Bushfire Jihad in Australia? by Daniel Pipes March 26, 2009 As fires swept through a hot and dry Victoria State, Australia in February 2009, some observers (including myself) wondered if this might not be an Islamist attack on the country. But one stayed quiet, not having proof. Now, Mervyn F. Bendle, a senior lecturer in History and Communications at James Cook University, Queensland, has come out and made the argument in a 6,000-word article, "Australia's nightmare: bushfire jihad and pyroterrorism," in the National Observer. Bendle marshals an impressive body of evidence. But first, a review of what happened: