Passion and Subjectivity. - Rated 
This book, while not exactly a `rant', is certainly a harsh polemic against Islam. Fired up by the 9/11 attacks and the continuing encroachment of what she saw as an alien culture in her beloved Italy, La Fallaci sat down and wrote a hostile critique of Islam for an Italian newspaper. The article met with widespread support and, encouraged, she expanded the article to book length and published it as "The Rage and the Pride." Both her rage and her pride come across strongly in her highly subjective writing and her arguments are far less reasoned than in her second book "The Force of Reason."
Such passionate and politically incorrect writing is becoming a rarity these days and Oriana Fallaci is to be congratulated for her courage. The brutal honesty she displays in this book though cost her dear. Faced with arrest in Europe for inciting hatred she was forced to spend the twilight years of her life in exile in the United States returning to Italy only to die in her home town of Florence - cheating her detractors of the show trial they so craved.
Although the book's literary merits are slim, it deserves to be read for its passion and brutal honesty. It is a call to arms from someone concerned their civilisation is being destroyed and who feels duty bound to try and wake up her compatriots before it is too late. In her own words... "There are moments in life when keeping silent becomes a fault, and speaking an obligation. A civic duty, a moral challenge, a categorical imperative from which we cannot escape."
an important yet ironic rant - Rated 
While I agree with some of the reviewers who described Fallaci's work as a rant, this book contains some valid points; however, the gross generalizations Fallaci relies on do not help her cause much, and risk, due to their offensive nature, alienating some readers into dismissing her argument altogether, her valid points notwithstanding.
I disagree with Fallaci on describing so many peoples and nations as, more or less, "scum" without any culture. I am turned off by her using single repulsive incidents as sufficient evidence to draw conclusions about entire races and peoples. I disagree with her in putting everyone in the same basket, including countless poor immigrants who escaped from abhorring conditions and are enduring terrible ordeals to seek better lives. The many boat people trying to escape to Europe via Spain and drowning in the process are but one example. Fallaci seems to forget that behind most immigrants there is real and chilling misery, instead she assumes they are all part of some army-in-disguise aiming at annihilating western civilization.
In her book, every immigrant is either a terrorist, an aspiring terrorist, or a criminal. Fallaci generalizes too much, and demonizes just about everyone coming from a Moslem country. While Fallaci is right about the dangers of the militant version of a religion that does not wish to live and let live, but has, as part of its mission statement, the aim of conquering and preferably converting everyone on earth, nevertheless, this does not mean that everyone who comes out of a Moslem country is but a soldier-in-disguise. The truth is more about there being a specific group of fanatics who seek to transform as many immigrants (or children of immigrants) as possible to their own causes, and USE THEM for their own agenda.
Fallaci could have done better identifying the policies (of the Italian government, as well as western governments in general) that were ultimately responsible for this dangerous situation, such as the legal loopholes whereby fascist and like-minded groups could quote their democratic rights to push forth their agenda, and whereby one of the first items on that agenda is the abolition of that very democracy. Identifying specific practises would have been more productive than just spitting fire on everybody, which is the only thing Fallaci did.
The book takes the form of an offensive rant the vilifies entire peoples many of whom have committed no fault but having had the unfortunate destiny of being born under the banner of a religion which is not ready to undergoe any kind of revision of the types that other religions have undergone, and that persecutes anyone who calls for its reform, and punishes anyone who wishes to leave it by execution. Some writer ( I don't remember the name) once said, "Moslems are themselves the first hostages of their religion". Many people from Moslem countries emigrate to the West simply to seek better lives and better education for their children. Assuming that all of them are militia to the "inverse crusade" as she described it, is a gross injustice. However, calling for tougher measures to identify the foul elements among them, those who carry out a systematic plan of recruitment to violent causes inside their host countries and drafting tough laws to send those elements packing, would have been a more helpful way of going about it.
An interesting fact is that, throughout her text, Fallaci repeatedly describes the composition of italians using the word "humus", saying things like "we are a humus of...", not realizing (?) that the word "humus" describes an ARAB dish (and the word itself is neither Italian, nor English, but Arabic!), the very people (along with other non-arab-muslims) that she dedicated most of her pages to denigrating! It is, of course, a superb irony, revealing the fact that cultures have always intermingled and it is impossible to separate what comes from where or whom, that even a staunch opposer of "immigrant invasion" as Fallaci, goes on to use words from "their" language to describe her very different heritage, apparently without being conscious of it!
While Fallaci has plenty of words of admiration for the US, she doesn't seem to realize another irony: what made the US a world superpower is precisely its immigrants, the incalculabe richness of all those races coming together and bringing their individual strengths to enhance the whole. Fallaci, in her anger against the abusive practises of violent elements among immigrants cannot discriminate between what needs to be isolated and dealt with, and, what has always been a feature of humanity: that of moving to better, more promising pastures. Islamic militants do not represent entire races and peoples, assuming that is playing into their hands and buying into their propaganda.
Had she been also interested in real solutions, rather than just a format for ditching her anger, she'd have suggested some new laws that call for integration of immigrants in Europe, similar to those in the US, policies with specific deadlines, whereby immigrants are given the chance to learn the language and prime themselves for integration, otherwise, they'd not get the right to citizenship/permits and would have to leave. Under such conditions, immigrants would have to make the effort to integrate if they want to stay. When no such measures exist, and society is indifferent as to what is going on, naturally, they could wake up one day with a big problem at hand.
While Fallaci is right about the current serious problem in the West (as well as the rest of the world, for that matter) as a result of the rise of militant Islam, with Khomeini at its source as she correctly remarks, her identification of who's behind it is not very accurate, and, as far as any helpful suggestions are concerned, she offered none except an implied "throw-them-all-out" message.
While I do not wish at all to belittle the danger, and do agree that some of the "anti-racism" campaigners have, in their defense of some of the practises of immigrants, contributed to emboldening the extreme elements among them into believing they can turn the countries they sought refuge in into copies of the countries they ran away from, nevertheless, responding by claiming that immigrants are "the enemy" and coining the problem as allowing immigration in the first place, is an approach that, while providing a GREAT format for venting, does not offer real solutions.
Let's hope someone would heed the danger she pointed to BUT would have a REASONABLE, PRACTICAL AND FIRM PLAN for ways to avert the danger, without throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Rant and Bile - Rated
Is this book as good as many reviewers think or just the ravings of an aged lunatic as others imply?
In my view it is a bit of a curate's egg being a strange hybrid. Yes it is difficult to follow being a literal translation by the author herself of the original Italian rather than the work of a professional translator. In my view this adds to its force as Fallaci was a very erudite person with a wonderful command of both Italian and English.
She can appear racist at times but this is because of her unbridled anger as what she perceives of the Western World's weakness and self-loathing. She intended it to be rude to serve as a wake up call and as a call to arms. In such circumstances I believe one is justified in not flirting around the edges of a problem but confronting it head on. She has done this wonderfully and the book should be read by all and we must not forget what is encapsulated within namely if we capitulate to totalitarianism we will eventually be enslaved.
A marvellous read.
The mad ravings of an old woman? - Rated 
I bought this on the strength of it being described as "one of the two most important books in the last 100 years" (see below this review). I also bought it because of its subject matter. The threat from 'Islamofascists' is one that I, as sane Westerner should, take extremely seriously. But what do I find in this 'contribution to the debate' by Oriana Fallaci? All I find here is a rant - nothing more, nothing less. Surely if we are, as she states, not an equal culture to that found in Islamic states because of our 'freedom' and 'learning' and 'history' then we should expect a more intelligent assault on Islamofascism or a more reasoned defense of the West. This is a book which is exactly what it set out to be - a newspaper article and as such should have stayed that way in my opinion.
So though I agree with many (not all) of Fallaci's sentiments I think in some way that this does more harm than good to the debate. All this book reveals to me is one woman's hatred of Islam (amongst other things). It is also curiously translated by Fallaci herself and though she explains the reason for this she does write English incredibly badly. I suppose however that if she had got a professional translator to do the job for her the much of the venom would have been lost.
The book is in the form of a letter to the editor of an Italian newspaper but in the process of making some empassioned pleas for the West to wake up, Fallaci time and again falls into the trap of obvious racism. Describing Somalis as "dirty" or suggesting that Italian cities now look like "filthy casbahs" is not really helpful in the present climate.
In all I would tend to agree with Christopher Hitchens view of Fallaci's book in that it is "a sort of primer in how not to write about Islam". I wished that this had been more reasoned and thought through because she does have some of my sympathy in her views but if I were you I would read something a little more intellectually sound and less acid than this.
Two stars because anything is better than nothingto wake people up from the stupidity of cultural relativism and the present Left's blindness towards atrocities commited in Islamic states. However this strays incredibly close to downright racism and is written to cause offence to many, so be warned.
The Most Important Book for the last 100 years ! The Final Wake-Up Call for the West - Rated 
This book has been called one of the two Most Important Books in the last 100 years. The other one? The Force of Reason, by the same author. This is the final wake-up call to all the people living in the West. Everyone lives in the West should read it now before it is too late. The book told us the history that even our Western societies do not dare to tell us for the last 100 years, we have been cheated by our own governments, our own media, our own politicians. You should buy at least 20 copies of this book and give them away to the politicians, the MPs, the newspaper editors, the journalists, your friends and your children. If you are a millionaire, buy 10,000 of them and give them away. Do it today, or you will truly regret. If you do not do this now, your children will be put into prison or be killed for doing the same thing when they grow up. Different from any other books in the last 100 years, this book tells us the truth that we do not know, the biggest danger that threatens the West, our wellbeing, our democracy, and the lives and death for our children, all because the greatest negligence the West has made. This book is truly the Final Wake-Up Call for the Western civilization.
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