New NYC Muslim Democratic Club To Help Elect 'Responsible' Dems

For the first time in the city, a group of political activists have launched a new club called: The 'Muslim Democratic Club of New York,' Azi Paybarah reports. In an email message to supporters and the media, the group inviting them to a March 14 kick-off event in Manhattan. , 

The organization, that describes itself as a "New York City-based organization of American Muslims" who are "dedicated to helping elect responsible Democrats to local office" includes a handful of political operatives, such as Ali Najmi, a former New York City Council staffer, and Umair Khan, a staffer for State Senator Kevin Parker.   

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American from Brooklyn whose work on immigrants rights, told Azi that there are "areas with high concentrations of Muslim Americans - South Brooklyn, parts of Queens, Bronx" and "we believe that we can have significant influence on local races in those areas." 

"Our issues have been ignored for way too long," she said. "We know the only way to show our political power is through votes and money. We needed a partisan arm for the community to do this work outside of our 9am - 5pm. We have so many American Muslim professionals in the finance, medicine, law, and other sects that we can engage." Sarsour said the club's efforts will receive a boost from a mayoral candidate forum on May 5 focusing on issues important to "Arab, Muslim [and] South Asians. The event will take place at NYU and will be hosted by Errol Louis, the host of "The Road to City Hall" on NY1.

Since voters are not labeled on their VAN based on religion, it is hard to say how significant the Muslim community bloc would be in influencing the political landscape. In an email conversation, Sarsour told me they're crunching numbers based on a new Muslim surname list, which will offer some light as per their strength as a voting bloc.

Here are some unverified numbers:

According to Prime New York (consulting firm) their voter file has 76,322 voters with likely Muslim surnames - 47,643 Democrats. #nyc2013

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) March 8, 2013