Adonis Diaries

Who is Oriana Falaci? An alternative interpretation  of St. John’s apocalyptic vision;  (November 2, 2007)

            Oriana Falaci is an Italian journalist turned writer; she was dying of cancer when she published her last book “Falaci interviews Falaci” followed by “Apocalypse”.  Falaci was a very liberal personality most of her life, defending the oppressed, until she turned sour and dissatisfied with the state of affairs perpetrated by the slaughtering of foreign hostages by Moslem extremists in Russia, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Falaci was furious that all the recent terrorist activities in Europe such as in Spain, Italy, France, Holland and Russia were executed by Moslems.  Falaci practiced selective amnesia in this book to avoid mentioning the genocides and terrorist activities in former Yugoslavia that were perpetrated by Christians, Catholics and Orthodox, and the daily terrorism in Iraq among the Moslems sects of Sunni and Shi3a.  Falaci went as far as supporting anyone, even Nazis or fascists, as long that the political program was to stop Moslems’ immigration to Europe and to never provide them with the legitimacy of a European citizenship.  Falaci ended her career by lashing out at legislations that permit homosexuals and lesbians to officially marry and adopt children “because it is a sin” and contrary to human procreation process.

            I wrote an article as a response to Falaci’s stands on Islam and Moslems entitled “Are there moderate Moslems?” and I will re-edit a few excerpts from my previous article.  Oriana Falaci has made up her mind that there are no moderate Moslems, lest they are Moslems by birth but are no longer practicing  believers: simply because the Koran is the Koran and there is no way to interpret the Sourates to coincide with civil laws in the western nations. 

Falaci insists that the word “terrorism” is not good enough; the mass media should be consistent in saying “Islamic terrorism”; a term that would satisfy the terrorist Zionists immensely.  Oriana Falaci espoused the views of Bernard Lewis, the guru of the neo-conservatives in the USA, on Islam; she considered this academic turned polemist as the ultimate authority for truth on Islamic matters.

            Apparently, the then 80-years old Lewis gave an interview to a German daily where he lambasted the West for not believing that radical Islam is the main enemy, instead of the new fascists; Lewis is hammering the notion that all of Europe is going to be Islamist by the year 2100.  There is a definite trend and disposition in the West to fit theories that antagonize the Moslem World by accepting as sound evidence the many terrorist acts perpetrated by extremist Moslems after the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.

            The vehement attitude of Falaci toward Islam stems from two premises; first, all of the terrorist attacks in the World are perpetrated by Moslems, and second, the practices of Moslems’ behavior in the Western World are based on the teaching of the Koran which cannot be reconciled with the rational civil laws in the western countries they live in.  I have responded on these two premises in my previous article and will focus on the alternative apocalyptic versions.

            Falacy used St. John’s apocalyptic vision to offer her version of Islam as the Monster and enliven her ejaculations and substantiate her stand, as if a flawed concept can be clarified by a more obscure premise.  In St. John’s apocalyptic version a Monster with seven heads and ten corns would emerge from the sea and the Beast on land would execute all the Monster’s orders until the an angel descend from heaven and lock the Monster and punish the Beasts. Thus, the Monster is Islam and the Beast is represented by the European liberals and leaders who are trying to appease Moslems and exhorting them to moderation by dangling carrots instead of raising the heavy sticks.

            The Monster is to emerge from the sea, though the Moslem World is mostly a vast desert until now.  Either the 100-years old St. John was completely dehydrated, and thus seeing mirages, or he had a vision of another Ice Age period and thus, wet continents have exchanged climatic states, or Falaci was getting out of whack and delving into uncharted territories.

            For the time being, the USA is the only superpower located smack between the Pacific and the Atlantic; the USA has waged two World Wars and invaded Asia and Europe and the only superpower to have landed troops in all continents and are still present, even after the end of the last “hot” world war more than 60 years ago. The USA has many heads in finance, economy, technology, sciences, mass media, music and movie production, agriculture, and a military supremacy with extra three corns in space exploration, maritime hegemony, and genetic experimentation. 

            The Beast can be represented by the world States leaders executing the US orders and the intelligencia and educated people interpreting favorably the misinformation that the successive US administrations are propagating to spread democracy by pre-emptive wars; many leaders are emulating the Beast, either out of fear of economic embargo, military reprisals, ordered terrorist activities, or because of local politics, or allegiance to the neo-conservative program. 

So far, many nations have joined the Bush Junior war on Iraq without the sanction of the UN, and most of them have ended up retrieving their troops after seeing the light or their leaders failing in elections.  The three main Beasts to shoulder this pre-emptive war were Blair of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.  I will only focus on the Saudi Monarchy/Theocracy Beast.

            Wolfowitz has said after the US troops entered Iraq: “Now, we can get our troops out of Saudi Arabia, after twenty years, without fear of destabilizing the region.”  There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia not only encouraged the US with its plan to invade Iraq but also financed this campaign directly and indirectly.  The Saudi Wahabi caste was first, getting revenge on the Iraqis for giving their supremacy over the other castes in Saudi Arabia the scare of their life in 1993: Saddam  invaded Kuwait and approached the Saudi Arabia, second, the Wahabi caste was encouraging the US to get its troops out of Saudi Arabia because Ben Laden was recruiting heavily on the basis of the “infidel Christians” spreading their impurity in the land, third, because the Saudi Monarchy and Wahabi caste are completely reliant on the US to maintaining their social structure, and fourth to keep communist China influence out of the Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

            The Monster can be named; it is the neo-conservatives in the USA.  They are an amalgam of hundreds of Baptist and Protestant sects with the main single belief in the process of how the Second Coming of their Messiah is going to happen. The neo-conservatives are clamoring that all the Jews should be relocated in Israel and then, after the Jews re-build their famous Temple in Jerusalem, they will launch a targeted crusade toward Israel, with the intention of Christianizing the new heretics of Jews; this campaign would be effective and completed and only then the Messiah would feel comfortable to come back! The odds are the neo-conservatives would repeat Titus’ feat of destroying the newly erected Temple and scatter the Jews all over the world.  If the Jews believe that the support of the USA is free of charge then they are under the spell of the demon; the Jews will have to pay back everything with high interest too.

            Falaci had a most striking interpretation of why the intelligent Ussama Ben Laden decided to televise an appearance a couple of days before the Presidential US election; Ben Laden warned the Americans that if they re-elect Bush then he will have no option but to repeat another deadly strike.  Ben Laden knew that his speech will galvanize the arrogant US citizens into shedding their apathy for voting and move in mass to voting heavily for Bush against the favorite Kerry.  The Bush Administration needed Ben Laden alive to sustain their propaganda against Islam and linger in Iraq.  Ben Laden needed Bush in power to recruit heavily among the anti-American Moslems. This is the ultimate deal between the staunchest extremist Beasts to wreck havoc in the world and create a definite cultural clash between the Christian West and the Islamic World.

            The current generally rigid Islam is a major factor to the prevention of effective communication between the West and the Moslem World but it is not the only main factor.  Most of the Moslem World is organized in Caste Systems (closed religious autonomous sects) due to the influence of India and the domination of the successive Mongol Empires to the whole region for over ten centuries.  The most effective venue is not to lambaste mercilessly Islam but to aid our region to gradually break out of our caste structures so that we may communicate first internally as a society and then open up to the West later on as people free to speak and publish our opinions without undue internal harassments. This gradual change is not meant to impose democracy by pre-emptive wars but to allow our societies to invent alternative open systems that work in each Middle East States.

I could not help but write a short poem related to the same theme.  Worst, I could not help but sharing it with you; it is titled “Redundant Prophets“:

 Tormented youths, hearing voices, experiencing apocalyptic nightmares,

Seeking desperately a corner in a desert,

Preferably when available nearby,

In desolate locations, in complete isolation,

To exorcise their dark dreams,

Their oppressive loneliness, the demons in their soul,

And to find peace of mind.

Archangel Gabriel materialized to a few of them,

Talking to them in a centaur voice,

Vast and reaching the skies,

Or plainly in a human form, surrounded with blinding light.

Gabriel would not let them in peace,

He would harass them during their wretched life,

Urging them to fear the Unique God,

And pray and glorify God’s name, and proselytize in God’s name.

Most were not as lucky in fame,

And have never seen a divine apparition;

They did pass that critical phase in life, in good mental stability,

And reduced level of exacerbated anxiousness.

The difference between Prophets and young crazies

Can be traced to the genetic laziness of Gabriel;

Or most likely to the current glut in redundant prophets.