Customer Reviews

The Rage and the Pride

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1 star:		(14)

 

 

Fallaci, one of the greatest living journalists, broke a decades-long silence to write this blistering critique of European reaction to Sept. 11, of European political correctness, and of Islamofascism. The bulk of the book was typed in a white heat just weeks after the Sept. 11 massacre. It has earned her almost daily death threats.

Yet it has only been published in America now, more than a year later. In fact, most of this book is not written for Americans, though it says passionately and magnificently many of the things many Americans feel.

Her picture is one you will recognize if you've read some of the Western thinkers who spoke up after Sept. 11 -- Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens, V.S. Naipaul, to name three. They decried the Islamofascist attack on the core liberal values of Western civilization: freedom, equality, toleration. They reminded fellow critics of Western culture that the bulk of it was worth fighting for.

Her targets are the breed of European intellectuals she contemptuously calls "cicadas." She assails the crypto-Marxists who were so fond of the line about religion being the opiate of the masses only when it applied to the benign modern Christian churches of their own lands. She confronts the strident feminists who couldn't spare a word on behalf of brutalized, enslaved, mutilated Muslim women.

Fallaci, even more than the others, writes from the gut, with a furious energy that the book's title barely contains. Her prose takes you right back to the writing that was done in the immediate wake of the slaughter, when the stench still hung over New York City and recovery crews picked through "a brown mud that seems like ground coffee but in reality is organic matter: the remains of the bodies in a flash disintegrated, incinerated." It is a style that is characteristic and cannot be duplicated at any distance from the event.

Fallaci is no armchair observer of the Muslim world; she has traveled extensively in it and interviewed everyone from Khomeini to Arafat. She had seen into the rotten hearts of the people who plotted these attacks. And she knew what she wanted to say about them.

She mocks the liberals of Europe who treat all the Muslim emigrants flooding their lands as "poor little things." And to the bin Ladens and their admirers, she is unsparingly blunt. She envisions the Muslim fanatics coming after the artwork of her beloved Florence, as they did to the Bamiyan Buddhas or the World Trade Center:

"And should the poor-little-things destroy one of those treasures, only one, I swear: it is I who would become a holy-warrior. It is I who would become a murderer. So listen to me, you followers of a God who preaches an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I was born in the war. I grew up in the war. About war I know a lot and believe me: I have more balls than your kamikazes who find the courage to die only when dying means killing thousands of people. Babies included. War you wanted, war you want? Good."

Having broken her silence, Fallaci takes the opportunity for delayed retorts to some of her critics. They are kept parenthetical -- short but piercing. The kick at Jane Fonda is hilarious.

This English translation was done by the author. Her prose is straighforward, vigorous English, yet it is sprinkled with the quirks of one who speaks English as a second tongue. Writing about how in her imagination she still can see the Bamiyan Buddhas (the ones the Taliban dynamited): "I see them because about them I know all what I should." Yet even these grammatical lapses -- writing English as though it were Italian -- make "The Rage and the Pride" seem all the more vivid and furious.

This tome bespeaks a very real and succint set of problems. Whilst Ms. Fallacci gets scolded by the publishers weekly reviewer, for her personal translation from the Italian to English- one that does make it more difficult to navigate and digest; it is with good reason on her part that she makes it somewhat more indigestible for her readers. And she clearly states why:
..." I have heard that in Italy too, some politicians, as well as various intellectuals, or so-called intellectuals, happily say<<Good, the Americans got it good>> ( 9/11)"
"I am very very angry. Angry with a rage which is cold, lucid, rational" A rage which eliminates any detachment, any indulgence, which orders me to answer them and to spit in their face."

And she displays her fiery, angry, feminine warrior witted revulsion and disgust at the slaughter(s) propagated by the islamic world, a disguised fascism and totalitarianism, which she personally battled as a youngster against the European versions.

The cowards and 'cicadas' of the Left and governments across Europe turn a blind eye to the destruction of their own civilization; one which brought forth rich science, philosophy, art, music, dance, sculpture,civil empowerment, civil improvements, the growth and reform of Christiandom and the possibilities for humankind that are entirely absent within Islam and the theocratic moslem totalitarianism that supports the barbarity ( one should note that this week, in Nigeria- amongst a host of areas of lesser barbarities by moslems, there was a slaughter initiated and sponsored by islam of over two hundred humans- garroted with the slogan "God is Great" over a perceived slight by a non moslem magazine wrtier who stated that a Ms World contestant might well have been a choice for a wife for mohammed. The disemboweling, the utter distain for human life, over an innocuous secular comment.
One might note that every week, their are mufti's who will preach and write that jews are descended from apes and pigs; across the arab world during this month of ramadan( a month of fasting and reflection) the fast each day is followed by a movie series based upon an utterly fraudulent book,' the protocols of the elders of zion,' uttlerly defiling the jewish people and religion; a truly barbarous falsity, used to assist the multiple incitements to sucide, to homicide, to slaughter by the kindly totalitarians, the fascistas, the theocratic murderers within Islam.

Christians don't impale anyone anymore, Jews don't proselityse or coerce, let alone destroy others over any such matters, over anything- no one will be impaled or disemboweled over such ugly remarks and sentiments by Islamists. Yet the social liberals in the west will bend over backwards to excuse and accommodate to these barbarities, by moslems, and arabs.

And in Europe: I read where the minister of education or whatever in Denmark, commented upon the fact that 48% of rapes of women there were by moslem, arab men; many of the gang rape variety.
His comment? Danish women should be more understanding of the subtleties of arab and moslem culture. Blame the victims?!? Lunacy.

This is the betrayal of the culture that grew freedom, grew science, grew religious toterance, grew a better world ( not perfect, just better) vs the abhorrent fascism of those who would homicide bomb the western world into submission.
And if you read Ms Fallaci's experiences over and over in the moslem world, you will note that Islam does not mean peace, it means submission.
Her rage is a justified disgust and anger, over the betrayal of this western culture, one that grew to end much of what the moslem world would gladly return.
I recommend this book, however unwieldly it might appear due to her translation style.
It is a stunning series of remembrances of her years as a journalist in the halls of arab countries, as elsewhere, and well worth wading thru.

She is angry at the betrayal of western culture, of western religion and of simple common sense. And her fury peels off the page with each of her remembrances over the years, within the arab and moslem world.

And this is what Fallacci asks her readers to consider. The Christiandom which underwent dramatic changes over the centuries to the betterment of the entire society, the richness of the heritage from the greek philosophers, thru Europe's growth of the arts and sciences, of cultural leaps and hopes that helped spread independence, versus the backward, totalitarian, barbarous events brought to the west by islamofascism.
It is a read well worth the effort.

The roots of this fiery polemic by Oriana Fallaci are in an article she was requested to write for an Italian newspaper. Written in white heat after the events of 9/11, the article grew longer and longer; she had to trim it, and afterwards expanded the piece again in order to say everything she wanted to get off her chest. In her own words, she was trying to open the eyes of those who do not want to see, unplug the ears of those who do not want to hear and ignite the thoughts of those who refuse to think.

In her introductory dedication, Fallaci explains that the English text is her own translation and there may be oddities in the style and vocabulary, but that she wanted it to be like that because she wishes to retain complete responsibility or every word and comma that she has to say in this book. I found her language quite charming, an Italianate version of English brimming with rage and fury.

In the Preface, she talks about inter alia New York as a place of refuge for Italian expatriates, her family background, the process of writing the newspaper article that eventually evolved into this book and much more besides.

The main text starts out with her feelings right after she saw the attack on the Twin Towers on TV and what followed. She also discusses the various reactions from around the globe, the heroism of the fire-fighters and America's unity in the face of adversity.

Fallaci really lays into the politically correct, the supporters of multiculturalism and the apologists for terrorism. While not blind to the faults of the West, she vigorously defends western culture, even Christianity, although she claims to be an atheist.

She talk extensively about her travels in the Middle East and relates a humorous incident about the time she interviewed the ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, and a sad encounter with Ali Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister. Her outrage at the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is palpable and she gives a moving account of her meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 1968.

Fallaci doesn't mince words as she talks about the growing numbers of culturally non-integrated minorities in her native Italy and the problems arising from that situation. It would appear that she despairs for the future of Europe, lashing out at certain European leaders. She calls the EU a frustrating, disappointing and insignificant financial club - the suicide of Europe.

I think The Rage And The Pride must be the most politically incorrect book that I have ever read. It is brutally honest, emotional and perhaps a bit over the top in one or two places where it might make some readers' hair stand on end. But it is a great read, one very special woman's testament to the dangers facing the West, and why our culture is worth preserving.

Infidel

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis

Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror

Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America

Imagine if you had a neighbor with a huge wart. Good manners decries that you ignore it. Ms. Fallaci doesn't. In Rage and Pride she points out that there is a wart on the neighbor's face and proceeds to describe how big and ugly is and notes that it's growing. In other words this fire breathing little book is not polite much less politically correct. Is Ms. Fallaci a latter day Cassandra speaking the truth to unwilling listeners? You'll have to decide for yourself. All I can say is that this is a volcanic little book. I couldn't stop reading it until I came to the last page.

This is a very personal reaction to the bombing of the World Trade Towers by a gifted Italian journalist who has been to all the war zones from Vietnam to Lebanon, and has also interviewed some of the major players in the Islamist terror war against the west. It is extremely outspoken - refreshing and thought provoking. Not for the politically correct.

Bravo! As a non-Muslim living among Muslims I'll say the author has done a fantastic job. I am indebted to people like her, Bat Ye'or, Daniel Pipes, Paul Fregosi for daring to go against the current of political correctness....not to mention risking one's life for painting a negative picture of this certain religion which ironically means "Peace".

When was the last time you heard Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Bahai "martyrs" hijacking planes and blowing themselves up in embassies, buses, ships and discos? When was the last time you heard Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, Buddhist monks etc issuing a fatwa calling for death against unbelievers, apostates, adulteress and blasphemers? If terrorist attacks are committed by a an extremist minority within Islam, then what have the Christian, Jewish extremists been doing? If it is true that it was "Islam which was hijacked" on 9/11, then why aren't the Muslim clerics issuing fatwas calling for the death of Osama bin Laden and his allies who planned the hijack ....not to mention the tens of thousands who danced on the streets in Muslims countries after Islam was hijacked?

The problem with most Westeners are their political correctness and their feeling of guilt towards the past colonisation of countries inhabited by non-Whites including Muslim countries so much so that any criticism against Muslims (no matter how true it is) is considered by themselves as racism. This results in Muslims getting special/preferential treatment over the Western Christian/secular/Jewish majority in a Western country.

Although it is so obvious that the religion of the Muslims is the only one which teaches that Jihad (i.e. war against unbelievers) is a must for every able bodied Muslim man, PBS has made a film about Prophet Muhammad (and narrated by Karen Armstrong) with U.S. tax payers money and aired over American TV claiming how wonderful and merciful he is. How long are the Westerners going to put up with this?

After all the books from Karen Armstrong, John Esposito, Prof Michael Sells and other Islamic apologists, it is trully refreshing to read a "truthful" book from a non-politically correct Westerner for once.

This is the written word that many of us who lived in the Middle East saw, heard and felt every day, but could not say becauase we feared torture. Ms. Fallaci has been in the same countries and seen the same fear. Now in America, she has taken the challenge to speak a harsh truth about the direction of hate and those who yield that hate. Now that I no longer live in that fear, I use words like Ms. Fallaci's to bolster the courage to change my world and the lives of those around me. You don't have to follow this book blindly, but you can derive simple truths that you can implement in your daily life. Read this and change your lives too. Or those who hate us will change it for us.

Although it is at times harsh and harsh in a personal way, as she knows many of the players that she praises or excoriates, this is a brilliant rant that warns those of us who love our secular or religious freedom of the imminent danger of radical Islam. Ms Fallaci has never been shy about how she feels and why. She is absolutely lucid in her defense of the west and her attack on the "Islamists", who seek to destroy everything that does not conform to their poisonous, cancerous vision. At times, she come a little too close in condemning all Muslims, which is unfair, in my opinion. She is merely telling the reader what she has seen with her own eyes coming from the extremist Muslim regimes of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. and it's very ugly, and pretty darn hopeless. She condemns Muslim women who allow themselves to be subjugated and abused by the men who have twisted the Koran, and dimsmisses them with great contempt. She says that the Islmaic middle east has contributed almost nothing to humanity since it's glory days in the 12th century. The one problem I have with her book is that she observes and condemns, with justification, yes, but does not offer a vision or solution, like Thomas Friedmann does in "Longitudes and Attitudes".

- BOOK REVIEW -

`The Rage And The Pride'
a book by
Oriana Fallaci

Reviewed by
Ellison J. Peterson

`The Rage And The Pride' is a book like I have never read before. Written as a result of the events of September 11th 2001, it started out as a newspaper article by the world famous, and now infamous Italian journalist and author, Oriana Fallaci, for the Italian national newspaper `Corriere della Sera'. However, when she had come to submit the piece to her editor, of which he had reserved two pages, she realised that what she had done was "given birth to a small-book." And what a book it is!

Fallaci, born in 1929 in Florence, Italy, is well respected within the news arena and was a war-correspondent in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, the 1965 Hungarian insurrection, in the Middle East, in South America, the 1968 massacre in Mexico City and the 1970s Latin American upheavals. She was also seriously wounded in the Gulf War and was a special correspondent for L'Europeo, an Italian political magazine. She has written for numerous leading national newspapers as well as being the author of a great many books. Fallaci is well known for her outspoken interviews with such people as Sean Connery, Sammy Davis Jr, Yasir Arafat, Henry Kissinger, Ayatollah Khomeini and many, many others. She was also a resistance fighter during the Second World War.

Fallaci actually translated the English edition of `The Rage And The Pride' herself from it's original Italian and acknowledges that there are a few "oddities" in its terminology, grammar and sentence structure arising from her own particular writing style and her own translation. Nevertheless, she offers it to us as it is as she wants to have "total responsibility for every word and comma" that she writes under her name in the English language that she loves as much as her own. Actually, I appreciated this greatly and found that it is written in a beautiful style, a style with unconditional passion, pride and rage and a style that only Fallaci herself can produce.

It is a beautiful little hardback book. A hardback which is actually nice to hold with golden writing inset in the cover and a simple red dust cover which adds an air of mystery to it. I would say never judge a book by its cover and this is one not to judge until you have read it.

The book is aptly named in its simplicity, for it is written from the author's heart and soul. It is written literally with a pride and a rage in response to all that she was feeling as she watched those horrendous events unfold on that tragic day of September 11th 2001. It is written with a pride and a rage for the culture that she loves so much and that is so viciously under attack today. It is written with love for the victims of that day and for those of tomorrow and is ultimately written with fierce honesty in a flaringly unabashed style where she feels no apologies are necessary. It "burst like a bomb", an "unrestrianable cry" and what we have is an emotional, no holds barred expose of the author's feelings towards the Islamic faith that openly promotes such catastrophes to happen. 'The agenda being to dominate the world with the purpose of opening "the eyes of those who do not want to see, to unplug the ears of those who do not want to listen, to ignite the thoughts of those who do not want to think."

Fallaci points out that she has remained quiet for far too long and the time to confront a religion and culture (and she states that the "clash between us and them is not a military clash. Oh, no. It is a cultural one, a religious one.") that is so dangerous and is at total odds to our own is now. She writes in her own unique style exposing Islam as "the hate for the West" that "swells like a fire fed by the wind. And the followers of Islamic Fundamentalism multiply like protozoa of a cell which splits to become two cells then four then eight then sixteen then thirty-two to infinity." She writes that she has "remained as silent as an old and disdainful wolf. A wolf that consumes itself in the desire to sink it's fangs into the sheep's throat, the rabbit's neck, yet succeeds in maintaining control." But also stressing the importance to note that "there are moments in Life when keeping silent becomes a fault, and speaking an obligation. A civic duty, a moral challenge, a categorical imperative from which we cannot escape."

It must be in all honestly, one of the most politically incorrect books that I have ever read but one that is written with extreme caution and attention to detail rather than a simply blistering attack with unintended misconceptions and falsehoods.

Such was her dedication and willingness, her shock, horror and love, to pour out onto the pages her heart and soul and to get it to the masses that she worked on it "Without stopping, without eating, without sleeping". Yet, is open to point out that extreme and great care was taken as writing is a very serious matter for her and something that is not to be taken lightly or written half heartedly. She states that it is "not an amusement or an outlet or a relief. It is not because I never forget that written words can do a lot of good but also a lot of evil, they can heal as much as kill."

The book has caused quite a bit of controversy throughout the whole of Europe and the Western world, especially from the Muslim communities. In 2003 a Muslim group tried to have the book banned in France but when that failed they tried to get a disclaimer in each book. This was rejected also. In May of 2005 Fallaci was sued for saying `unpleasant' things towards Islam in her new book, `The Force of Reason' by Adel Smith, the head of the Union of Italian Muslims. However, in June of 2005 in a shocking reversal of events he was sentenced to 6 months in prison for defaming Christianity for which he is well known.

This is a very open and frank book. Absolutely no one is spared Fallaci's pen as she blasts Islam for its open yet widely unknown intolerance, bitterness, hatred and it's ignorant stance on the human rights that we of the West hold so dear. Whilst Fallaci targets various European and American leaders, media moguls, the politically correct, the ignorant and the multiculturalists amongst scores of others she is not shy to comment on the touching unity seen with the support from around the world, the brave fire fighters that risked there own lives to save those trapped in the burning towers of the World Trade Centres and surrounding buildings, and the selfless civilians that did the same.

It states on the dust jacket something of which I fully agree so I see no need to reword it: "With her brutal sincerity she hurls pitiless accusations, vehement invectives, and denounces the uncomfortable truths that all of us know but never dare to express. With her rigorous logic, lucidity of mind, she defends our culture and blames what she calls our blindness, our deafness, our masochism, the conformism and the arrogance of the Politically Correct. With the poetry of a prophet like a modern Cassandra she says it in the form of a letter addressed to all of us."

Indeed, a tremendously stirring book. A book that chucks a bucket of cold water on your nicely snuggled up in bed body and yells at you at an ear drum splitting level to get your head out of the sand. It is a wake-up call in words that you do not want to miss!

With all this she states that "The worst is still to come." And I look forward to reading her sure to be next masterpiece, `The Force of Reason'.

Ellison J. Peterson

It is, without a doubt, not the definitive, thorough, detailed work of a political analyst. But it is a sermon that reaches heart and soul, and when thought over for a few days, permeates the mind. There is no question that this book must be read, whether you believe yourself to be liberal or conservative or any other meaningless distinction. The question is: are you brave enough to draw the consequences? Or are you cowardly enough to ignore what not standing up to THEM will entail? In this question, Fallaci is, like Hemingway or Any Rand, an author who will separate the wheat from the chaff. Read it. It's one of your only chances at seeing, especially if you are one of those Euro-philes that has no clue that Europe itself is part of the problem (this coming from a European).