A woman wearing a burka was escorted from a Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners meeting after she played a recording of the Islamic call to prayer during public comment and refused to turn it off.

The episode unfolded as residents addressed commissioners about the potential expansion of a local mosque. Some speakers opposed the expansion and raised concerns about the language used to describe the project in zoning documents and meeting materials.

The woman approached the podium covered from head to toe in black, with only her left eye visible. Instead of delivering a verbal statement to the board, she activated a recording of the call to prayer.

The audio continued for nearly a minute before Board Chairman Dave Eggers intervened. County rules require speakers participating in public comment to make verbal remarks rather than play recordings.

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“Ma’am, you’re going to have to stop … stop the music, stop the tape,” Eggers said.

The woman did not comply with the chairman’s instruction. A deputy from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office then approached the podium and escorted her from the meeting room and out of the building.

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It was not immediately clear whether the recording was intended as a protest or a prank. Her removal, however, quickly produced shouting and arguments from several audience members.

Eggers asked those in attendance to settle down and show restraint. “Please. Just please exercise some decorum and kindness of your own,” he told the audience. “We’re all people living together here.”

The chairman also explained why officials removed the woman, emphasizing that the board permits people to record meetings but does not allow participants to substitute taped audio for their own public comments.

“We don’t allow taped things,” Eggers said. “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.”

The clash occurred during a public comment period in which multiple residents criticized an Oct. 13 decision involving the Masjid Al Rahman mosque. Commissioners approved a land use amendment for the mosque’s expansion by a 4 to 3 vote.

Presentations and government documents described the mosque as a “community assembly facility.” The amendment changed the property’s land use designation from residential rural to public and semi public.

That change would allow the facility’s owner to replace the existing building with a newer structure that would be 1,000 feet larger. Several residents used the meeting to warn commissioners about the proposed expansion and Islam’s treatment of women.

“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.”

Another woman spoke in favor of the mosque and described its relationship with nearby residents. “They want to turn it to face Mecca, and they want it to look a little more like a mosque instead of a house,” she said. “We have no problems with them. We've been their neighbors for many years.”

Commissioner Vince Nowicki reportedly questioned why government materials did not identify the mosque in plain language. He raised that issue in an email to County Administrator Barry Burton, according to Florida Politics.

“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,” Nowicki wrote.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the woman was escorted from the premises without any further incident. The office also said she will not face criminal charges over the disruption.