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…