You don’t think that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld , Rice and all the other happy pirates of the U.S. administration are not causing chaos and destruction? Are they not a “sleeper cell” of a type.

Lucky you, living in Australia you did not have to pay too close attention to the Republican “debate” in South Carolina where the biggest applause line was about expanding Guantanamo.

Even after the disasters of the Bush administration, where any other sane citizenry would have stuffed these actors in to orange jump suits, a full quarter of the electorate give Bush the thumbs up.

Of that 28% of the American people it’s a tiny sliver of activists that are actually doing the damage. From PNAC to AEI to the money men like Schaffe. These sharks swim in the “base” of the Republican party.

Again this is a tiny minority a fraction of a percent. But they have managed to pull the U.S. and the world in to a much darker place.

So let me divide the question. Question 1 can you get 20% of any population to agree with a radical and dangerous ideology?
Question 2 within the adherents of that 20% percent can you find a leadership who will use them to further guide them to a very dangerous place?

Again, I have to admit yes to Q1 and Q2. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. So could a tiny minority in the Muslim community with enough time and lots of (Saudi) money drive the Ummah in Australia to proto-fascist ideology? Could they get 20% of the Ummah to agree with that proto-fasicist (and UN-Islamic) meme? Could that dedicated 20% then take over the organizations of Muslim civil society driving them to support their overarching plan?
It doesn’t have to be about jihadist violence. It could just be about driving the Ummah into place they don’t want to go; into a ultra-puritanical interpretation of Islam that is a distortion of what the prophet wanted.

So can it happen? Well yes, the blueprints there. Will it happen? Let’s work and hope and pray so it does not.

All it takes is an authoritarian personality. Closer to home right around one quarter of the U.S. population are Domminionist or right-wing Evangelical “Christians.” Look at the blogosphere and the dangerous koolaid drinkers who are proposing that the U.S. imprison people for practicing Islam.
This small minority has hijacked one of the two major US political parties. Sometimes it’s not the numbers but the dedication of the actors. What damage can a small but dedicated minority of Islamic absolutists do to Australia’s’ Muslim community?