Critics of a Roxbury mosque project mired in litigation are demanding the Boston Redevelopment Authority turn over e-mails written by a high-ranking official who was involved in the project’s controversial land deal.

A letter to the BRA, dated Wednesday, accuses the agency of violating the state public records law by withholding e-mails from the government account of Muhammad Ali-Salaam, the BRA’s deputy director of planning, who has been a private proponent of the Islamic Society of Boston’s mosque plan.

“These are public records,” said Jeffrey S. Robbins, an attorney for the David Project, a Jewish group being sued by the ISB for defamation. “What, did they just disappear?”

The Herald is also named in the society’s defamation suit.

“It’s distressing to see the multiple requests for public records going unanswered by the BRA,” said Allston-Brighton City Councilor Jerry McDermott, who has tried unsuccessfully to hold public hearings on the BRA land deal.

The BRA said it has turned over all materials requested by Robbins’ law firm, Mintz Levin, but declined to address the e-mails.