit her bold “larger than life” style reminds one of Rand -- passionate and well-reasoned. No wonder you like her so much. ;)

[syn]

Oriana Fallaci opens The Force of Reason with this line:

"They are flooding all over the city now buried into torpor and sleep and wine, the invaders. And meanwhile, through its open gates, others irrupt to join their henchmen's platoons".

(Virgil, The Aeneid, The burning of Troy)

[Daniel]

My first contact with Oriana was about 8 years ago, when I was starting my university. I was taking italian courses and one day, an article fell into my hands where she criticized in such a prodigious way some italian polititians that I instantly become one of her admirators. Then 9/11 came and a few months after, I recognized her name in the cover of 'Rage and Pride', bought the book and then met her. Her style, her courage to express her views and her crystal-clear exposition of Islam made me one of her staunchest supporters and helped to shape my path to adulthood.

Restiamo ancora alcuni per luttare contro le cicale e le traditori.

Ciao Oriana, tanti grazie.

[Missourimama]

She will be missed. I only wish I was as brave.

[Deborah Hamilton]

What an inspiration she was, and is, and will continue to be. If only others would learn from her. I pray they will.

[pastorius]

She remembered Europe's history.

[DoctorDentons]

I feel sorry for those that never got the chance to hear her up close and personal and feel the passion in her speech. I have all her books and essays but it is not like having her out there fighting the good fight.
She will be sorely missed.

[Ripper]

She was a very brave woman who never shrank from her enemies be they Islamofascists or cancer.

[Thomas Carney]

May Oriana be granted a place where the Just repose, where there is no grief, no pain, nor sighing, but everlasting peace.

[WesternMilitant]

Oriana Fallaci had a tenacious courage that few in the West do. How many would risk getting thrown out of their own country just to be true to their beliefs? How many would risk getting death threats from crazy Muslims (are there any other kind?). She was also fantastically articulate. Something else that is rare today. This woman impressed the hell out of me. She will be missed. The rest of us had better pick up the battle flag and march forward.

[Andrew06]

Oriana Fallaci is an vitrilolic and extreme bigot, a hatemonger, and a divisive slanderer who has shown her colors on every occasion she has spoken or written. She contributed nothing but filth in the form of words, and a desire to create hatred and suffering towards all who did not share her fringe viewpoints. Spreding her extreme hate does not in any way make her courageous in this life.

She will not be missed in this world. Support and mourning for people of this nature boggles the mind. Unless, of course, they are of the same mind.

[WesternMilitant]

Dear Andrew06,
What did Oriana F. say about Muslims that could be considered slanderous (untrue)? How did she create hatred? Can you give examples of the hatred that she wrote?

[Andrew06]

You must be joking.

Pretty much everything that comes out of her mouth is racist diatribe. If you've listened or read her stuff, you would know this and would not ask me. Instead of attacking an ideology, she attacks Islam as a whole, and has said such things as 'there is no such thing as a good Islam'. This is called courageous? Shes compared the Koran to Hitlers Mein Kampf. She has called muslim immigration, in itself, WORSE than terrorism. How can someone who is not a flagrant bigot say something like that? Her career was endorsed by bigots, and this is the crowd that held her high and that she spoke to. Her shrills of insanity advocated deportation of all muslims in europe. She's created countless fabrications about the koran so appease her vitriol. She's called muslims 'protozoa who multiply to infinity' and 'sons of Allah who multiply like rats' How long do you want me to go on?

It is not I who needs to defend my view of her- it is YOU, and everyone who supports and mourns for her, that needs to rethink and reflect why you would admire this kind of person.

[Cheap Cynicism]

Andrew06 is absolutely right. Fallaci was an incredible bigot and a disgusting human being.

Furthermore, I have no idea how someone who blogs so passionately and so frequently about "Jew hatred" and anti-Semitism can wholeheartedly hate Islam and Muslims with such fervor. Is this whole website some sort of gigantic performance art on hypocrisy?

[WesternMilitant]

I don't know Andrew06 and Cheap, I still don't see where she said anything that is factually incorrect or even a bad suggestion. Consider the fact that the Koran tells its followers that they have the right to: convert me, enslave me, or kill me. Should I not take this "religion of peace" (LMAO) seriously? Why must I respect a religion that holds no respect for other religions? Most Muslims hate Jews and Christians. Who are the bigots concerning Jews and Christians? Why is it that anytime Islam gets criticised, the Muslims go on the warpath and threaten or attack any who dare question the great Muhammed? What makes Muslims think their shit doesn't stink? Why can't Islam be criticised? What makes the Muslims soooo perfect? Pop quiz: Can you name the one religion that is now at war with every other major religion on earth? Why does the Saudi Arabian national flag say: "There is no God but God, and Muhammed is his prophet", and have a sword underneath it all as a reminder? Can you give me an example of a well known charitable Islamic person in modern times? I can't think of one.
No, Oriana was not a bigot. She just told it like it is. A Fascist pig is a fascist pig. That really seems to get some people tinkling in their panties. Am I a bigot for intensely disliking people who are trying to kill me, or should I try and feel their pain?

[Uncle Mikey]

Andrew and Cheap, how about countering Fallaci's arguments instead of just dumping your pathetic liberal bile on her grave?

Furthermore, I have no idea how someone who blogs so passionately and so frequently about "Jew hatred" and anti-Semitism can wholeheartedly hate Islam and Muslims with such fervor.

This may be the dumbest thing ever posted on the internet, Cheap. You don't understand how a Jew can have a problem with Islam? Here's a simple exercise for you: pretend for a moment that part of a group works toward and wishes publicly for your extinction while the rest of it refuses to denounce that work or wish. Now do you get it?

[PMarc]

Oriana may have considered herself an atheist, but in her clear-eyed appraisal of humanity and her comprehension of the soul's hunger for freedom and justice, she nevertheless touched the Divine.

Go with God,Signora Fallaci.

[DoctorDentons]

I think Andrew and Cheap are just the other two faces of Eve (Monk)...all rhetoric and bile.

[Andrew06]

I like my statements are all 'rhetoric and bile'- while I gave very specific examples and quotations of what shes said, which would be considered bigoted and racism comments. There are some who make a career being bigots, and Oriana was one such person, frequently comparing Muslims to animals, and those who did not agree with her as 'traitors'.

It comes down to this: How did Oriana make the world a better place with her life? Hopw did she improve the world around her? What exactly did she contribute? How did she attempt to build bridges or promote and kind of understanding? How has she made humanity better? How is anyone who heard her speak more 'enlightened', rather than more hateful? If someone is revered as a 'hero', it is an obligation for you to be able to articulate this.

Then, at the same time, Im seriously asked why I don't 'counter' examples of her statements that I quoted, statements comparing all Muslims to rats and protozoa. Hmm. Yeah I'll spend my noght tonight thinking of 'counters' to those types of 'arguments'.

[WesternMilitant]

She called a spade a spade. Something very rare these days. Most call it an entrenching tool. PC is rampant. Islam is a threat. Either you see it as such or you do not. Islam thinks it has the moral right and obligation to crush other religions and cultures. Who reading this blog wishes to convert to Islam? Who reading this blog thinks that they would live an emancipated and self-actualized life in a Muslim dominated country? We see how great woman live in Muslim countries. Oriana brought the Muslim violence, misogyny, backwardness out into the light.
How can anyone who considers themselves to be a product of Western civilization not see the moral, and ideological antithesis that Islam is? What do I need to understand about this retarded religion that hates Buddist, Hindus, Jew, Christians, Greek Orthodox, Sikhs, Animist and others? Don't think, just do what the immam tells you to do. Yeah, right. Sure.

[Richard Davis]

She spoke the truth, she warned the world - Islam fanatics aim to convert us by the sword and will kill us.

We can't let Iran get a nuke because they will use it to kill us.

Don't let the insults and lies of the left discourage us.

Fuck them and their twisted beliefs and reasonings, readers of this blog know the Islamofacist threat is real and grave.

We must FIGHT them and defeat them because they will never stop.

[rickl]

Andrew06

She contributed nothing but filth in the form of words, and a desire to create hatred and suffering towards all who did not share her fringe viewpoints.

And what have you contributed? Specifics, please.

[DoctorDentons]

Andrew06...

Your Peaceful islamics just this morning walked into a hospital in Somalia and shot a 70 something Nun 4 times in the back...I say if they were referred to as rats or protozoa she was being kinder than I would be...How do you like 'em now Andy ? I can call you Andy can't I ? Dip Wad.