In Memoriam: Oriana Fallaci (1929 - 2006)
Denyse O'Leary at UD was asking why leftist atheists don't take on Islam and unfortunately, we have lost one that did just that. I have been a little out of it lately with school and work and so I did not know that Oriana Fallaci died in September.
Fallaci was the woman who interviewed the Ayatollah Khomeini--and who, during the interview, tore off the chador forced upon her ("this stupid medieval rag!"), and yet convinced the Ayatollah to finish the interview (abruptly ended with her action) two days later. She also wrote passionately about what she called "Islamofascism."
Unfortunately I think Ted Haggard was right when he told Richard Dawkins in Root of All Evil? that the Islamification of Europe would be a critical issue in the future, and Fallaci was a strong voice against that trend. It seems that women are harassed is some European suburbs for being uncovered. Too bad she could not get those who would seem to be natural allies, such as Germaine Greer, to speak up with her.
(In certain parts of Israel, too, uncovered women are also harassed by ultraconservative Jews who have called the baring of a female arm or leg an "act of violence"! Most Israelis are secular or moderate and can barely tolerate the orthodox element in their midst. And then to add to this crucible there's nutjobs like Yusuf al-Khattab, the Jew-turned-Muslim whom Dawkins interviewed in Root. Whack philosophy of women you've got there, Yusuf.)
Giselle Fermandez writes:
In her "Letter to a Child Never Born" or in "Inshallah" or most recently "The Pride and the Rage" and "The Force of Reason," she showed above all a love of the common man, of humanity in all its weakness and strengths, and never failed to point a finger and hold those guilty accountable for their greed, deceit or destruction. She understood that there was a love far greater than ones own personal need for love. There was a love on a much grander scale that put truth, justice and the future of mankind above all. This is from where she wrote -- a deep and soulful place that would not allow her to be bland or middle ground in any way.
Fallaci was the woman who interviewed the Ayatollah Khomeini--and who, during the interview, tore off the chador forced upon her ("this stupid medieval rag!"), and yet convinced the Ayatollah to finish the interview (abruptly ended with her action) two days later. She also wrote passionately about what she called "Islamofascism."
Unfortunately I think Ted Haggard was right when he told Richard Dawkins in Root of All Evil? that the Islamification of Europe would be a critical issue in the future, and Fallaci was a strong voice against that trend. It seems that women are harassed is some European suburbs for being uncovered. Too bad she could not get those who would seem to be natural allies, such as Germaine Greer, to speak up with her.
(In certain parts of Israel, too, uncovered women are also harassed by ultraconservative Jews who have called the baring of a female arm or leg an "act of violence"! Most Israelis are secular or moderate and can barely tolerate the orthodox element in their midst. And then to add to this crucible there's nutjobs like Yusuf al-Khattab, the Jew-turned-Muslim whom Dawkins interviewed in Root. Whack philosophy of women you've got there, Yusuf.)
Giselle Fermandez writes:
In her "Letter to a Child Never Born" or in "Inshallah" or most recently "The Pride and the Rage" and "The Force of Reason," she showed above all a love of the common man, of humanity in all its weakness and strengths, and never failed to point a finger and hold those guilty accountable for their greed, deceit or destruction. She understood that there was a love far greater than ones own personal need for love. There was a love on a much grander scale that put truth, justice and the future of mankind above all. This is from where she wrote -- a deep and soulful place that would not allow her to be bland or middle ground in any way.
posted by Kristine | Saturday, December 23, 2006
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