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Judge Assma Ali faces threats and calls for removal over religious background

By CNN

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    JACKSON, Miss. (WAPT) — Assma Ali, recently appointed as the municipal court judge for the town of Benoit, is in hiding after receiving threats and harassment online related to her religious background.

Ali announced her appointment on Facebook, but confusion arose when some mistakenly believed she had been appointed in the cities of Ridgeland and Lumberton. Officials from those cities later dispelled the rumor, but Ali continues to face hate online, particularly targeting her Muslim faith and her hijab.

Republican Sen. Michael McLendon has called for Benoit officials to hold a special meeting to take “every lawful step” to remove Ali from her position. In a post, McLendon said, “I believe in God we trust, not Mohamed.”

Franklin Rosenblatt, an associate professor of law specializing in constitutional law, said McLendon’s actions are unconstitutional.

“I think that Sen. McLendon has acted shamefully. He has an obligation to uphold the Constitution of Mississippi and the Constitution of the United States,” Rosenblatt said. “Those constitutions say that there shall be no religious tests for any public official, and yet that’s exactly what he’s calling on. Our public officials need to be following the Constitution.”

“It has been difficult to watch assumptions being made about who I am and what I stand for without people knowing me. That is sad. But I refuse to allow negativity to change who I am or how I treat others,” Ali told 16 WAPT News.

Attempts to reach Sen. McLendon for further comment were unsuccessful.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

YouTube hotel reviewer claims new luxury resort canceled his reservation and called the police on him

By CNN
(CNN) — A new luxury resort in Mexico that costs thousands of dollars a night is off to a rocky start after a reviewer with a reservation alleges he was turned away at the property’s gates.Ryan Walker, a luxury hotel reviewer on YouTube with more than 140K subscribers, posted a video the first week of August showing an interaction outside the brand-new Amanvari Mexico by Aman Resorts. The property, where stays for August 6 were listed on Aman’s site for more than $6,000 a night, is located about a two-hour drive from San José del Cabo on the Baja California peninsula.Walker’s driver was told he could not enter the property, the video shows, although Walker said he booked the hotel stay weeks ago. The video, viewed more than 500K times the first week, showed a screenshot of an email exchange discussing his stay.Conversations with workers outside the resort quickly escalated with one person captured on video saying she needed to speak with the police. Walker claims they did call the police.“We were stopped by an unmarked armed patrol truck with 5-6 armed officers,” Walker told CNN Travel via email on August 6. “They did not speak to us, however the driver had us roll the windows down and keep them down. We were able to keep driving.”Walker told CNN he had not heard from Aman about the incident as of August 6.Aman and a public relations firm promoting the resort’s opening did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Several days after CNN first published Walker’s account of the incident, a spokesperson for Aman Resorts provided the following statement:“The deceptively edited video created by someone unauthorized to be on our property does not reflect the circumstances of the incident accurately. The privacy and security of our on-property guests is paramount, and maintaining a peaceful environment for our guests and staff is a top priority at all times. This commitment is why Aman’s properties are the leading destinations worldwide for privacy and exclusivity.”In Walker’s YouTube video, a man on site suggested that Walker check his email for a new message. Walker said he found a message from the resort sent the night before his arrival saying that the property was “still in the earliest phase of settling the resort into full operation, and we have taken the difficult decision to reduce arrivals over the coming days while we complete this work.”The email canceled Walker’s stay and apologized for the disruption and short notice.Walker shared a reservation confirmation number with CNN and said he paid the rack rate for his room, totaling $4,662.86. He noted that the rate has gone up online since he booked.Walker speculated in his YouTube video that the resort’s first day of operations went poorly.“So this is how Amanvari is treating their new guests because they’re not ready to accept reservations at their property?” Walker said in the video.He went on to make his case for “why this is such a big deal.”“Independent reviewers protect the customer,” he said.“It is absolutely unacceptable and not OK to me to quiet someone who is trying to create a review during the opening week of your property,” Walker said, noting that he has reviewed other Aman properties in the past and has been a fan of the brand.Walker argues in the video that the hotel should have called him and had conversations with him directly if the property wasn’t ready for reviewers. He said he checked his call logs and had no missed calls from the resort.Walker called the incident “one of the most disappointing and embarrassing hotel experiences you could possibly have.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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