The woman signed up for the public speaker part of the Pinellas County Commission meeting this week using the name Celine Al Jamal.
She approached the commission covered in “full Islamic garb” and “blasted the call to prayer,” according to a conservative media influencer Laura Loomer. Loomer blasted a video of the encounter to her vast national following on the platform X as evidence of the attempted Muslim takeover of Florida.
The woman, who was wearing a full-body garment called a niqab, is actually named Kaitlin L. New, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office incident report. It described her as a white female who wore “clothing as if she was Muslim.”
They believed the name she gave because they’ve had “numerous incidents with her,” the report said. Court records show she also goes by the name Kaitlin Noethen, the name she used to run for the Pinellas school board in 2022 as a candidate who denounced mask mandates and “critical race theory.”
New did not immediately respond to phone calls, emails and text messages seeking comment.
She appeared at Tuesday’s meeting along with dozens of other residents, many of whom spoke out against the proposed expansion of a North Pinellas mosque. Deputies removed her from the meeting for violating a rule that bans the playing of recordings and she was allowed to leave after about 10 minutes.
Several in the audience jeered the woman as she was escorted from the meeting, one encouraging deputies to tase her.
The brief display would soon take on added life among conservative commenters on social media, notably Loomer, who urged Attorney General James Uthmeier to “Shut these jihadi freaks down!!!!
Conservative media personality Sean Hannity also posted the video. U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, who reposted the video on X, called to “deport them ALL” in reference to Muslim people.
During her bid for the school board, New told a forum that Democrats were seeking to turn school children into “woke activists” and campaigned against COVID mask mandates. She did not complete the qualifying process to appear on the ballot, according to supervisor of elections records.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reported in 2021 that New has had her microphone muted at a school board meeting before. Creative Loafing also reported that on her personal Facebook account, New amplified conspiracy theories tied to “QAnon.” That includes the claim that Trump fought a secret war against an underground celebrity-run pedophile sex ring, Creative Loafing reported.
She took to Instagram Tuesday, the same day she appeared before the County Commission.
“When God sends you to disrupt demonic systems, don’t expect to be treated nicely,” she posted.
She captioned the post, “Let’s Goooo.”
