Sunday 17 September 2006

Italian writer Oriana Fallaci

Italian journalist, author, and critic both of Islam and of Euro-weeny attitudes toward same, Oriana Fallaci, has died. Reason magazine's 'Hit and Run' blog summarises:
Italian journalist and interviewer extraordinaire Oriana Fallaci has succumbed to cancer. In the 1970s Fallaci conducted thrilling talks with men like Yasser Arafat and Ayatollah Khomenei, but since 9/11 she'd hitched her muse to the anti-Islam bandwagon, publishing several book-length screeds against Muslims and Muslim traditions. The new work, while it stiffed in America sales-wise, ignited debate in Europe and on the blogs, and writers who might not have cared about her previous work became almost worshipful of her new stuff.

Her final book,
La Forza della Ragione (The Force of Reason), assailed the Catholic Church for letting Islam run over Europe; as [Reason's Nick Gillespie] already blogged, that was a fitting note for her to go out on.
UPDATE: More obituaries on the great Oriana from London Times ... Reuters ... NYT ... AP (1) ... AFP ... Guardian ... WSJ ... LAT ... Wash Post ... New Yorker (June) ... AP (2) ... Daniel Pipes
[Hat tip Arts and Letters Daily]

LINKS: Oriana Fallaci, Italian writer, dies - International Herald Tribune [Hat tip: Craig Ceely]
Rendezvous with history - Hit and Run
Did the Pope shit in the woods? Or just on Islam? - Hit and Run
Oriana Fallaci: The face of hate speech laws - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe not totally relevant to this post but...your support of genocide on SOLO has not gone unnoticed.

As these creeps demonstrate, ANY philosophy can be warped into a system of rationalization -- most emphatically including Objectivism. When mass extermination is joked about, in the most grisly terms imaginable, you see the true face of evil; when you see a grand philosophy being cited to rationalize such things, you are seeing their evil compounded.~ Robert Bidinotto

You got into bed with supporters of child rapist Capill (the Flanagans and others) to run Peon out of the country - and defame him as a paedophile when he has never been charged...as I have told MP's - if you simply put your hand up and said "I am a conservative who would like drugs leglaized" I would not have a problem. I DO have a problem since you call yourself a Libertarian.

And since you will not recant your genocidal fantasies (which are totally incompatible with Libertarianism), this is going to go all the way.

You can delete my comments but you can't delete the truth.

Peter Cresswell said...

"Maybe not totally relevant to this post but ..."

No, not relevant at all. This is an obituary notice. A chance to remember someone who has just died, not a place to visit and post and repeat the lies you've told all over this blog and elsewhere...

Support for genocide? No.

Support for murderers? No.

Got into bed with Capill? No.

Happy to see a paedophile promoter run out of town? Hell, yes.

Conservative? No.

Libertarian? Yes.

"All the way"? What on earth are you talking about. It was you who used the word "fantasies," and I can see whay the word was on your mind.

It's about time you cured yourself of your own fantasies and delusions, and stopped using obituary notices like this one to peddle them.

You're a disgrace. A complete and utter disgrace.

Anonymous said...

To be sure.Remember your response to Steve Irwin's demise?? You are afraid of me. Glenn Greenwald is aware of Biddle's obscene post advocating genocide. I recall you said Biddle's journal is "Worth every cent" or some such.

Because his opinion is so far out of the mainstream I doubt Glenn will run with it. Be very afraid if he does.

And as I have said before -- please don't try the farcical response that there are no Muslims who are doing anything worthwhile -look up Shirin Ebadi; look up Asma Jehangir; look up Riffat Hassan; look up Abdullahi An-Naim; look up Khaled Abu el Fadl; look up Muhammad Mahmud Taha; look up Naguib Mahfouz; look up Farag Foda; look up Tasleema Nasreen; look up Fatima Mernissi, and on and and on and on.

The only one who is a racist disgrace is you. And now others know it.

Anonymous said...

Well, Ruth, you might care to consider what parts of the world you'd get a good beating for mouthing off to a man like that - the more machismo-ridden parts of (Catholic) Italy and the so-called Muslim world come to mind. I don't notice Mr. Creswell urging us all to do our bit to hasten the coming of the Apocalypse - starting with the Jews - so pardon me if I wonder if you've rather lost focus.

Ms. Fallaci recognised the true 'genocidal fantasists' in this world - and their pseudo-liberal enablers - and paid the price for calling them by their right names. She wrote with passion, wit and anger that exmplified everything the corrupt religious-fascist mentality can't stand.

While it would probably offend PC no end, I'll be keeping her in my prayers because any God worth human devotion would have a place in paradise reserved for her - even if she cussed him out every minute she was there.

KG said...

Ruth is an offensive nutter, period. Not worth debating.

KG said...

May Oriana Fallaci rest in peace. Certainly, she was on the side of the angels.
What a fine, brave woman.

Anonymous said...

Craig - I know that, and you are a good man IMHO.

Cresswell has given his sanction to the targeting of civilians:

"Obliterate, from high altitude and long distance... Hit these targets when they are most likely to be occupied (e.g., mosques during the day and residences at night)"

This is far beyond self- defence - it is the initiation of force and deliberate targeting of civilians.And it is not Libertarianism.

I really don't care what middle class talkback says on blogs.

They are not power brokers and their opinion is irrelevant.

Peter Cresswell said...

"While it would probably offend PC no end, I'll be keeping her in my prayers because any God worth human devotion would have a place in paradise reserved for her - even if she cussed him out every minute she was there."

It doesn't offend me in the slightest, Craig. That's a beautiful tribute. Atheist Ayn Rand once explained she could never dislike someone saying to her "God bless you," since that was an example of someone who was wishing for her the highest possible.

I take your tribute the same way. :-)

Peter Cresswell said...

It is almost impossible to describe the level of contempt I feel for someone who has twice now used obituary notices of great people to attack me with lies.

Ruth's time is up here.