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Italian gift to Pope may renew Muslim ire
 Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian journalist, who left her books and papers to a Rome university because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, may have lent further strength to Muslim suspicions about the Popes perceived Islamophobia. In her last days, Fallaci, who became a bitter foe of Islam, which she saw as a destructive force at war with the West and its values, had a private audience with Benedict at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal, I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. A report in Boston Globe on Sunday said that Benedict was surprised by the gift of the books, which dated back as far as the 17th century. The veneration that she had for you, Holy Father, persuaded her to make this donation, which will be known as the Oriana Fallaci Archives, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome said during a ceremony at the university announcing the gift of the books. Pope Benedict greeted Fallacis nephew and his family during the ceremony, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. After an absence from the publishing scene for nearly a decade, Fallaci returned to the spotlight after the 9/11 attacks with a series of blistering essays in which she argued that Muslims were carrying out a war against the Christian West. At the time of her death, she was on trial in northern Italy, accused of defaming Islam in her 2004 book, The Strength of Reason. Posted by: Fred 2006-10-23 |
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