June 23, 2005
COMMENTARY
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Prophet of Decline
By TUNKU VARADARAJAN
June 23, 2005; Page A12
NEW YORK -- Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a
cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids --
so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview --
one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been
indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian
Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any
religion admitted by the state."
In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was
perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year -- and which has
sold many more than a million copies all over Europe -- called "The
Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the
verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West
have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So, in a
nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her
beliefs -- which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New
York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment.
It is a shame, in so many ways, that "vilipend," the latinate word that is
the pinpoint equivalent in English of the Italian offense in question, is
scarcely ever used in the Anglo-American lexicon; for it captures
beautifully the pomposity, as well as the anachronistic outlandishness, of
the law in question. A "vilification," by contrast, sounds so sordid, so
tabloid -- hardly fitting for a grande dame.
* * *
"When I was given the news," Ms. Fallaci says of her recent indictment,
"I laughed. Bitterly, of course, but I laughed. No amusement, no
surprise, because the trial is nothing else but a demonstration that everything I've written is true." An activist
judge in Bergamo, in northern Italy, took it upon himself to admit a complaint against Ms. Fallaci that even
the local prosecutors would not touch. The complainant, one Adel Smith -- who, despite his name, is
Muslim, and an incendiary public provocateur to boot -- has a history of anti-Fallaci crankiness, and is
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widely believed to be behind the publication of a pamphlet, "Islam Punishes Oriana Fallaci," which exhorts
Muslims to "eliminate" her. (Ironically, Mr. Smith, too, faces the peculiar charge of vilipendio against
religion -- Roman Catholicism in his case -- after he described the Catholic Church as "a criminal
organization" on television. Two years ago, he made news in Italy by filing suit for the removal of crucifixes
from the walls of all public-school classrooms, and also, allegedly, for flinging a crucifix out of the window
of a hospital room where his mother was being treated. "My mother will not die in a room where there is a
crucifix," he said, according to hospital officials.)
Ms. Fallaci speaks in a passionate growl: "Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam,
where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense.
Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought,
and for the concept itself of liberty." Such words -- "invaders," "invasion," "colony," "Eurabia" -- are deeply,
immensely, Politically Incorrect; and one is tempted to believe that it is her tone, her vocabulary, and not
necessarily her substance or basic message, that has attracted the ire of the judge in Bergamo (and has made
her so radioactive in the eyes of Europe's cultural elites).
"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder," the historian Arnold Toynbee wrote, and these words could
certainly be Ms. Fallaci's. She is in a black gloom about Europe and its future: "The increased presence of
Muslims in Italy, and in Europe, is directly proportional to our loss of freedom." There is about her a touch
of Oswald Spengler, the German philosopher and prophet of decline, as well as a flavor of Samuel
Huntington and his clash of civilizations. But above all there is pessimism, pure and unashamed. When I ask
her what "solution" there might be to prevent the European collapse of which she speaks, Ms. Fallaci flares
up like a lit match. "How do you dare to ask me for a solution? It's like asking Seneca for a solution. You
remember what he did?" She then says "Phwah, phwah," and gestures at slashing her wrists. "He committed
suicide!" Seneca was accused of being involved in a plot to murder the emperor Nero. Without a trial, he
was ordered by Nero to kill himself. One senses that Ms. Fallaci sees in Islam the shadow of Nero. "What
could Seneca do?" she asks, with a discernible shudder. "He knew it would end that way -- with the fall of
the Roman Empire. But he could do nothing."
* * *
The impending Fall of the West, as she sees it, now torments Ms. Fallaci. And as much as that Fall, what
torments her is the blithe way in which the West is marching toward its precipice of choice. "Look at the
school system of the West today. Students do not know history! They don't, for Christ's sake. They don't
know who Churchill was! In Italy, they don't even know who Cavour was!" -- a reference to Count Camillo
Benso di Cavour, the conservative father, with the radical Garibaldi, of Modern Italy. Ms. Fallaci, rarely
reverent, pauses here to reflect on the man, and on the question of where all the conservatives have gone in
Europe. "In the beginning, I was dismayed, and I asked, how is it possible that we do not have Cavour . . .
just one Cavour, uno? He was a revolutionary, and yes, he was not of the left. Italy needs a Cavour -- Europe
needs a Cavour." Ms. Fallaci describes herself, too, as "a revolutionary" -- "because I do what conservatives
in Europe don't do, which is that I don't accept to be treated like a delinquent." She professes to "cry,
sometimes, because I'm not 20 years younger, and I'm not healthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my
writing to enter politics somehow."
Here she pauses to light a slim black cigarillo, and then to take a sip of champagne. Its chill makes her
grimace, but fortified, she returns to vehement speech, more clearly evocative of Oswald Spengler than at
any time in our interview. "You cannot survive if you do not know the past. We know why all the other
civilizations have collapsed -- from an excess of welfare, of richness, and from lack of morality, of
spirituality." (She uses "welfare" here in the sense of wellbeing, so she is talking, really, of decadence.) "The
moment you give up your principles, and your values . . . the moment you laugh at those principles, and
those values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period." The force with which she
utters the word "dead" here is startling. I reach for my flute of champagne, as if for a crutch.
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* * *
"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."
Ms. Fallaci, who made her name by interviewing numerous statesmen (and not a few tyrants), believes that
ours is "an age without leaders. We stopped having leaders at the end of the 20th century." Of George Bush,
she will concede only that he has "vigor," and that he is "obstinate" (in her book a compliment) and
"gutsy . . . Nobody obliged him to do anything about Terri Schiavo, or to take a stand on stem cells. But he
did."
But it is "Ratzinger" (as she insists on calling the pope) who is her soul mate. John Paul II -- "Wojtyla" --
was a "warrior, who did more to end the Soviet Union than even America," but she will not forgive him for
his "weakness toward the Islamic world. Why, why was he so weak?"
The scant hopes that she has for the West she rests on his successor. As a cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI wrote
frequently on the European (and the Western) condition. Last year, he wrote an essay titled "If Europe Hates
Itself," from which Ms. Fallaci reads this to me: "The West reveals . . . a hatred of itself, which is strange and
can only be considered pathological; the West . . . no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only
what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."
"Ecco!" she says. A man after her own heart. "Ecco!" But I cannot be certain whether I see triumph in her
eyes, or pain.
* * *
As for the vilipendio against Islam, she refuses to attend the trial in Bergamo, set for June 2006. "I don't even
know if I will be around next year. My cancers are so bad that I think I've arrived at the end of the road.
What a pity. I would like to live not only because I love life so much, but because I'd like to see the result of
the trial. I do think I will be found guilty."
At this point she laughs. Bitterly, of course, but she laughs.
Mr. Varadarajan is the editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal.
URL for this article:
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Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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July 5, 2005
DOW JONES REPRINTS
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The Islamists at the Gates of Europe
July 5, 2005; Page A21
Bravo, Oriana Fallaci! Finally, a European with the courage to speak out
against the steady decline of European values and culture in the wake of
Islam's incessant march ("
1
" by Tunku Varadarajan,
editorial page, June 23). What has allowed this incursion are the cultural
elites who seek sameness in everything -- embodied by the technocrats
in Brussels -- and who see the EU as the structural and political
embodiment of a new Europe, without borders and, critically, without
history.
Lost in this new milieu are lessons from Europe's own recent past, where
totalitarian-inspired intolerance led to mass genocide, and where a few
leaders with courage (and hundreds of thousands of American lives)
saved the continent from darkness. Surely, these are lessons long
forgotten in the politically correct Europe of today: Who could imagine
such widespread disdain for the U.S. if American sacrifices on the
battlefields of Europe were celebrated? In its place comes a Europe
where Islam thrives in a vacuum of multicultural-inspired tolerance,
where it is imprudent to believe strongly in anything.
What Ms. Fallaci, unlike the liberals of Europe, understands is that Islam
is unafraid to fill this void with ideas and ideals that are anything but
tolerant. She is right -- Churchill would (and did in Hitler) see the threat
that such ideological intolerance creates.
Kenneth Davenport
San Diego
Tunku Varadarajan's essay about Oriana Fallaci, who has been indicted
in Italy for the alleged crime of vilifying Islam, provides proof that the
Islamofascists are exploiting the inherent weaknesses (such as altruism
and appeasement) of our Western, religious-based culture to tear it
down, brick by brick. So far, they're having their greatest success in socialist Europe.
Edward W. Rummel
Short Hills, N.J.
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Sincere thanks to Mr. Varadarajan for sharing with readers his interview with Oriana Fallaci.
To my knowledge no one has ever written so ferociously and courageously about the threat to Western
civilization by the spread of Muslim fundamentalism than this remarkable woman.
I look forward to reading her latest "radioactive" book "The Force of Reason" the day it finally arrives at our
local bookstore.
Joan Driscoll
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Oriana Fallaci is, in many respects, a heroine. How will the U.S. government respond when her visa expires,
or when Italy attempts to extradite her? Will she be the first political refugee from Western Europe?
Steven Gruber
Syosset, N.Y.
URL for this article:
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Hyperlinks in this Article:
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Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact
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