Rabat – Squatting and holding up a two-fingered peace sign is the pose Shaymaa Ismaa’eel took when posing for photos in front of protestors holding signs against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad—photos that have now gone viral.
The 24-year-old was attending a conference of the Islamic Circle of North America in Washington, D.C., when she saw the protestors and decided to take the photo.
She captioned her original Instagram post on April 21, “Combat hatred and bigotry with peace. In other words, spread love.” The post received more than 350,000 likes and 12,000 comments on the popular picture-sharing platform.
Two days later, she tweeted the three photos of the incident with the caption “On April 21st I smiled in the face of bigotry and walked away feeling the greatest form of accomplishment.”
On April 21st I smiled in the face of bigotry and walked away feeling the greatest form of accomplishment. pic.twitter.com/Dbrtk7MDAw
— شيماء (@ShaymaaDarling) April 23, 2019
The tweet has received more than 300,000 likes, 84,000 retweets, and 2,500 comments.
Just last month, Ismaa’eel visited Morocco and from March 25 to 31 posted nearly 20 photos on Instagram taken in Marrakech, Azilal, and Zagora.
Her most popular photos in Morocco were taken in Ouzoud Falls, which is five hours south of Rabat.
Ismaa’eel works as a therapist with children on the autism spectrum in the D.C. area.
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