The latest Fallaci column

Our pal at Mystery Acheivement has been busily translating the latest column from the mighty Oriana Fallaci. He begins:

Published exactly one week ago today in Corriere Della Sera, it is entitled, “Il nemico che trattiamo da amico” (“The Enemy We Treat As A Friend”). Hopefully, I’ll have Part II translated and posted by tomorrow.

You’ll have to go read it all, because it is lengthy, but do go read it. Print it out and read it with your Sunday coffee, maybe. When you read it, remember: Fallaci is an intellectually honest “left winger” and a self-proclaimed atheist who has survived gunshots, is dying of cancer and is about to go on trial in Italy (in absentia) for writing a book (see my Bookshelf). Keep it in mind, because she is always surprising.

They ask me face-to-face, via fax and email; often scolding me because up until now I have remained silent. Almost as if my silence were a betrayal. And each time I shake my head and murmur to myself: what else should I say?!? I’ve been saying it for four years–that I fight against the Monster that has decided to eliminate us physically and, along with our bodies, to destroy our principles and values. Our civilization. For four years I’ve been talking about Islamic Nazism; about the war against the West; about the death cult; about European suicide. About a Europe that is no longer Europe, but Eurabia, and that with its feebleness, its inertia, its blindness, its servitude to the enemy is digging its own grave. For four years, like another Cassandra, I’ve been shouting until I’m hoarse “Troy is burning! Troy is burning!”
…
Naturally, I understand that the philosophy of the Catholic Church is based on ecumenism and on the commandment “Love-your-enemy-as-yourself.“ That one of its fundamental principles (at least theoretically) is forgiveness, sacrifice, turning the other cheek…But there also exists the principle of self-defense or, instead, legitimate defense and, if I’m not mistaken, the Catholic Church has made use of this principle more than once. Charles Martel turned back the Muslim invaders lifting up the crucifix. Isabel of Spain tossed them out of Spain while doing the same. And at Lepanto there were even Papal troops. In order to defend Vienna, the last bulwark of Christianity, in order to break the siege of Kara Mustafa, there was also, and above all, the Pole Jan Sobienski with the image of the Virgin of Chestochowa. And if those Catholics had not applied the principle of self-defense–of legitimate defense–we, too, would be wearing the burka or the calabash. We, too, would be calling the few survivors infidel dogs. We, too, We, too, would be cutting off their heads with the halal knife. And Saint Peter’s Basilica would be a mosque, like the Church of Saint Sofia in Istanbul. Worse: the Vatican would be Bin Laden and Zarqawi.

These excerpts cannot do her justice. Hopefully we will have Part II tomorrow, but she ends declaring that she is not calling for a religious war, but that to try to “dialogue” with Islamofacists is…against Life, against one’s own survival. And woe unto those who take them into their confidence…”

Bin Laden was clear about it in 2001, when he said: It is a question of faith, not a war against terrorism, as Bush and Blair try to depict it.

Europe and too many in America keep thinking this war on terror is “about” something. It’s not about anything but one side trying to destroy the other. Oriana Fallaci, atheist, sees that whether the PC West wants it or not, a religious element is going to have to come into play. Sooner or later. Me…I keep thinking about Our Lady of Guadalupe. The woman in the Book of Revelation, clothed with the sun, standing upon the moon…the crescent moon…with an Eagle bearing her to safety. It is rich with meaning.

UPDATE: Part II is now up.