[lit-ideas] Re: Olivier Roy, Daniel Pipes and Oriana Fallaci

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 07:20:44 -0800

So quick with the ad hominem attacks that you miss the point, Omar.  You and
Judy are so quick to pick Oriana Fallaci out of the discussion to attack,
because she attacked Islam, that you miss the point - the point being that
people aren't seeing any moderate Muslims out there.   Rima Allaf sounds
moderate but what is she moderate about: attacking Fallaci - well not so
moderate.  She too misses Fallaci's main arguments and instead is outraged
at Fallaci's rage.  Can you do nothing other than attack those who express
outrage at Islamic excesses?  This is still happening in Europe, but how
long can it go on?  Everyone who is outraged over Islamic excesses is
attacked as a racist and nothing is done about the excesses.  How long can
you keep pushing the problem away by attacking those who are outraged?  

 

In my note I once again drew attention to this issue of the mysterious
missing moderates, the ones who only seem to speak up if they are living in
America or some other city outside the Middle East.  I mentioned that one of
the authors I was reading, Daniel Pipes, also assumed a large group of
moderates and accounted for their silence by the fact that many who tried to
speak out were killed.  So, he implies, they are out there and they would
speak out, but they are afraid of being killed.  Well, from over here the
difference between moderates who are afraid to speak out and moderates who
don't exist is moot.   We don't see or hear them.  We don't know of their
existence.  So instead we read news articles about Islamic excesses, riots,
car-bombings, desecrations of churches and synagogues, murders, rapes, and
robberies.  And when an Oriana Fallaci who had been "reasonable," who had
Rima Allaf's respect until she became outraged and spoke her rage, vents her
rage in a book like The Rage and the Pride, what is there to do but attack
her?  We certainly can't attack the problems.  We certainly can't attack the
Islamic excesses in the cities Fallaci is trying to protect. 

 

European leaders are still in denial.  They still sound like Rima Allaf and
you, Omar, and as long as they are in denial, nothing will be done - well
that's not quite true.  Something will be done. You need to pay more
attention to the rage Fallaci expresses.  She is 75 years old and has cancer
so she probably isn't going to do anything personally, but notice how Le
Pen's popularity is growing in France.   Notice how in Germany Rammstein is
selling more CDs than any other music group - Rammstein who dresses up like
futurisitic storm troopers; and sing of murder, blood and torture.  Claire
Berlinski interviewed these singers and thinks they're stupid but when they
get up on stage they are mesmerizing and visibly express the rage and the
pride of Germany - a rage and pride that is not so very far beneath the
surface despite their avowed pacifism.  

 

You can't go on dismissing people like Fallaci, Le Pen, and Rammstein with
ad hominem attacks.  They express an alternative.  We either fix the problem
now or we ignore it until the Fallaci's, Le Pens and Rammsteins are so full
of rage that they fix it.  And as Fallaci hints, Europeans are much better
at fixing things with war than Muslims; so it would behoove someone to get
off of their high-horsed ad hominems and start doing something about the
problem before it is too late.

 

Lawrence

 

 

 

On Behalf Of Omar Kusturica
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 1:26 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Olivier Roy, Daniel Pipes and Oriana Fallaci

 

 

 

--- Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 

 

  

> 

> But there are powerful voices weighing in on the

> side of our war being not

> just against the Islamists but against all of Islam.

>  I just read Oriana

> Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride.  She was in New

> York within walking

> distance of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and afterwards

> she saw Muslims around

> the world on TV dancing and singing over America

> having got what it

> deserved.  She knows how to hate and she knows how

> to hold a grudge.  She

> hates the cicadas, the politically correct who

> apologize to the Muslims

> while they engage in the most outrageous behavior. 

> They can behave anyway

> they like back in their own country but when they

> come to the West, they

> should behave in accordance with our standards.  She

> has examples and she

> names names.  Of course someone issued a fatwa

> calling for her death after

> she wrote The Rage and the Pride.  

 

*I don't know who issued a death fatwa against Oriana

Fallaci, but if it's true it was really stupid thing

to do. Having some so patently idiotic as Oriana

ranting against you is an asset.

 

O.K.

 

 

http://www.rimeallaf.com/articles/a0037.html

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