Female wearing Muslim burqa stands at mic during Florida public meeting, reports say. What she does next gets her kicked out.
'Ma’am, you’re going to have to stop.'
A female wearing a Muslim burqa stood in front of a microphone during the public comment period at a county commissioners' meeting Tuesday in Florida during which some residents spoke against the potential expansion of a local mosque amid concerns over language on zoning and agenda materials, WTVT-TV reported.
The station said the female was "covered head-to-toe in black, with only her left eye visible." She did not speak.
'We ask you to come here and make comments, and that was not a comment. That’s why she was asked to step out.'
Instead, the female played a recording of the Islamic call to prayer, the station said. It appeared on video of the incident that she was holding an audio device under her burqa.
The Islamic call to prayer played for nearly a minute before Dave Eggers — chair of the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners — said over his microphone that county rules require public speakers to deliver verbal comments rather than play recordings, WTVT reported.
"Ma’am, you’re going to have to stop. Stop the music, stop the tape," Eggers said. "Ma'am, stop the tape."
After the female refused to comply, a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy approached the podium and escorted her out of the meeting room and the building, the station said.
WTVT said it's wasn't immediately clear if the gesture was a protest or a prank.
The station said the woman's removal sparked friction in the room, as several onlookers shouted and argued with Eggers over the decision.
"Please. Just please exercise some decorum and kindness of your own," Eggers told the crowd. "We’re all people living together here."
He further clarified the board’s rules to those assembled: "We don’t allow taped things. You can record the meeting, but we don’t allow 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."
Below is a clip showing most of the incident. You can view the full video here beginning at the 1:02:00 mark.
RELATED: The case for banning the burqa
WTVT said multiple residents during the public comment period blasted an Oct. 13 vote in which the board voted 4-3 to approve a land-use amendment for the expansion of the Masjid Al Rahman mosque, which was referred to in presentations and documents as a "community assembly facility."
More from the station:
The vote changed the property's land use from residential rural to public and semi-public, which would allow the facility's owner to replace the building with a newer structure 1,000 feet larger.
During Tuesday's meeting, public speakers spoke out against the facility, some citing the treatment of women in Muslim-majority countries.
"It is about the big picture and the long term," one woman told 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."
However, WTVT said another woman supported the mosque: "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."
According to Florida's Voice, the burqa-wearing female was listed under public comment speakers as Selene Al Jamal.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the woman was escorted from the building without further incident and won't face any criminal charges, WTVT said.
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