Falacci's November 2005 address
Reader comment on item: Appreciating Oriana Fallaci

Submitted by yonatan silverman (Israel), Sep 17, 2006 at 03:14

After reading your introduction to Oriana Fallaci from November 2005 I also clicked onthe link you provided to a review of her address. She was obviously an extraordinary journalist and an extraordinary person. There are two paragraphs from the revew of her address that seem right on the money to me.

In the first paragraph her statement that "truth inspires fear" leaped out at me, but for a different reason than in this paragraph. It seems to me that the world's Muslims are the ones reacting from fear of the truth when they demonstrate so widely and vociferously against the truthful statements of the Pope, against caricatures in Danish newspapers, and on other parallel occasions. This is the same Muslim world that persists in blaming the catastrophe of 9/11 on the Mossad or Zionists or whatever. Avoidance of the truth goes hand in hand with fear, it seems to me. And fear naturally evokes strong emotional reactions.

Secondly, Fallaci rightly (in my view) compares the Quran to Mein Kampf. I'm hardly an expert on either book. But from what I know of them they are indeed parallel in calling for the declaration of war against a sworn (and imagined) enemy. Both books are bibles for holy wars, as it were. It seems to me much could be gained by making Fallaci's comparison a greater fixture in the public debate about radical Islam.

Having said that, I don't believe that Muslims themselves see the nation of Islam on a spectrum from moderate to radical. So-called moderate Muslims are complicit in what the radicals do but they simply hold their tongues. It would be absurd it seems to me to talk about moderate Nazis, for example. Not every German during World War II was an SS storm trooper, but most of the country's people heartily saluted them and participated in such demonstrations as Kristallnacht and so on. Fallaci's comparison of the Quran to Mein Kampf has great resonance it seems to me. It crystallizes the nature of the battle in the same way as the phrase "Islamo-fascism" but even more well defined.

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