A popular Muslim athlete measurably reduced local hate crimes and Islamophobia

Evidence

This “Salah effect” was not just anecdotal, but measurable. “Per the Stanford University Immigration Policy Lab, Salah is credited with singlehandedly reducing Islamophobia and hate crimes in Liverpool since he signed with the club in June 2017.” … The Stanford University study found that hate crimes in the metropolitan Liverpool area declined by 19 percent and anti-Muslim comments were down 50 percent since Salah joined Liverpool F.C. in 2017.29 Salah’s impact was quantifiable, and his on-the-field play and off-the-field presence were changing hearts and minds during an impasse when nativism was spiking upward in England and Islamophobia was proliferating across the world. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1075

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘prominence of one visible Muslim reduces prejudice’ finding resonates with contact theory and with Iftikhar’s narrative-counter-narrative thesis the reader is reading alongside.
• CANDY: A smiling one-liner: Mohamed Salah’s play measurably cut Liverpool hate crimes 19 percent and anti-Muslim remarks in half.