Florida county meeting erupts after burka-clad woman blasts Muslim call to prayer

A Florida county commissioners’ meeting was briefly sidetracked when a woman wearing a burka played a recording of the Islamic call to prayer.

The woman, dressed fully in the black garment with only one eye visible, ended up being escorted out of Tuesday’s meeting after playing a recording rather than speaking during the public comments portion. The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners was listening to residents speaking about the expansion of the Masjid Al Rahman mosque when the incident occurred.

“The audio played for nearly a minute before Board Chairman Dave Eggers interrupted, pointing out that county rules require public speakers to deliver verbal comments rather than play recordings,” Fox News reported.

Pinellas County, Florida, board meeting

Muslim women in full burqa blasted the islamic call to prayer

Byron Donalds has been clear: Shariah law has NO place in Florida

Vote smart, Florida! https://t.co/pxFm2cWMgv

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 28, 2026

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

A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy then approached the woman, who continued to ignore directives to stop playing the recording. She was escorted out of the building and, according to the Sheriff’s Office, is not facing any criminal charges.

“The incident came during a public period where multiple residents decried 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,'” Fox News reported. “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.”

The removal of the burka-clad woman during the meeting created some tension in the meeting as some attendees reportedly called out the chairman for the move.

“Please. Just please exercise some decorum and kindness of your own,” Eggers reportedly told the critics in the room. “We’re all people living together here.”

“We don’t allow taped things,” he explained. “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.”

Social media comments pointed out some obvious concerns.

NOBODY should be allowed into a government building fully covered from head to toe. Great way to conceal a suicide vest or weapon. Was she searched before she disrupted the meeting? The call to prayer is offensive needs to be banned. This is America, not the Middle East.

— Voices4Sanity (@CLC61643) October 28, 2026

@AmyMek Could have been a MAN under that thing.

Pass a rule. FACES must be uncovered in mtgs.

— BOCCE (@Kristina_Etter) October 29, 2026

“It is about the big picture and the long term,” one woman speaking out against the facility told the commissioners during the meeting. “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.”

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.

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