(CNN) Shaymaa Ismaa'eel was attending a conference of the Islamic Circle of North America in Washington DC on Sunday when she saw a group of protesters holding signs against the Muslim faith and the Prophet Muhammad.

So she asked her friend to take a picture of her while she flashed a smile squatting in front of them.

"I really wanted to combat their hatred with kindness honestly," Ismaa'eel, 24, told CNN via Instagram. "I wanted them to see my face and simply walking by wasn't enough."

Ismaa'eel, who works as a therapist with children on the autism spectrum in the DC area, posted the photo on Instagram along with a quote from Prophet Muhammad reading: "Kindness is a mark of faith. Those who aren't kind have no faith."

The picture went viral on the picture-sharing platform, with more than 100,000 likes, and on Twitter, where it was liked more than 150,000 times.

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