AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A Muslim woman who posed for a smiling photograph in front of anti-Islam protesters in the US said she decided to "combat their hatred with love and a smile".
The picture of Shayma Ismaa'eel making a peace sign in front of the group of men holding placards denouncing Islam outside an Islamic conference in Washington, DC, went viral and has been liked hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and Instagram.
The men had also been shouting anti-Muslim slogans, according to reports.
Holding signs with statements like "Islam is a religion of blood & murder" and an inexplicable picture of a man dressed in drag with anti-Islamic remarks on it, the bigoted protesters were making a clear statement of hatred. Ismaa'eel told BBC Newsbeat that they used loudspeakers to deliver anti-Islamic messages.
"They had posters with things like, 'Islam is a hateful religion' and were saying we were inside 'listening to hate'," she told Newsbeat.
"I'm the sort of person who finds this stuff funny," she added. "So I was cracking up laughing. I was thinking, 'If only I had a loudspeaker so they could hear what we were doing inside'."
Inside the 44th annual Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America (MAS-ICNA) convention, thousands of participants were discussing community service and how to be better Muslims. (In other words, not to hate.)
"I walked up as they continued yelling their hateful speech," Ms Ismaa'eel told CNN. "I smiled so hard in the picture and the man started directing his speech toward me."
"There's a saying from our Prophet saying, 'Smile is charity' and that's just me personally anyway always smiling," Ismaa'eel said. So she decided to bring that charity to the protesters.
"I asked my friend to take a picture. I wanted them to see me smile and see the love. I wanted to combat their hatred with love and a smile."
"As you can see in the picture they seem annoyed but they didn't really respond that much," she added. "Just a quick scoff and they started saying, 'You should cover your face' and 'You can tell it's a cult when the followers are wearing pajamas'."
The 24-year-old, who works with children on the autism spectrum, said the reaction to her post had been very positive and that people, in general, were becoming more tolerant of different religions.
Her tweet has more than 300,000 likes and more than 80,000 retweets. While she appreciates people's messages of support, she said she hasn't experienced many incidences of anti-Islamic hate and is hopeful that they are decreasing.
"The reaction to all this has been crazy, it's overwhelming. I have had a lot of support," she told BBC's Newsbeat.
"I think people are way more accepting," she told Newsbeat. "You see more people like me, wearing hijabs. Fashion magazines with Muslim women. You didn't see that when I was younger."
Ms Ismaa'eel's posts received thousands of comments, with many people supporting her stand.
"Beautiful smile and infectious! Made me smile just looking at the picture," one person wrote on her Instagram post. Another commented: "This made my day".
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"I think people are way more accepting," she told Newsbeat. "You see more people like me, wearing hijabs. Fashion magazines with Muslim women. You didn't see that when I was younger."