The Rage and The Pride (La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio) by Oriana Fallaci
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And now the fatal question: what is behind the other culture? Damned if I know. I search and search and find only Mohammed with his Koran and Averroe with his scholarly merits (The Commentaries on Aristotle, et cetera.) Arafat also finds numbers and math. Again yelling in my face, again covering me with spit, he told me in 1972 that his culture was superior to mine, far superior to mine, because his grandparents had invented numbers and math. But Arafat has a short memory. That's why he changes his mind and contradicts himself every five minutes. His grandparents did not invent numbers and math. They invented the graphic symbols for numbers that we infidels use as well. Math was conceived almost simultaneously by all ancient civilizations. In Mesopotamia, in Greece, in India, in China, in Egypt, among the Mayans...Your grandparents, my illustrious Mr. Arafat, left us nothing but a few beautiful mosques and a book they've been breaking my balls with for the past thousand four hundred years like not even the Christians do with their Bible or the Jews with their Torah. And now let's see just what are the positive features that distinguish this Koran. Positive, really? Ever since the sons of Allah half–destroyed New York, the scholars of Islam have done nothing but sing the praises of Mohammed, explain how the Koran preaches peace, brotherhood and justice. (Even Bush has been chiming in. Poor Bush. It goes without saying that Bush has to keep on good terms with the twenty–four million Muslim–Americans, convince them to squeal what they know about the relatives, friends or acquaintances who might turn out to be devoted to Osama Bin Laden). So what do we do with the whole Eye–for–an–Eye–Tooth–for–a–Tooth business? What do we do with the chador, or better with the veil that covers the faces of Muslim women so that in order to glance at the person next to them the poor wretches have to peer through a close–meshed net at eye–level? What do we do with polygamy and the principle that women count less than camels, that they can't go to school, they can't go to the doctor, they can't have their pictures taken, etc.? What do we do with the veto on alcohol and the death penalty for those who drink it? This is in the Koran, too. And it doesn't seem all that just, all that brotherly, all that peaceful.

So here's my answer to your question on the Contrast–between–the–Two–Cultures: I say in this world there's room for everyone. In your own home you can do whatever you want. And if in some countries the women are so stupid as to accept the chador, or rather the veil you peer out of through a close-meshed net at eye level, that's their problem. If they are such birdbrains as to accept not going to school, not going to the doctor, not having their pictures taken, that's their problem. If they are such idiots as to marry some asshole who wants four wives, that's their problem. If their men are so silly as not to drink beer or wine, ditto. Far be it from me to stand in their way. I was raised with the concept of liberty, I was, and my mother used to say: "Variety is what makes the world beautiful." But if they presume to impose the same things on me, in my home...And they do presume it. Osama Bin Laden says that the entire planet Earth must become Muslim, that we must convert to Islam, that he will convert us by fair means or foul, that this is why he massacres us and will continue to do so. And this can't be pleasing to us. It can't help but make us itch to turn the tables and kill him. But this thing won't end, won't die out with the death of Osama Bin Laden. Because there are tens of thousands of Osama Bin Ladens by now, and they're not only in Afghanistan or in other Arabic countries. They're everywhere, and the most hardened ones are right in the Western world. In our cities, in our roads, in our universities, in the ganglions of technology. That technology that any dolt can handle. The Crusade has been in progress for some time. It works like a Swiss watch, sustained by a faith and a malice comparable only to the faith and malice of Torquemada when he led the Inquisition. The fact is that dealing with them is impossible. Reasoning, unthinkable. Treating them with indulgence, tolerance or hope, suicide. Whoever thinks differently is deluded.

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