Tel-Chai Nation

Oriana Fallaci, one of the oldest critics of Islam who didn't bend over backwards, passed away at 77 in her hometown of Florence this week. May her memory be blessed (in Hebrew: zikhrona levrakha).

MILAN (Reuters) - Oriana Fallaci, one of Italy's best-known writers and war correspondents who goaded the world's great and issued a vitriolic assault on Islam after the September 11 attacks on the United States, died on Friday aged 77.

Fallaci died in her home town of Florence after battling cancer for several years, a hospital official said.

Aggressive and provocative to the end, Fallaci made her name as a tenacious interviewer of some of the most famous leaders of the 20th century.

She quarreled with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, provoked U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger into likening himself to a cowboy, and tore off a chador (enveloping Islamic robe) in a meeting with Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"A great Italian and brave writer has died who has led a life full of passion, full of love, with great civil courage," Ferruccio De Bortoli, editor-in-chief of Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, told Reuters.

De Bortoli first published the angry essay that turned into Fallaci's controversial best-seller, "The Rage and the Pride," which described Islam as oppressive and Arab immigrants in Europe as dirty, foul-mouthed and bigoted.

She called on Europeans to defend their culture and values instead of adjusting to immigrants' needs.

"The book was a great appeal to be proud of our identity," De Bortoli, former editor of Corriere della Sera newspaper, said. "It's the strongest testimony to the emotional and intellectual reaction to the September 11 (2001) attacks."

In a later book, "The Force of Reason," Fallaci wrote that the Islamic faith "sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom."

An Italian judge later ordered Fallaci to stand trial on charges she defamed Islam, but the case never went to court.

'DISASTROUS CONVERSATION'

The storm she triggered with her anti-Islamic essays came as no surprise to Fallaci, who courted controversy throughout her career and ended as a reclusive and angry writer in New York.

Fallaci set the pace for a daring life when she joined Italy's anti-fascist resistance as a teenager during World War Two, then showed the same fearlessness as a war correspondent.

She covered conflicts in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Latin America at a time when few women braved the front lines, and was shot and beaten in 1968 during student demonstrations in Mexico.

Later, she succeeded in fiction with novels including "A Man," inspired by her love affair with Greek resistance fighter Alexandros Panagoulis.

Her exchanges with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, the Shah of Iran, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and other leaders, collected in her book "Interview with History," stood out for her provocative, uncompromising questioning.

In her interview with Kissinger, Fallaci needled the U.S. statesman until he agreed that the Vietnam War was "useless."

Kissinger later wrote that her interview with him was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."

According to Fallaci's own anecdotes, she had a shouting match with Arafat and opened an interview with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by ridiculing his political manifesto as "so small and insignificant it fits in my powder puff."

Many loved her confrontational style but others accused her of slander and taking quotes out of context to spice up a story.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said: "With Oriana Fallaci, we lose a journalist of global fame, an author of great success, a passionate protagonist of lively cultural battles."

And one of the boldest critics of Islam in Europe. And while the imam who tried to sue her for "insulting Islam" cannot do so now, it's very sad to lose her. She was one of the best of Europe and she also stood with Israel.

I strongly recommend buying her books, such as The Force of Reason and The Rage and the Pride. Plus, read also this translation of one of her Italian essays on the London bombings.

While we're on the subject, Michelle Malkin is offering "I will not submit" t-shirts on Cafe Press. I strongly recommend buying them, for the whole family, in fact. They make for great wearing indeed.

Others mourning Fallaci's loss include Industrial Blog, It Shines for All, Babalu Blog, Wall Street Cafe, Stop the ACLU, OpinionBug, Hyscience, Dave Lucas' Notes, Woman Honor Thyself, Liberty and Justice.

Labels: Europe, Italy