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The Force of Reason

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There is a new section opening up in the libraries of the world. It will contain books on 'the Islamic threat to Western Civilization.' Bat-Yeor's 'Eurabia' was a pioneer, as were the works of Robert Spencer. Bruce Bawer, Andrew Bostom and later in this year Mark Steyn will have his chance to explain why 'old Europe' seems to be folding up and dying before the Muslim invasion.
What then makes Oriana Fallaci's book of special value and meaning? For one thing she is a first hand observer, a European, an Italian journalist of worldwide reputation. Secondly, she has a personal story of the reactions to her previous writings on the subject, the attacks, the boycotting, the hatred, the efforts to silence her, the driving her from her native Italy to her current place of refuge in New York. A good part of this present book tells her own story and she is not shy about condemning those who sees as not simply attacking her, but betraying the West.
As Fallaci understands it all the political forces of the West, the Left, the Right, and most surprisingly and painfully the Church have submitted to the Islamic onslaught. The Muslims speak openly about taking over Western Civilization, but anyone who dares to hint as Fallaci more than does about the superiority morally and culturally of Western civilization is called 'racist'.
Defining herself as a 'Christian atheist' one who sees how strong a part Christianity has played in the development of Western Civilization she is appalled by the Church's apologetics and sniveling before Islam.
From her new home in New York she sees the United States as the last hope of stemming the Islamic tide.
At present gravely ill this book may be the swan song of one of the most provocative and courageous of modern journalists.

There are two groups that are going to really hate this book. One are the Islamists who divide humanity into two groups: the People of Paradise and the People of Hell. And who insist that their beliefs alone are off-limits when it comes to critical inquiry. The second group is the multiculturalists and relativists, who do not find anything particular valuable in Western Culture over any other culture (including those who kill a daughter who has been raped to preserve "honor".)

So who WILL like this book? Those who do deeply cherish Western culture as it has developed through the US constitution, who value the hard won freedom and autonomy of the individual, who believe that women are the equals of men and should be treated as so, and those who believe that humanity reaches its greatest heights when the human mind is left free.

Make no mistake about it. Fallaci really really hates (my word) what is happening to her culture (an ongoing surrender to an immigrating, limiting Islam), because she really loves what Western Culture (via Locke and others) has been. And that passion comes in like a great blazing fireball. She is a real and authentic voice, with ragged edges, authenticity, fire, and conviction. The multiculturalists, pacifists, Islamists and others are doing everything they can to shut her up. But it seems that the strength of her fire only grows. The West is so lucky to have a woman like her. We need a thousand such voices, and even more. We need the passionate understanding of how wonderful our own culture is, and how it is worth preserving and fighting for. Read this book with While Europe Slept and you'll get a real education.

Fallaci's The Force of Reason is a raw act of courage. And Fallaci is a great hero of our time. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to her for the gift of her passion, as rare as diamonds and as precious as gold in a culture becoming as limp as milque toast.

in the twilight of her life oriana fallaci wastes no time and makes a heroic effort to wake up the "natives"of eurabia before it is too late.
Reiterating the pact made with the arabs in 1973 when the Europeans sold their souls for oil Ms.Fallaci rails against the Muslim takeover of democracy where there is no longer free speech,free press,free thought or freedom of religion except for what is deemed politicaly correct which is islamophilic,anti american and anti christian.
The media is targeted as well for their censorship of all things that might reflect badly upon islam and their hand wringing excuse making sob stories excusing any muslim of any mischief including polygamy,illegal immigration which is in the millions and last falls rioting in France deemed due to unemployment which somehow Hindu's,Buddhists,Atheists,Jews and Christians escape.
This book is a warning not to be taken lightly by Europe indeed the world.
For a Europe who ignored Mein Kampf I expect litle but hope much.

Oriana Fallaci's book, THE FORCE OF REASON is just released in English. Printed in Italy in February 2006, Amazon delivered my copy early in March, the ink hardly dry. Always fascinated by the woman and her work, I read it immediately.

While the tale she tells is backed by the force of reason, it is best described as a rant, chapter after chapter. No matter. It is stimulating, curiously readable in her very unusual style of English, and a page turner. My God! What will she tell us on the page after this one? What we have here are facts and solid reporting by a life-long journalist --- plus unafraid analysis and commentary. Yes. Fascinating.

Like THE RAGE AND THE PRIDE, this new book deals with the Muslim invasion of Europe and its facilitators. It describes a Europe of today such as you have never been told about before. The media and its mentors, peddling multiculturalism and political correctness, marginalize and silence anyone who would speak the truth about the transformation of Europe into "Eurabia." Amplifying the consequence of current events, she paints a detailed historical background such as is never taught in the schools, here in America or in Europe. I read that facet of her work very closely, testing her veracity against my own knowledge of history. That I am familiar with much of what she wrote is only because of my own research for my books on Spain, Sicily and Greece ---- all of which had a Muslim "problem" for centuries. But while I dealt with that background comparatively bloodlessly, she goes for the gut.

Oriana Fallaci describes a civilization committing suicide. Leading the way are what she refers to as the "Triple Alliance": the Left, the Right and the Christian Church. She writes in precise detail how the elite of all branches of that alliance sold out their people for the sake of cheap oil and cheap labor. I imagine the elite are sure that the maelstrom they are creating will resolve itself in a decade or two with themselves richer than ever and firmly in control as a global oligarchy. I doubt it. Their Arabic associates will deal with them the same as with the Gothic pretender in Iberia who conspired with the Saracen invaders for the defeat of the Gothic army, believing he would be handed the throne. But he was "disappeared" and his wife taken into the harem of the conqueror. The remainder of the surviving "elite" were marched off in chains, on foot across North Africa, to the slave markets of the middle east.

What is "The Force of Reason" of which she writes? She sees that force as the only hope for rescue of not only Europe but also America from the "decline of intelligence" where thought is reduced to "recipes for atrophied brains" and truth is quashed by a Left which "clings to Islam," a Right which seeks out economic and political advantage, and a Church which strangely aids and abets its own destruction.

Perhaps the sole weakness of her work is that she allows the "elite" to remain behind the curtain, like the Wizard of Oz, as they pull the levers. The reader may overcome that shortcoming by going to HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS, by Alan B. Jones, for which I also wrote a review for Amazon.

This is the second in Fallaci's trilogy. Her third book has not yet been translated into English. But this book gives us plenty to consider in the meantime. Fallaci's first book in this trilogy was the Rage and the Pride published in Italian newspapers shortly after 911 and then made into a very short book. There is still the rage from the first book, but now it is coupled to a powerful unrelenting reason making this book, in my mind, far more powerful.

This book is significantly longer and delves into much greater depth in considering the Muslim problem. Fallaci speaks with a burning passion about the problems posed by Islamic supremacism. She presents a view of the Muslim threat to Europe in unambiguous terms undiluted by political correctness. And therein lies the rub for most of her detractors. Fallaci tells the truth and they can't handle the truth. It flies in the face of their cozy ecumenical multicultural world view in which all values are rendered equal by relativism. This of course is pure sophistry. Islam is a conquering faith that is spread by the sword. It's tradition teaches supremacism and subjugation of the infidel. She paints a very compelling picture of a "religion" committed to world domination.

From the book: And whoever believes in the myth of moderate Islam should reread the stories of the burned convents and monasteries, of the profaned churches, of the raped nuns, of the Christian or Jewish women abducted to be locked away in their harems. He should ponder on the crucifixions of the Cordoba, the hangings of Granada, the beheadings of Toledo and Barcelona, of Seville and Zamora. (The beheadings of Seville, ordered by Mutamid: the king who used those severed heads, heads of Jews and Christians, to adorn his palace. The beheadings of Zamora, ordered by Almanzor: the vizier who was called the-patron-of-the-philosophers, the greatest leader Islamic Spain ever produced). Christ! Invoking the name of Jesus meant instant execution. Crucifixion, of course, or decapitation or hanging or impalement. Ringing a bell, the same. Wearing green, the colour exclusive to Islam, also. And when a Muslim passed by, every Jew and Christian was obliged to step aside. To bow. And mind to the Jew or the Christian who dared react to the insults of a Muslim. As for the much-flaunted detail that the infidel-dogs were not obliged to convert to Islam, not even encouraged to do so, do you know why they were not? Because those who converted to Islam did not pay taxes. Those who refused, on the contrary, did."

Fallaci speaks of the vitiation of the word peace by the so called "peace movement" who she calls opportunists "who mimic the one-way pacifism of Immanuel Kant and resort to war with brazen-faced impudence. They do it in the name of humanity, of course. And, more than often, waving a revolutionary flag. Because also a revolution is war." Plato says that war exists and will always exist because it comes from human passions. Fallaci does not believ in the masochism of turning the other cheek. She declares unambiguously and proudly, "my war is right. Legitimate, dutiful, right. And it is not true that all wars are wrong. Sometimes they are right. Legitimate, dutiful, right." Fallaci does not shrink from the challenge of critical and "reasoned" thought. She in fact establishes a heirarchy of values and unequivocally endorses the superiority of the Western world relative to that of the world created by the sons of Allah.

The myth of the "moderate" Muslim is a diabolical politically correct canard forged on the anvil of "tolerance". And to the extent that we've accepted this monstrous invention we've allowed ourselves to become denuded and emasculated. Fallaci does not hesitate to point this fact out. That we still allow ANY Muslim to immigrate to this country is a testimony to our failure to understand the problem and a failure of will to solve this crisis.

Make no mistake, Islam is a best understood as a hate cult with the capacity to destroy civilization. William Durant in his "The Story of Civilization" succinctly stated, [Islam is] "probably the bloodiest story in history." He called it a "discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within." The bitter lesson, Durant concluded, was that "eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry."

A moderate Muslim is simply a lax Muslim who does not follow the prescripts and tenets of the Islamic "faith." This in no way speaks to the issue of whether or not a viable moderate strain of Islam which rejects Islamic hegemony exists. It does not. The Koran is replete with commands to wage war against the infidel (non Muslim) wherever you may find them. There is simply nothing moderate about Islam.

Alexis de Tocqueville said the following: "I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself."

Today we are told that what is needed in the Middle East is democracy. This has become our mantra. But as "Spengler" from the Asia Times recently said, "Something more than democracy is required for peace and prosperity, and that is a people committed to good rather than evil. Democracy in the Middle East means something quite different: Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq. The sooner President Bush changes the subject, the better."

Fallaci has been stricken by cancer. And one would have thoght that her voice would be somewhat tempered by her debility. This is not the case. Quite the opposite. I got the impression that Fallaci has been liberated by her disease. Any restraints that she may have felt in the past (and believe me there were precious few) have been jettisoned and she pulls absolutely no punches.

Fallaci has said: "I find it shameful and see in all this the rise of a new fascism, a new Nazism. A fascism, a nazism, that much more grim and revolting because it is conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as do-gooders, progressives, communists, pacifists, Catholics or rather Christians, and who have the gall to label a warmonger anyone like me who screams the truth. I see it, yes, and I say the following. I have never been tender with the tragic and Shakespearean figure Sharon. ("I know you've come to add another
scalp to your necklace," he murmured almost with sadness when I went to interview him in 1982.) I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe more than they deserved."

Oriana's is the voice of rage, the voice of pride, and now, even more so, the voice of reason. Her Italian pride and Western pride are evident throughout the book. Her pride in the rich cultural traditions of the West, that have been trampled upon and spit upon, literally, by the Muslims, is inspiring. Although Fallaci ostensibly rejects the Deity she invokes His name continually. And so I say, God bless Oriana Fallaci.

I have been freshly baptized in the words of the canonized martyr of Freedom. The scales have fallen from my eyes, I have seen the error of my ways, said my mea culpas. Yes, I too have been libertarian to the point of license in my attitude to Islamic extremism. "What do you expect?" my old (now discarded) self used to say. "We support the European colonization of Palestine. We prop up repressive medieval sheikdoms because we are addicted to oil. It is business as usual for the imperial West. We deserve Arab rage."

Fallaci does not believe in turning the other cheek. She begins her diatribe with a vituperative and often hilarious summary of Islam's thousand-year military conquest of Christendom that was finally turned back at the gates of Vienna in 1672. But the Moslems are resurgent, she says, this time attacking not with weapons but with legions of fanatic, ferociously fecund immigrants who refuse to assimilate, who instead take advantage of liberal guilt to assert their cultural supremacy.

What will Eurabia be like? Not much different to Saudi Arabia. This brave new world will look back on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as Dark Ages. Free speech will be heresy. Brutal religious police will enforce Islamic law. Females will be second class citizens.

A provocative, disturbing book. No wonder Fallaci is the most hated woman on earth - the price for not tolerating intolerance.

And so the rage and pride gave birth to disdain, guided by reason. In the prologue, Fallaci reveals how the gatekeepers of political correctness have attacked her since the publication of her previous book, The Rage and the Pride. Politicians, academics and sections of the mass media joined in this choir of condemnation and she received insults and death threats from various quarters. But there was also an outpouring of support, mostly letters from ordinary people in Europe who expressed their gratitude for someone speaking on their behalf.

What makes Fallaci's style so appealing is the blend of historical fact with eyewitness journalism. As a rhetorical device, she addresses a variety of contemporary and historical personages in the form of letters throughout the text. She scorns the peace activists, explaining why some wars are right and legitimate. In a blunt semantic shift, she now describes the shrill ensemble of politically correct "cicadas" as outright traitors and collaborators. She takes a swipe at the double standards and the hostile political climate in Europe as well as the hypocrites and fools at the United Nations.

In chapter one she gives her assessment of the changing demographics in Europe where non-integrated immigrant communities have sprung up in most major cities. To counter the propaganda of the crusades as a sin of the West, she provides numerous examples of Islamic incursions into Europe before and after the crusades, including the 668 assault on Constantinople, the 711 invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, the attempted subjugation of France in 721 and the conquest of Sicily in 827. There were also the raids on the Italian coast and the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Sensitive readers must be aware that this section contains many graphic descriptions of the utmost cruelty. Finally, she draws a parallel between those early wars and the Islamic expansionism of today.

Fallaci then takes us on a tour of Europe to show how bad things have become. She starts and ends with Italy and visits other countries in between. In France, there are cities where Maghrebis make up 30% of the population. She refers to the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands, and describes Spain under its current government as a hopeless case. But it is the UK that is the real strategic base sheltering the vanguard, and Fallaci even has harsh words for the singer Cat Stevens. She mentions Louis Farrakhan, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali in the USA, recounting a frightening interview she had with the famous boxer.

The author reproaches herself for not having seen the danger coming in the early 1970s. Drawing on the research of Bat Ye'or, she chronicles the sordid conspiracy between the then-EEC and Arab governments. It started after the Yom Kippur War and the OPEC oil boycott. In the form of the Euro-Arab dialogue, European academics and politicians, spearheaded by Leftists, have sold Europe's soul for oil and immigrants. With their servile attitude, they have betrayed the essence of our Western values. She also makes mention of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader that became an ally of Hitler.

Fallaci identifies those who have sold out Europe as the Triple Alliance: the Catholic Church, the Right and the Left. The church stood by when terrible intellectual robberies took place, for example the appropriation of Judeo-Christian myths for the purposes of the enemy. Mourning the decline of the historical Italian Right of the Risorgimento, she calls it a noble lady that committed suicide. Before launching into the Left the points out the striking similarities between the extreme Right and extreme Left.

Accusing the Left of dogmatism and intellectual terrorism, she shows how it embraced Khomeini in 1979 and how it has since fallen in love with Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. She claims that the Left is not secular but is in fact an illiberal and totalitarian church under whose rule in the 1990s the number of immigrants to Italy increased exponentially. At the root of its Anti-Occidentalism is a profound and irrational hatred of the USA and Israel.

In the Epilogue she diagnoses the death of reason in the West as caused by people too lazy to think. Here she provides further evidence of the onslaught on Western culture, talking of the fear of being free, the decline of intelligence and the decline of reason. Although the USA gives her hope, America alone is not enough to reverse the decay. Fallaci maintains that terrorism is just a strategy, that immigration is the real danger and that the enemy aims to destroy our very souls, our dreams, ideas and achievements.

The Post-Script is the text of her speech on the occasion of receiving an award from the Center For The Study of Popular Culture on 28th November 2005. In it, Fallaci boldly states that she hates the Bin Ladens, Zarkawis, Ward Churchills, Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores of the world. She talks favourably of her meeting with Pope Benedict, expressing confidence in his understanding of the situation. Referring to the 2005 riots in France, she states that Left and Right are obsolete expressions since they are just two teams battling for power. She does not consider herself as either. Finally, she thanks those who persist in exposing the facts. Although they are criticized as dissidents, heretics and outlaws, she encourages them to pursue the battle of ideas, confident that truth will win in the end.

The Force Of Reason is a tour de force, more measured than the previous book but not entirely devoid of her trademark fury and full of humour. In essence, the book is a comprehensive analysis of the perilous intellectual climate and alarming world events, a much-needed antidote to a set of widely held false beliefs, and an impassioned wake-up call to the West.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel

Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish

I often buy oranges at the market. I put them in a basket in the dining room. And when I feel thirsty, I get a knife and cut some of those oranges in half. Then I squeeze them, collecting the juice in a big measuring cup. I pour the juice into a glass. And without so much as diluting it with rum, gin, vodka, or even soda water, I drink that orange juice straight!

I'm not sure why I like orange juice. Perhaps it's my Muslim ancestry. But there is no doubt about it. I'm an orange-juice-drinker. And according to Oriana Fallaci, that could make me appear to some folks to be part of the problem!

In this book, as in the case of "The Rage and the Pride," the barbarians are still at the gates of Europe (with many already inside). And that brings up an obvious question. Plenty of people have reacted very negatively to demographic changes. Whether it is Whites, Blacks, Asians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, or whatever, there will be people who complain that newcomers are polluting their neighborhood! In general, that is a racist attitude, but some folks feel that way. Is that what is going on here? Is Fallaci simply a racist who can't abide the immigration of Muslims to Europe?

No.

The problem is twofold. One is that many of the newcomers are a threat to peace and human rights (obviously, many are not, but that's not the point). That is a political issue, of course. But Europe has become rather liberal in recent times, and many of the new Muslim immigrants are reactionaries. If they try to reverse the clock and return us to a reactionary Europe, getting rid of the Enlightenment, then many Europeans (and maybe many non-Europeans) are facing a harsh future. That could be especially true for Women: the more reactionary Muslims show little respect for Women's rights.

The second problem is the assault on truth. I think we humans fare poorly when we fail to value truth. And I think there is a serious attack on truth by many of the more reactionary Muslims.

I'm a Pagan. And it certainly has not escaped my notice that most of Europe is Christian. Nor am I unaware of the history of Pagan-Christian relations for the past couple of millennia (for European Pagans, Christians were almost always a frightening enemy). But these days, possibly for the first time in many centuries, it's okay to be a Pagan even in Europe. If I do get criticized for my religious beliefs by a European Christian, it is probably going to be for not showing sufficient appreciation for Islam! And Fallaci shows us in detail the extent to which European Christianity has shown enormous reluctance to criticize reactionary Islam.

At the end of the book, we get a bonus chapter: a speech that Fallaci gave in November of 2005. And she explains that she requires the right to love whom she wants, and, in addition, the right to hate whom she wants. And there are some folks she hates, such as Bin Laden, Zarkawi, various kamikazes, Ward Churchill, Noam Chomsky, Louis Farrakhan, Michael Moore, and their "accomplices." As she puts it, "I do hate them as I always hated any murder of Freedom. It is my sacrosanct right. My sacrosanct duty." She refers to some of them as "the new McCarthyists." I can understand her feelings, and I think we all ought to read this book to gain a better appreciation of what risks European society is taking.

Although this book was rushed into print with a rough and inelegant translation from the original Italian, it remains a powerful defense of Western civilization against the incursions of militant Islam into the heart of Europe and - to a lesser extent - America.

Fallaci is scathing in her critique of the Western collaborators with, and facilitators of, that incursion - the Left-wing political parties, the bureaucrats of the European Union, the journalists and news media, the Catholic Church, and what Fallici calls the "caviar communists" of Hollywood. All of these forces have combined to create a climate of ostracism, fear, and even legal sanctions against anyone who protests the slow death of Western civilization via the infiltrations of Islam and the political correctness which accords Islam special privileges. (Unbelievably, Fallaci herself - seriously ill with cancer - faces trial, in Europe, for the "crime" of criticizing Islam.)

Fallaci traces the current situation to policies formulated in the 1970s, when the leaders of Europe made a pact with Middle Eastern countries to guarantee extraordinarily favorable immigration status to Muslims in exchange for bargain rates on Middle Eastern oil. Thus, the Left literally bartered away Western civilization, a process that has new reached a critical moment. (When pondering the question of why the Left would make common cause with Islamofascism, Fallaci takes the unorthodox position that Nazism and fascism and communism are not mortal enemies, but rather quarrelling brothers in the effort to destroy Western, bourgeois civilization. In her view, which I agree with, fascism and communism have a great deal in common, and both are mortal enemies of classical liberalism, whose values are now often identified with modern conservatism and neo-conservatism.)

Lied to and intimidated by their political and media elites, the European public had little idea of what was going on until it was almost too late; the public is finally waking up to the enormity of the problems raised by massive Muslim immigration, but few - if any - solutions are on the horizon.

This book is an essential wake-up call to anyone who wants to defend the values of the West - the freedoms we cherish - against the growing menace of Islam. Fallaci does not believe there is such a thing as moderate Islam. There might be moderate Muslims - surely there are millions - but there is arguably no moderate or tolerant Muslim SOCIETY anywhere in the world. The tone of Islamic society - even in "secular" Turkey - is always controlled by the imams and mullahs and religious authorities, and they are never liberal or tolerant. The ultimate enemy, says Fallaci, is the Koran, the Mein Kampf of every Muslim terrorist. Selectively quoted by Muslim apologists, the book is an eye-opener for anyone who reads it in its entirety.

Is it too late to stop the suicide of the West? Fallaci thinks so, but one wonders why, given her clear view of the enormity of the threat and the powerful forces arrayed against people such as herself. The forces supporting the Islamicization of the West are enormously powerful, especially in Europe, and voices critical of that process are all too rare, and face social ostracism and even death. But hopefully, the European public is waking from its slumber, and will finally take the steps necessary to preserve their way of life against the threat of Islamism.

America has a significant role to play in that process, because there is much more intellectual freedom in America than in Europe. America has a strong conservative movement; Europe does not. Hopefully, Fallaci's example will encourage others to come forward and take the necessary steps to save Europe and the West from a slow slide into Islamic tyranny.

Oriana Fallaci is the Rocky Marciano of Italian letters. To her, the best defense is a good offense. If you're pro-Islam you will hate this book. If you're anti-Islam you will love it. If you're sitting on the fence you're in for a rough ride.

I've never read anything like this book. The pugnacious Ms. Fallaci picks you right up out of the crowd and drops you in the center of the ring where the fight is taking place. Her emotionally charged first person style draws you into her mind, heart and soul. You soon feel you are fighting for your very life, right alongside her.

It's been years since I've read a book I just couldn't put down. Had to take a brief break for some pressing concerns and grabbed the book up again as soon as possible. Another stint of intense and exhilarating reading, and finally radical Islam was left reeling on the ropes.

Winner by a knockout, Champion of Polemical Prose, Ms. Oriana Fallaci.

ADDENDUM

Sept. 18th Obit Internet Post by David Horowitz on his website: "A great warrior is gone - Friday, September 15, 2006 9:21 AM Oriana Fallaci has died after a long struggle with cancer at the age of seventy-seven. Her last years were spent in the United States in part because she was hunted in her own beloved Italy because of her war against the Islamic jihad. A fatwa calling for death was issued by an Islamic jihadist; an Italian judge attempted to put her in jail for offending the invaders. She found refuge in the United States. But she also embraced America as her homeland in exile because she understood that America was the global center of resistance to the Islamic threat. The attacks of 9/11 inspired her. From her sick bed she wrote two polemics -- The Rage and The Pride and The Force of Reason which are clarion calls to action to defend the West. If we prevail in this battle to defend our civilization they will be remembered in the same way that Tom Paine's Common Sense is remembered as a summons to Americans to defend their freedom. Orianna Fallaci was a woman of unbelievable courage. We will not see her like again soon. May we honor her by heeding her warnings and dedicating ourselves to the struggle to which she gave her final hours."