“My name is Meamuna Paracha and we are going live from Daar-Ul-Islam Masjid in St. Louis, MO,” Paracha said in a live video she posted to IlmFeed, which has then since gathered over half a million views.

Paracha, a senior at West, was at the library at the Islamic Center when her imam told her about two non-Muslim protesters who were outside the mosque in the cold, holding signs. Paracha was then asked to record a live video interview with the protesters: Michele Mordica, an art teacher at Parkway Central Middle, and her husband.

“We are not going to 1939 Nazi Germany,” Mordica said in the video. “I have a very diverse student population. I feel like I cannot protect them with the current president in office.”

Throughout the video, Paracha thanks the couple for their support.

“It was wonderful what she did,” she said. “It was purely out of the goodness of her heart. She did not know she was going to become viral.”

Once the video was posted, Paracha watched the rising view counts and likes, but did not pay much mind to it.

“That Facebook page only had about 300,000 followers. The majority of their videos get a maximum of twenty thousand,” she said. “I stopped checking it; I did not think it would become something big. Then this morning, my friend told me, ‘You just hit half a million views.’”

The video has been shared over 12,000 times, spreading it worldwide.

“I’ve been getting friend requests from people all over the world. I even had someone who messaged me from Australia who said, ‘This is inspirational. Keep up the good work,’” Paracha said.

Despite this, Paracha does not feel famous and is still in shock, but glad the video has picked up views.

“I don’t know if this will bring any opportunities. I want to become a social worker and minor in psychology, but if public speaking is something that picks up, I will definitely go down that path as well,” Paracha said. “Someone probably won’t even remember my name in the future, but for a little bit, someone across the world, heard my voice and I got recognized.”

Paracha plans to attend a march this Saturday to support St. Louisan Muslims, immigrants and refugees. It is being held by CAIR Missouri, an organization to inspire Muslim youth.

“This is an age where bigotry is given a position of leadership,” Paracha said. “That is not acceptable and we need to be able to change for the future. We are the future of the United States. And if we do not change the United States, then who will? If we don’t make this a better place for others, then who will?”