The Wisdom of Oriana Fallaci

I did some light research on Oriana Fallaci, the noted Italian jouralist in anticipation of a post about the controversy over the Dhimmi exhibit American Beauty. FrontPage.com (link via the Infidel Bloggers Alliacne)does an excellent job covering the story so I won't embellish here.

For those not familiar with Ms. Fallaci, I direct you to the Wikipedia entry for her. It is informative and comprehensive. Ms. Fallaci is about to go on trial against the Dhimmi forces in Italy for slandering Islam.

I found some quotes of hers and I thought they were very prescient:

President Bush has said, “We refuse to live in fear.”

Beautiful sentence, very beautiful. I loved it! But inexact, Mr. President, because the West does live in fear. People are afraid to speak against the Islamic world. Afraid to offend, and to be punished for offending, the sons of Allah. You can insult the Christians, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Jews. You can slander the Catholics, you can spit on the Madonna and Jesus Christ. But, woe betide the citizen who pronounces a word against the Islamic religion.

Or this:

“If we continue to stay inert, they will become always more and more. They will demand always more and more, they will vex and boss us always more and more. ‘Til the point of subduing us. Therefore, dealing with them is impossible. Attempting a dialogue, unthinkable. Showing indulgence, suicidal. And he or she who believes the contrary is a fool.”

These were said well before the current Cartoon Furor. More on her from Common Sense Junction, a very fine libhertarian blog, laughtergeneaology.