Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam, Vatican sources confirmed. The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said. The meeting on Saturday between Benedict XVI and the former war correspondent became public only after Fallaci’s associates let slip that the meeting took place.

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II. “Europe is no longer Europe, it is ‘Eurabia,’ a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense,” Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal on June 23. “Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty,” she said. “I feel less alone when I read Ratzinger’s books,” the journalist added.

But writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera three weeks later, she said integrating Muslims in Western society was a “nightmare” and criticised the pope’s call for dialogue with Muslim leaders after the July 7 London suicide bombings.

AFP report, 30 August 2005

The author foresees a “clash of civilisations” such as that defined in Samuel P Huntington’s 1998 work of that name. But, she adds, “it annoys me even to talk about two cultures, to put them on the same plane”. Her main theme is that Muslims are engaged in a plot to conquer her native continent by immigration, transforming it into what she dubs “Eurabia”.

“Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam,” she writes. “In each of our cities lies a second city: a Muslim city, a city run by the Koran. A stage in the Islamic expansionism.”

Guardian, 13 July 2005

(A useful article on the Oriana Fallaci case, though the case is hardly “new” and Huntington’s book was published in 1996.)

“When freedom of thought becomes an exception that confirms the rule, it means that a civilization is going back to the darkest era of human history, rather than evolving in direction of individual freedom and Human Rights. This is exactly what is happening to Europe, thanks to Islam. It’s not a secret anymore; we are serving on a silver platter our countries to Muslims. They are flocking to Europe in droves and arrogantly intend to change our lives, our laws and our values. Civility presupposes obedience to the laws of the country that hosts you; but it seems that Muslims not only cannot respect any law other than Sharia, they also demand that we live by their archaic laws. Our countries are being shaped to meet their needs.”

Another stirring defence of intellectual freedom, by an Italian supporter of Oriana Fallaci.

FaithFreedom.org, 17 June 2005