Mo Salah's soccer skills are nothing to do with his being Muslim

A newspaper article celebrating Mohammed Salah's Muslim-ness made me think a bit today.

The only player of any note on Egypt's World Cup rather mediocre soccer team, Mo Salah has been riding a crest of popularity and renown after his stellar year with Liverpool in the English Premier League, although his World Cup performance so far has been distinctly sub-par, partly due to a crushing tackle from Barcelona's strong man Sergio Ramos just before the competition.

But the article, in order to make its point, insists on stressing Salah's Muslim religion. Yes, he is a practising Muslim: he offers a little prayer after scoring a goal, he is humble and self-deprecating, he even observes Ramadan fasting during training sessions. He is held up as the ideal of a "good Muslim" (presumably as opposed to a terrorist), although there was quite a media kerfuffle when Salah recently appeared arm in arm with the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who many would argue IS a Muslim terrorist...

But why does his religion have to brought into it at all? After all, when Ramos scythed down Salah the other week, the headlines were not "Christian savages Muslim". Today's article asks, "Does this mean that Muslims must win Golden Boots, Nobel Prizes and Olympic medals in order to be respected?" Er, no, and as far as I am aware no-one (except perhaps the Muslim author of the article) is suggesting that.

A better question might be, "Why does religion have to try to insert itself into everything?" Can a fine soccer player not just be a fine soccer player, and not a fine Muslim soccer player? Must we charactetize most Latin American and many European players as Catholic players, just because they have a tendency to cross themselves whenever they go on the pitch (an action which is closer to an involuntary nervous twitch than evidence of religious devotion anyway)?

Maybe it's no coincidence that I happen to be wearing today a t-shirt that says, "There's probably NO GOD, now stop worrying and enjoy your life". A lot of people could learn an awful lot from such a philosophy.