Burka-Clad Woman Ejected from Florida Meeting After Playing Islamic Call to Prayer
A woman dressed in a burka was removed from a Florida county commissioners meeting on Tuesday when she played a recording of the Islamic call to prayer during the public comment time. This came as some residents expressed concerns over the potential expansion of a local mosque, particularly regarding wording in zoning and agenda documents.
The event unfolded while the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners was hearing statements from the public. The woman, fully covered in black with only her left eye visible, approached the podium but chose to play the call to prayer instead of speaking.
It wasn’t immediately clear if her action was intended as a protest or just a joke.
After the recording had been playing for about a minute, Board Chairman Dave Eggers intervened, reminding attendees that county regulations require speakers to present verbal comments rather than use recordings.
“Ma’am, you need to stop … stop the music, stop the tape,” Eggers said.
When she did not comply, a deputy from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office stepped in and escorted her out of the meeting room.
This removal stirred quick tension among the audience, prompting several attendees to shout and argue with Eggers about his decision.
“Please. Just please exercise some decorum and kindness of your own,” Eggers urged the crowd. “We’re all people living together here.”
He went on to clarify the board’s guidelines, saying, “We don’t allow taped things. You can record the meeting, but we don’t permit taped activity like that. We ask you to come here and make comments, and that was not a comment. That’s why she was asked to step out.”
The incident took place during a public session, where several residents criticized a vote from October 13. That vote, which passed 4-3, permitted a land-use amendment for the Masjid Al Rahman mosque, described in official documents as a “community assembly facility.”
With this amendment, the property’s designation shifted from residential rural to public and semi-public, allowing the mosque’s owners to construct a larger building more than 1,000 feet in size.
During the meeting, public speakers voiced their opposition to the expansion, some referencing concerns over the treatment of women in predominantly Muslim nations.
“It is about the big picture and the long term,” one woman remarked to the commission. “By allowing this mosque to expand in our area, you are participating in the expansion of a totalitarian ideology which is fundamentally opposed to Western American values. Expansion of the ideology of Islam is not good for women’s rights.”
Conversely, another woman defended the mosque, saying, “They want to turn it to face Mecca, and they want it to look a little more like a mosque instead of a house. We have no problems with them. We’ve been their neighbors for many years.”
Commissioner Vince Nowicki reportedly questioned why the mosque wasn’t described straightforwardly in government documents. In an email to County Administrator Barry Burton, he noted, “Residents read these materials to understand what is being proposed near them, and they should get the same plain description in every case, no matter the applicant,” as reported by Florida Politics.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the woman was escorted from the premises without any further incidents and that she would not face criminal charges.
