As our nation's citizens come closer to making a decision on Election Day, one
judgment will be about the nature of those who call for appeasement and the nature of those they insist we appease.
Three lives were particularly important to that question this week.
Sister
Leonella
Sister Leonella (Rosa Sgorbati) was 65 years old. She spoke fluent Somali. For 38 years she had dedicated her life
to serving sick mothers and children in Kenya and Somalia. Since 2002 she had worked at the Mogadishu hospital
operated by the Austrian S.O.S, Kinderorf organization.
Accompanied by an associate and her bodyguard, Sister Leonella was walking the 30 feet or so between the hospital
and her home where three other nuns were waiting to have lunch. Two days or so before, the Pope had made a speech
in Germany where he discussed his concern that religion untethered to rationality would lead to savagery. The Pope's
speech prompted a prominent Somali cleric to say the following, "We urge you, Muslims, wherever you are to
hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements," Sheik Abubukar Hassan Malin said at Friday prayers in his
Mogadishu mosque. "Whoever offends our prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim."
Two gunmen killed her bodyguard and a companion and shot Sister Leonella four times in the back. Willy Huber, regional
director of the hospital said, "The gunmen specifically targeted her. They were waiting for her. As she crossed
the road, they opened fire." According to A.P., witnesses said that the attack appeared to be deliberate and
planned. They refused to speak further for fear of reprisals.
As she lay dying, Sister Leonella's final thoughts were about her murderers. In her native Italian, her last whispered
words were "Perdono, perdono," I forgive, I forgive.
La Fallaci
Fierce but diminutive, the primordial Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci died of lung cancer this week. She weighed
less than 80 pounds. She died at her birthplace, Florence, Italy.
A native of Tuscany, Oriana Fallaci had devoted her seventh decade of life to defending Europe against the modern
attacks of radical Islam. She readily, joyfully, accepted that candor in intellectual circles can result in one
being ostracized, exiled or even killed.
As a result she ended her days as the most widely-read and most widely-sued author of her day.
The Swiss asked the Italian government to extradite her over her latest book - The Rage and the Pride. She
had been sued in France and her native Italy. Indeed, because of the European Arrest Warrant, it was far safer
for her to live in New York City. The charges against her were brought by numerous Muslim groups and consisted
of religious racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. The charges were only made possible by European legislatures
and courts preparing a special place for private lawsuits for offended Muslims who want to veto free speech and
punish insufficient deference to their power.
Out of their fear, Fallaci held, or their illusion of security, the West's political and cultural elites had enthroned
the politically correct, the appeaser and the triangulator. When Europe willingly let go of Christianity, it lost
not only a powerful religion, it lost the equally powerful symbol of the force of reason. Christianity, through
a long evolution, had forsaken violence and appealed to reason to advance its faith. Christianity had experience
that could help Islam sort through the mumbo-jumbo of multiculturalism.
And so, Fallaci, who styled herself a "Christian atheist," grew close to Pope Benedict in these past
few years. The 79-year-old Pope and the 77-year old secularist reflected a generation that knew what freedom meant.
They shared intellect and moral courage.
Pope Benedict XVI
On September 12th at the University of Regensburg in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI
delivered a serious but academic speech. (Full text at Vatican Website) He dealt with major themes - the commingling
of faith and reason, the down side of western secularism and the futile use of violence as a means of religious
persuasion.
"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. God is not pleased by blood,"
the Pope said, "Not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul and not of the
body."
The name Bendict was chosen by Cardinal Ratzinger because the original Benedict is credited for saving Christianity
in Western Europe during the Dark Ages.
The speech went on to challenge the twin dangers of both militant Islam and intolerant and aggressive secularism.
Christian belief, he continued, is in a God whose words and acts are bound by reason, truth and the law of non-contradiction.
Islamic belief is in a God not bound by anything - including his own words. It is an article of their faith. Secular
humanists see reason as completely unbound from God.
The speech was a quest for peace through the use of reasonable discussion. It suggests cherishing the ability to
challenge and to criticize without fear of retribution.
We all know what happened next. The feigned, organized, tactical week of rage is still going on.
The Ayatollah Khomeini says this about Islam advancing by the sword. "Those who study jihad will understand
why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and the
shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to paradise, which
can be opened only for holy warriors."
So there is no excuse for any lack of understanding. The demand of the appeasers is clear enough. As David Warren
says, the decent should kneel before the indecent.
And the historical American answer to the threat of the sword is clear enough as well.
Stick it.
September 22, 2006
