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When Sumbal Mahmud grows weary of people assuming she's non-American and calling her views on the Iraq war un-American, she's tempted to bring out her plaques.

The plaques, which laud her "all-American" mock-trial victories at Hamline University in St. Paul -- as well as other awards she won there, at Osseo High School and at the University of Minnesota Law School -- have come to stand for far more than the honors they chronicle.

"When someone wants to question how American I am, I can say, 'I played along with the best of them. I have these plaques to prove it,' " she said. "All-American. That's me."

Mahmud, 28, is the public face of the Islamic Center of Minnesota.

In the past few years, especially since the Iraq war began, she has faced challenges she could not have imagined back in the 1990s at Osseo High.

The challenges have strengthened her faith and have forced her to be more public about her convictions. At the same time, the spotlight she finds herself in makes her want to keep her most deeply held religious beliefs private.

And the challenges of the past three years have made it more difficult for her to speak freely -- in an All-American way -- about a war she abhors.

A faith viewed with suspicion

The word Islam, Mahmud said, "comes from the root word 'sa la ma,' which means to surrender to the will of Allah and to peace.

"The very essence of war goes against my faith," she said. "That doesn't mean I might not believe in a cause."

But she wants to be able to speak against aggression without being labeled a terrorist. When Mahmud expresses her anti-war views in conversations with acquaintances and strangers, she said, she gets a stronger reaction than non-Muslim war opponents get.

"Many Muslim-Americans are actually afraid to speak out on the war," she said, her voice rising in indignation. "Can you believe it? To do that -- freely protest -- which is the most American thing, they are afraid!"

The war has also affected her expression of her faith.

The hostility of some non-Muslims makes her want to speak out, to defend and clarify Islam as a faith that at its core strongly stands for peace and freedom. And so she does, replying to each communication, as well as to friendly invitations to speak at churches and to civic groups.

Last year, she received an angry, anonymous e-mail about Muslims that she replied to with calm words. In a series of exchanges, she and the e-mailer found they had much in common and in fact had crossed paths during their legal careers. Finally, "We had a pretty good dialogue," she said. "The more we talk, the better."

Misunderstanding abounds

Mahmud is a corporate attorney from Maple Grove. She was born in Pakistan and has no connection to Iraq; in fact, she has often dreamed of someday serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Yet somehow, since the war, she has become what she calls "the face of the Iraqi people" in Minnesota.

"Perhaps it's my scarf, or that I'm Muslim, or because people don't know what an Iraqi looks like, but sometimes I'm the closest thing they have got," she said. "I'm someone they can focus their dislike for the war on."