JACKSON, Miss.—On Aug. 10, a man parked outside of recently-appointed Benoit Municipal Judge Assma Ali’s private Ridgeland law firm, covertly recording as he exited his vehicle, a social media video shows.
After entering the Muslim legal professional’s office, the man began asking the woman manning its front desk about her appointment and identified himself as an independent journalist, a police report obtained by the Mississippi Free Press said. When asked to leave, he “complied but continued recording staff members inside the business and the license plates of employee vehicles outside before departing the property,” the police report said.
The man later posted a portion of his footage on social media, claiming he was working in coordination with anti-Muslim activist organization Rise Align Ignite Reclaim founder Amy “Mek” Mekelburg to look into Ali’s appointment. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies R.A.I.R. as an anti-Muslim group.
Mekelburg reposted the man’s video within 13 minutes—but R.A.I.R.’s accounts were far from the only ones feeding the social media storm brewing around Ali’s appointment.
Four days later, congregants and clergy from a variety of churches, synagogues and mosques around Jackson and across the state gathered at the International Museum of Muslim Cultures on Aug. 14, showing support for the museum. That came on the heels of social media posts by Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce and Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy Gipson targeting the institution and its staff.
Okolo Rashid, who serves as president and director of the Islamic Thought Institute at the International Museum of Muslim Cultures, was personally pictured in one of Gipson’s posts, alongside comments about the museum itself.
Reactions to Gipson’s posts have made some in Mississippi’s Muslim communities fear for their safety. By the time the press conference began, the event’s organizers did not yet know that the community’s fears about physical confrontations stemming from the social media storm had already begun to come true.
“I think that it’s just important for us to just be vigilant,” Rashid told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 14. “… I guess I could say that this is not really so new to us because during 9/11 … there was a brick thrown into our window, and so we did have reasons for concern. So now this is bringing back, you know, that reality in terms of what could happen.”
“We felt very safe, even with everything that’s going on across the country; we felt very safe, but this (online backlash) has really put another face on that,” Rashid said at the press conference. “… We will be meeting with the city, meeting with the state government, about how we (can) secure ourselves under these kinds of conditions.”
Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Mississippi Free Press in an interview that the attacks on Muslim-Americans were a predictable, cynical ploy in an election year.
“ We’re seeing attacks on the Muslim community for cheap political points this election cycle, (but) it only inspires us to turn out and vote and for our community members to run for office,” he told the Mississippi Free Press.
The purpose of the attacks, McCaw said, was to try and drive Muslims away from civic institutions and out of public life.
“American Muslims have an absolute constitutional right to serve on behalf of their communities and neighbors,” McCaw said. “Time and again, we see Americans putting their trust in Muslim candidates to represent them regardless of their own faith.”
Sharia Law
Mississippi Agricultural Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Andy Gipson’s tweets largely focused on promises to ban alleged enforcement of “Sharia law” in Mississippi.
Sharia law is a religious code equivalent to Judaism’s Halakhic law, Catholic Canon Law, or Mosaic Law (also known as the Law of Moses, which contains the Ten Commandments and a variety of other religious guidelines).
CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell told the Mississippi Free Press in an Aug. 19 interview that the term was a consistent boogeyman used by bigots to misrepresent every Muslim’s basic practices of personal religious adherence.
“ When a Muslim prays five times a day, they’re following the way, i.e., Sharia,” Mitchell told the Mississippi Free Press. “When we fast in Ramadan, when we give in charity, when we don’t eat pork and don’t drink alcohol, we’re following the way. It’s just a word for the rules that Muslims follow.”
In November of 2025, Gipson launched his 2027 gubernatorial campaign and included a promise to “ban Sharia law in Mississippi.” He reiterated his promise again in an Aug. 13 social media post.
“If you are among those who think Sharia law is ‘not an issue in Mississippi,’ you’d better think again,” Gipson said in his Aug. 13 campaign post. “… In our own capital city, in Mississippi, there is a center for Muslim Culture at the Planetarium… complete with this exhibit (see photo) featuring Muhammed as the ‘The Messenger and Final Prophet.’”
Both Jesus and Muhammad are considered prophets in Islam. Historians estimate Jesus was born around 6-4 B.C.E. and Muhammad was born around 570 C.E.—more than 500 years later. The photo Gipson attached to his Aug. 13 post included Okolo Rashid in front of an exhibit celebrating the shared heritage amongst Muslim, Christian and Jewish people.
“… Others have turned a blind eye, a deaf ear,” Gipson said in his Aug. 13 campaign post. “I see what’s happening. I understand the spiritual battle we are in. I know I’ll be attacked and threatened. But in the strength of the Lord I’m up for this fight, and I won’t back down.”
While no U.S. citizens can be unwillingly subjected to Sharia law, adults in civil arbitration may agree to follow Islamic jurisprudence to reach resolution.
Gipson says he plans to “stop Sharia in Mississippi” by criminalizing its alleged practice within the state, declaring “that its advocacy or implementation is a seditious criminal act, deserving disqualification from public, military, and law enforcement service, and justifying criminal punishment, denaturalization, and deportation.”
An attempt to ban Sharia law in Oklahoma was struck down by a federal court on constitutional grounds more than a decade ago.
The case, Awad v. Ziriax, began with a 2010 ballot measure to amend Oklahoma’s constitution and ban judges from considering Sharia or international law in proceedings. Sponsors of the change later testified Sharia law was never an issue in Oklahoma’s courts, court records said.
In 2012, federal judges in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a ban on Sharia law fundamentally violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause: that there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof.
Gipson’s string of social media posts about Sharia law began amidst the social media storm surrounding Assma Ali’s appointment as a municipal judge. Ali and Gipson both earned their law degrees from what is now the Mississippi Christian University School of Law.
“The bigoted attacks on this widely respected and accomplished attorney are not only an attack on her, not only an attack on the American Muslim community, they’re an attack on the idea of America itself,” Ahmed Mitchell said. “The whole point of American diversity is that America does not belong to any one race, religion or ethnicity.”
‘No Place in Our Public Discourse’
Working Together Jackson and Working Together Mississippi organized the Aug. 14, press conference. The groups are non-partisan political organizations dedicated to local politics, composed of both registered Democrats and registered Republicans, Jackson’s International Museum of Muslim Cultures interfaith organizer reverend Andy Andrews said.
The press conference was planned in direct response to Commissioner Andy Gipson’s post referencing the museum and depicting Okolo Rashid, group member Rhoda Yoder said at the press conference.
“One immediate response to his post was a call to burn down the Museum,” Yoder, a parishioner at Open Door Mennonite, said at the press conference. “This reckless and dangerous rhetoric by an elected official and a candidate for governor has no place in our public discourse.”
Gipson’s posts “have spawned other dangerous and irresponsible reactions online and could unfortunately lead to violence of the type we have witnessed far too much in Mississippi,” Yoder said.
The first portion of the press conference concluded with a call for public officials to refrain from “divisive and dangerous discourse” and the reading of a letter to Gipson inviting him for a discussion at the museum.
Andrews, an Episcopal priest, answered questions about why he and other priests felt their presence was important at the event when Gipson’s comments did not single out their religions.
“Jesus instructs me to love my neighbor and … in this community, the more we get together, the happier we’re going to be,” Andrews. “I worry about (Gipson’s) small vision and I’m praying with him … . We’re all growing, so we’re rooting for him. We’re rooting for him to have a wider vision because it’s awesome … . It’s a beautiful blessing; it is the 21st century, and it’s what God promised.”
Gipson himself is an ordained minister and pastor at Gum Springs Baptist Church in Braxton, Mississippi.
A Baptist minister, another Episcopal reverend and Methodist reverends were also present alongside Rabbis and Imams at the event.
Gipson’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of religious freedom and read past stories here.
Mississippi Free Press stories are always free because we believe everyone should have access to quality journalism. Donations from readers like you make that possible. Please click here to give to help sustain and grow vital, people-over-power journalism for Mississippians.
Readers can sign up for our free newsletters here.
