A candidate for Spokane County sheriff is calling for the 24-hour monitoring of Muslims and said the Muslim religion is “the only real problem in Spokane County.” Michael “Scott” Maclay, whose campaign website is DumpOzzie.com focuses on many issues including “what to do about the unrestrained Muslim numbers in our community, and Islam.”

Spokesman Local Muslims are calling the candidate’s recent posts to this campaign website hate speech, and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Maclay’s missives prove his election opponent has no understanding of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

If elected as the next “Constitutional Sheriff,” Maclay claims he will plant volunteers from the Sheriff Community Oriented Policing Effort, or SCOPE, on a ridge or the roof of the VFW Post 1435 to “monitor all the comings and goings of all suspicious activities” at the nearby Islamic Center of Spokane.

“From here, they will keep at 24-hour vigil on the compound below … patrolling the parameter (sic) with golf carts and radios, working side-by-side with the remaining FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in focusing on the only real problem in Spokane County … which, for the record, is not me,” Maclay wrote.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Maclay, who is running as an independent, refused to answer questions unless they were sent by email. He did not answer those questions in his reply, but sent links to similar comments made by President Donald Trump

“I am saying exactly what Trump has been saying,” Maclay wrote. “It’s unfortunate that none of the Republicans in Spokane County are standing with Trump.”