The Rage and The Pride

Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading - 5 Stars for Passion, 3 Stars for Translation
Review: This is an impassioned and at times bitter diatribe directed at those Europeans (and particularly Italians) who either excuse the Muslim extremists whose goal is to destroy Western (especially US) culture or who are afraid to criticize them because of the supposedly religious nature of their beliefs. The attack on the twin towers of The World Trade Center caused celebrated columnist Oriana Fallaci to break her silence of the past ten years in order to voice her rage and her pride (in the values of Western culture). The book was a best seller and created an uproar and enormous debate when published in Italy and subsequently in other European countries.

Fallaci chose to translate the English language version herself in order to be true to her thoughts. While it clearly is effective in conveying the depth of her feelings, she would have been better served using a translator and then being her own editor. The book is a rambling stream of consciousness discussion of the events of 9/11 in the context of her life experiences (including as an Italian during WWII and her numerous interviews with world leaders including heads of several Muslim countries). The perspective which she has gained from these experiences imbue her passionate call to the West for a recognition of the nature of the current struggle with Islamic fundamentalists.

Fallaci has been accused of being racist, but as she correctly responds this book is about religion and culture, not race. It is about her claim that the goal of bin Laden and radical Islam (not Arabs) is to destroy our civilization and our way of life. They do not want to coexist, they want to destroy. Her insights are very interesting, especially her knowledge of Buddhism gained from her interview with the Dalai Lama and her contrast of that religious leader with many Islamic clerics. There are many boring and overdone passages, and she repeats much of her family history in unnecessary detail in order to provide background for her personal perspective.

Thus, while the book is very uneven, it is definitely a worthwhile read (and quite short). Her attack on moral relativism is first rate, and the insight and analysis which she brings to her subject reminds us of why she was such an acclaimed (and controversial) journalist. She takes accurate aim on the appeasers, cowards and pseudo-intellectuals who fail to recognize the dangers of the current situation and seem doomed to repeat history; her passionate defense of the benefits of freedom and liberty is first rate and almost lyrical at times. As she succinctly observes, "Memory may fade, hypocrisy may win, but History cannot be cancelled...It can be ignored or forgotten,yes. It can be falsified as Big Brother does in Orwell's novel, but it cannot be cancelled." So read this call to action based on Fallaci's historical insights; then decide if you agree with her.

Rating:
Summary: Argument Lost in the Rage But Worth It
Review: I've just finished The Rage and The Pride, and, while I can't call it a very readable book, it is a book worth reading. I agree completely with Fallaci's assertions that "the West" is under a reverse assault from Islam and Islamic fundamentalists who seek to destroy important values like tolerance, personal freedom, critical introspective inquiry, and simply enjoying life with a glass of wine while holding hands (in public!) with the woman you love.

There is a profound and foolishly dangerous double standard at work here. One where killers cloaked under the guise of a false religion can fly aircraft in to tall buildings, yet where are the condemnations of the imams? Where is the outrage in the mosques against these immoral actions? Criticism of Islam is too quickly labeled bigotry and racism, yet those very public statements from Islamic religious leaders urging people to kill Americans everywhere are supposed to be accepted without qualm, without an outcry? I think not. We cannot be tolerant of intolerance.

The magnitude of the reverse assault on "the West" is surely overblown here, but the trenchant criticism of the hypocrisy of it all makes this an important book.

Rating:
Summary: Wake Up Call/Call to Wake Up
Review: I just finished this excellent book. It's very difficult to put a label on. She says many things that need very much to be said, and discussed, and I think like her I am optimistic that Europe and the rest the World will wake up to the danger posed by the intolerent Muslims of the Mideast. She is well aware of the power of words and ideas. Most people simply cannot imagine the level of ignorance and stubborn aggressiveness of many professing the faith. References to some alleged niceties hundreds of years ago are the exceptions that prove the rule that Islamic culture is more than backward, it is a disease that we should seek to cure, not delude ourselves any longer that it will ever tolerant a peacefull co-existance with the modern world.

Rating:
Summary: A bad book
Review: I found this book to be fundamentally extreme, just like the fundamental sons of Allah she talks about. When she wrote the book, it was designed to cause offence just as it was to let go of her rage and hatred. She insults the reader in sentences such as 'cant you see, dammit?' She talks of who she would like to kick (such as Yassir Arafat).
Soon I began to wonder which was the author's feelings and which one is fact. She only looks at her view and not the second perspective, which is why I started not to take her seriously after the first 10 pages.
America doesnt take terrorists seriously; so why should a reader take an author seriosuly when extreme language is used? I didnt care if the English was not up to scratch, just concerned at the way she put forth her case.
Some of it was fact, true, and I enjoyed those parts. But after reading the book I felt discouraged and I felt a rage. This book will only decrease understanding and so increase fundamentalists.
In my opinion, hatred and passion is good (having plenty of it myself) , but not when writing books - otherwise the reader sees easily that he/she is getting one view only which is personal. Fallaci undermines the values her own country is of - tolerance, liberty.
Some of her facts are untrue, saying muslims haven't invented everything, when at times they have crushed the great crusaders, invented writing (iraq). I got the feeling she hates anyone who stands up to America and had a fear that because more and more people are becoming muslim and their birth rate is so high, they would topple the West. I could sense her fear and I dont blame it. But intolerance to them feeds their passion to become suicide bombers in Palestine.
The only thing that was good was she exercised her right of freedom of speech and she let out all that passion inside of her, which is excellent.
Lastly, I feel I have made a sound judgement, because I am not muslim, in fact i'm Indian Hindu. I only got angry at her writings...

Rating:
Summary: political correctnes broken to pieces
Review: Oriana takes a 5-ton wrecking ball and she starts swinging with passion destroying political correctness. She talks about things that even Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are reluctant to do so.
And she does it with fire ! She is a true breath of fresh air.
Since Sep 11 we have been told that islam is a 'religion of peace', but truthfully ... it is anything but.
Nobody will straighten the record, because she/he will be immediately called the 'R'-word, but Oriana does it !!!
Nobody is spared in her little book not even the Pope whose apologies to muslims for crusades fell on death ears. There have never appologized for their atrocities committed against Christians, Hindus and Buddhists and Oriana sets the record straight. Bravo 'ancient' Italian lady you have a hell-of-the-gut !!!

Rating:
Summary: A Woman of the Left
Review: It's interesting that so many readers have never encountered Oriana Fallaci before. In the 1970s & early 80s she was published in hundreds of American magazines and all of her books were published and sold in America. She even appeared on Johnny Carson. I always picked up her books because of her fast, take-no-prisoners style. People who are not familiar with her seem to think she is some kind of right-winger. But she was always a woman of the left but with a strong Catholic conscience and a great reverence for the culture of the West (Italy in particular).

Who can forget her tearing off her chador on tv while interviewing the Ayatollah? (He was unimpressed). I think it was at this point when the Establishment Left turned on her.

I read this book in one gulp. It is a wonderfully compelling polemic. I don't know why the word "cicada" should bother Publisher's Weekly. Anyone who lives near alot of trees in August know what kind of noise cicadas make. It's a perfect description for American, British & European elitists.

Rating:
Summary: A Review of Oriana Fallaci's The Pride and the Rage
Review: Having only recently discovered Oriana Fallaci, I realized that she belongs in my pantheon of great freethinkers of our time. She gives a decidedly Italian flavor to her argument, but that didn't bother me any, being of Italian decent myself. But mostly her views corresponded to what other notable "voices crying in the wilderness" of political incorrectness have been saying for years.

She calls the assault by Muslim fanatics on Western Civilization for what it is, namely a concerted attack on our core beliefs, our culture, our freedom, and our very way of life. The only place that I disagree with her is in her estimation of the magnitude of the assault. She believes that it is the work of millions of Muslims; she believes that the Muslim mainstream is hopelessly, radical and committed to our destruction. Whereas I think that there is a core, a silent majority, as it were, of People of Reason underlying the Arab / Muslim culture, but that it will take a paradigm shift to bring it out into the open. But I see the seeds of that possibility growing, in Kuwait, in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, in Jordan, and perhaps in other nations of the Middle East.

I completely agree, however, with her assessment that we must admit and face what is happening and to deal with it head on-as George Bush is doing-but we must not close our minds or harden our hearts to the possibilities.

One permanent influence this book will have on me, in addition to what I've already said, I'm going to replace my use of the word "liberal" with "cicada." I never did think that the word "liberal" was appropriate to describe the very illiberal left. Now we have a word that works better. (Hint, it's English; look it up).

Rating:
Summary: Sick Woman
Review: This Book is the desperate cry of a lonely and dissapointed woman, lashing out at the world, trying to reach an audience and making herself a memorial. This is what this Book is all about. Not about Islam, or Usama Bin Laden, or terrorism. It is somehow sad and yet dangerous. It is a Book full of underserved unrational hatred, and Venomous Bias and it is very dissapointing to see so many praises of her work. It clearly prooves that ignorance is still the norm prevailing today.
Oriana lacks any understanding of the powerful motivating religion called Islam, or political understanding of the background of pseudoreligious movements like the Taliban.
All she knows is Black and white, good and evil, culture and barbarity. Views like these have contributed much suffering in the world and are likely to cause even more.
She even attempts to deny the Golden Age of Islam and its contribution to the West. I asked myself, how can anyone take this woman serious?
She is a self made, selfrighteous Heroine, living in her own fictional World. Clearly she needs someone to blame for her misery, since women like her would rather wait for the sky to fall down, then dare to find any fault inthemselves. It is always the Cicadas, the sons of Allah, the communists...

Her book is the female equivalent of "Mein Kampf", lacking any objectivity, reason, or political correctness. What else can you say about a Woman who describes a group of People as "multiplying like Rats"?

Her futile thinking is present in the way she views the conflict in the Middle East. Any critiziscm of Israel is labeled as Antisemitic and is a proove of the returning Anti jewish sentiments of Europe, or so she sees it.

Views like these contribute to the lack of Understanding of the Horrible situation and the Humanright abuses committed by a State Obliged to protect and honor them. What does it help if it is a Jewish State, does it not deserve critizicsm? Did the Horrors of the Holocaust make this State devoid of any resbonsibilty and are we supposed to act to such reason? Oriana seems to think so...

Oriana Fallaci is a person who takes what she likes and leaves what she hates. Unfortunately this is not an accurate way of viewing History. Portraying the Western Culture as the epitome of Freedom and Culture is to ignore the dreadfull consequences that this has brought along. Nazism, Communism,Fashicsm, Social Darwinism, Slavery, Colonialism, these are all symptons of Western culture lived out. It is very pleasant to view only the good sides, but not fitting for an arguement since the newest disease of Western culture is Globalism. Orinana cites all the cultures which she considers her cultural heritage and forgets that these cultures where also notorious for the very thing she despises in what she calls the "Sons of Allah"( a very provokative and ignorant term which will also offend Arab Christians). The Greeks where notorious for their mistreatment of Women and up till recently Women were still second class citizens in Europe. The Romans were notorious for their arrogance, their savagery, and their destructive Imperialistic mentality.
The Rennaisance which Oriana seems so proud off was nothing but a result of the superior Muslim Civilitzation, which the Crusaders caught a glimpse of and deeply admired. The writing of Plato and Aristotle were preserved by the Muslims who studied and improved them. If not to them these writing would have been lost.
To give an example of Muslim superiority in these times one only has to view the differences between the savage Crusaders and Lionheart and the Chivalry of Saladin. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 they inscinated a Horrific Blood Bath. When Saladin captured the same city he promised all Christian citizens the protection of their Lives, and not a single person was wrongfully Harmed, although the Christians dreaded his revenge.
It is wrong and dangerous in therse troubled Times to reach out to hate prejiduce. It would be correct to reach out a hand and finally stop the Hatred that has lingered on for so many years.
America should stops supporting the Arab Dictators and work against the factors which produce such sick individuals as Usama Bin Laden. America and the West have done a lot of injustice to the Muslim World( consider the role of Britain in Palestine) and should stop acting out their superiority and Imperialistic power hungry desires.

As concerns Orianas writing , it it does not signify anything unless it us pushed up the Media. It is a piece of nothing writing whose only danger is being taken serious. What I want to achieve with this critique is to show that It does not take a Book to refute Orianas "arguements", but a few paragraphs, this is all we can press out the so called deeply emotional
cry of Oriana. It would be a great Honor if she herself would read my critique and refute me,I hope I have not offended her or anyone else and that I brought the message accross that I am not a Fanatic, yet I am a Muslim in the truest sense....

Rating:
Summary: every story has two sides
Review: after reading the french version of this book, i read tiziano terzani's book (lettres contre la guerre) countering fallaci's argument... a MUST for anyone who plans to read fallaci's book. sometimes an over-zealous "rage" can cloud logic and reason... as well as the search for more effective arguments on such a delicate matter!

Rating:
Summary: Oriana made a few mistakes in the book
Review: Oriana Fallaci delivers a powerful, "sermon". The book is excellent. However, as a Nigerian, she made mention of a fervidly Nigerian drug trade in Italy, and if i understand correctly, she was of the impression that Nigerian drug trading was done by Nigerian Moslems. This is wrong! The bulk of the Nigerian drug trade is by Christians. The sons of Jesus are dealing drugs in Italy, not the sons of allah! The "sermoon" is full of well intended hate. It may be full of prejudice, but well reasoned!