LIVERPOOL: Devout Muslim Mohammed Salah’s arrival at Liverpool FC had such an impact that resulted in a fall in Islamophobia and hate crime in the city, a study has revealed.
According to reports, the study, “Can Exposure to Celebrities Reduce Prejudice? The Effect of Mohamed Salah on Islamophobic Behaviors and Attitudes” published last week was conducted by the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University, in the United States.
“This decline was more extreme than we would expect based on chance alone, and the decrease in hate crimes was more pronounced than the decrease in any other crime category,” researchers wrote in their findings. “Taken together, the evidence points to Salah’s rise in prominence causing a decrease in hate crimes in Liverpool FC’s home county.”
According to the survey experiment, there was an 18.9 percent drop in hate crimes in the Merseyside area and a 53 percent fall in anti-Muslim tweets since Salah joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017.
“The survey experiment suggests that these results may be driven by increased familiarity with Islam,” the report said.
“These findings suggest that positive exposure to outgroup celebrities can reveal new and humanizing information about the group at large, reducing prejudiced attitudes and behaviors,” the research added.
Researchers analyzed used police data, millions of tweets from football fans to come to the conclusion.