Article summary
This paper examines whether exposure to a high-profile, visibly Muslim athlete—Mohamed Salah—relates to reduced Islamophobic behavior and attitudes in England. Using police hate-crime reports, 15 million fan tweets, and a survey experiment, the authors report hate incidents in the Liverpool area were about 16% lower versus a synthetic control after Salah joined Liverpool, and Liverpool fans halved their rate of anti-Muslim tweets; an experiment showed identity salience broadened positive feelings to Muslims.