“How do you come up with that?” Shalaby replied.

Shortly thereafter, a uniformed sheriff’s deputy in attendance said he would stop the meeting “if this gets to a violent point.” He noted that he was greatly outnumbered.

“Can we at least please keep it civil for me and my wife and my three children?” the deputy said.

Supervisor Timothy McLaughlin, whose Chancellor District includes the proposed mosque site next to the Ashleigh Park subdivision, asked the crowd to let Shalaby give his presentation before posing questions.

That didn’t happen, and the tension continued to escalate—with shouting matches and expletives—until the deputy waved his arms and called off the meeting.

“Listen to me, it’s done,” the deputy said. The attendees complied with his order to exit the building.

One of the last exchanges happened when a man shouted, “If you want to do your thing, go to Fairfax!”

“Well guess what, we’re already here,” Shalaby replied. “And guess what, we are not going anywhere.”

He said the Islamic Center has been in the Fredericksburg area for nearly three decades and at its current location since 2000.