The group that launched an effort last month to draft historian Amity Shlaes into the New York Senate race is at it again – this time to bring an anti-extremist Muslim into the Michigan Senate race – to oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
The Dogcatcher Project, an online political movement headed by blogger Adam Brickley, today began their next effort, drafting the Sufi spiritual leader Hisham Kabbani into the 2012 Michigan Senate race.
Kabbani has been an outspoken opponent of radical Islam and its potentially subversive influences in American culture – at one point saying that extremism has spread to “80 percent of Muslim population” in the United States. Indeed his comments have made him persona non grata among groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America. He has also been the subject of a number of death threats.
Brickley told The Daily Caller that the hope is to generate buzz about his candidacy before campaign season heats up and his group’s voice is drowned out.
It is Kabbani’s strong and vocal opposition to radicalism and potential appeal to Michigan’s large Muslim population that has caught The Dogcatcher’s eye.
“Shaykh Kabbani has been an active presence in anti-jihadi efforts for a while,” Brinkley said. “I heard him a few years ago when he was in Frank Gaffney’s documentary ‘Islam versus Islamists.’ He has a large following and when we found out he was in Michigan – which is one of our target races – we thought it would be an interesting idea to try.”
Kabbani’s anti-extremist attitude is most appealing to the group and while his other policy ideas are less clear, his devout religious proclivities, videos, and some political donations have fellow “Dogcatcher” and founder of GOPisforme, Duke Machado saying Kabbani is definitely a conservative.
“If you look through his tons of videos you see where his spirit is, where his heart it,” Machado said. “[He] is a total conservative…Definitely conservative on social issues and we would like to think that would translate into conservative on fiscal issues.”
The Dogcatcher purposefully has not contacted Kabbani in the hope that the group will be able to build enough support so that he will be less likely to reject the idea.
Brinkley’s grassroots group will be targeting seven more races across the country in addition to the New York and Michigan senate races.