Mohamed Salah may have caused Islamophobia in Liverpool to fall, study finds

Mohamed Salah may have caused Islamophobia in Liverpool to fall, study finds
Mohamed Salah may be responsible for a drop in Islamophobia in Liverpool, according to a new study.The Egyptian, a practising Muslim, has been worshipped by the red half of Merseyside following his Anfield arrival in June 2017.Getty Images - Getty2

Mohamed Salah has captured the hearts of Liverpool fans with his relentless goalscoring prowess

And research by Stanford University shows that, since then, anti-Muslim hate crimes have fallen by 18.9 per cent, while Islamophobic tweets by Liverpool fans have dropped by 50 per cent.No other offence has seen such a sizeable decrease in that time frame – and there is good reason to believe Salah’s presence has been a significant factor.The study argues that Salah’s friendly outward persona has helped ‘humanise’ the Muslim community and change prejudicial attitudes. The survey experiment suggests that these results may be driven by increased familiarity with Islam, the report reads.These findings suggest that positive exposure to outgroup celebrities can reveal new and humanising information about the group at large, reducing prejudiced attitudes and behaviours.Overall, we interpret these results to support the hypothesis that Salahs arrival at Liverpool FC caused a decrease in extreme acts of bigotry.Getty Images - Getty2

The Egyptian opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the Champions League final

The 26-year-old has scored 71 goals in 104 games for the club and celebrates by performing sujood, the Islamic act of prostration to God.Salah’s emergence last season led to chants celebrating the Egyptian’s Muslim identity, fuelling media speculation that his success was reducing Islamophobic attitudes among Liverpool fans.He was named in TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2019 in April – and his manager, Jurgen Klopp, says the forward is continually breaking down stereotypes.

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Hes a role model in so many different things. Its really, really nice to have him, and Sadio [Mane] as well, the Liverpool boss said.Both are Muslims and live that in a world where these things are very often discussed in a dangerous manner, where people think they are all like this or they are all like that.We know thats not true, but it is nice to have somebody around full of joy, full of love and to do what he is doing around his religion.

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