Mississippi faith leaders denounce Ag commissioner’s comments on Muslims, invite him to meet

Faith leaders on Friday denounced recent comments about Muslims by Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson and invited him to meet for an “open and honest dialogue,” organizers said.

“This reckless and dangerous rhetoric by an elected official and a candidate for governor has no place in our public discourse,” Rhoda Yoder of Open Door Mennonite Church said on behalf of Working Together Jackson and Working Together Mississippi at a news conference at the International Museum of Muslim Culture in Jackson.

The meeting followed backlash over the appointment of attorney Assma Ali as a municipal judge in Benoit. The groups said the appointment drew social media criticism and, they reported, some threats because Ali is Muslim. The groups said Gipson renewed a vow to ban “Sharia law and the influence of Islam” if elected governor in recent social media posts.

In one post quoted by the groups, Gipson wrote: “If you are among those who think Sharia law is ‘not an issue in Mississippi,’ you’d better think again. You see what’s happening in Dearborn, Michigan. But did you know that in our own capital city, in Mississippi, there is a center for Muslim Culture at the Planetarium in Jackson?” The groups said a commenter on the post called for the museum to be burned down, prompting added security precautions.

Museum founder Okolo Rashid said Friday that Sharia law is misunderstood and compared it to other religious legal traditions. “Sharia law, it’s like the law of Moses. Like the Ten Commandments,” Rashid said. Benoit officials defended Ali and the appointment, writing that “religion is not listed as a qualification for service as a Municipal Court Judge in the State of Mississippi” and that “being Muslim is not a lawful basis for denying or terminating the appointment,” the groups said. Ali has said she will uphold the U.S. Constitution and Mississippi law in her role as a city judge.

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