Today, Muslim soccer star Mo Salah met with some guy

From The New Yorker:

Liverpool F.C.’s Mohamed Salah, an Arab Muslim Sports Star Subtly Confronting Racism and Islamophobia
By Yasmine Al-Sayyad May 25, 2018

In February, boisterous supporters of the English soccer team Liverpool F.C. unveiled a new chant in honor of their star winger, the Egyptian player Mohamed Salah. The fans, who had travelled to Portugal for a Champions League match against F.C. Porto, pumped their fists and hopped up and down, with pint glasses in hand, as they belted out a cheer to the tune of “Good Enough,” a 1996 hit by the English pop band Dodgy:

Mo Salah-la-la-la-la
Mo Salah-la-la-la-la
If he’s good enough for you
He’s good enough for me
If he scores another few
Then I’ll be Muslim, too.

… “I think part of Salah’s charm is that he’s not an outwardly political figure addressing Islamophobia in England,” Khaled Beydoun, a law scholar and the author of “American Islamophobia,” told me. “He is able to effectively erode negative views of Muslims and challenge Islamophobia” just by being himself.

The New Yorker’s favorite word “Islamophobia” got a huge boost from Islamists murdering 3000 Americans on 9/11.

To avoid Islamophobia, the Bush Administration then invaded a secularist Arab country.

Mission Accomplished!

Because nGram hasn’t been updated since mid-2008, I suspect we are missing the second great wave of anti-Islamophobia rhetoric, which had to do with declaring President Obama above criticism after his 2008 election.

By the way, where have we seen Salah’s new friend before?

Oh, yeah …

Ramzan Kadyrov, with the only three things he needs to rule Chechnya: a gun, a microphone, and Putin. (His pinky ring probably isn’t necessary to his continued rule/survival, but Chechens think it’s cool.)

[Comment at Unz.com]