It's already hard enough to catch a glimpse of legendary Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah's family; fans and media are in general interested in him and any update related to him. So imagine what it would mean to have a peek at his wife and daughter.
Being a Muslim Arab in the West shadows Salah with his every move. Sometimes, this shadow turns into black concrete with the weight of a whale on his shoulders. From an Arab country with a population of 97.55 million - with an emphasis on the Arab part as it's known for its infectious sense of pride - it feels like Salah has a responsibility towards Egyptians, all Arabs, and, most importantly, the world's Muslims.
The Liverpool star, who's quite active on social media, shared a festive photo of himself along with his family for the global celebration of Christmas. Though yes, the holiday is usually celebrated by Christians as it's obvious from the 'Christ' part of Christmas, the entire month of December carries joy, colors and lights, activities, gifts, and exceptionally good food for every human being of any religious background.
With his wife Magi Sadeq to his left, half peeking with a shy smile, and his daughter Makka to his right holding on to him, the family portrait would seem quite regular if it wasn't for the ceiling-high Christmas tree with blue and silver ornaments.
Despite the 3.7 million likes at the time of writing and the 50,000 plus comments, hate was able to infiltrate and leak in the comments section.
Many loved the photo and the gesture, undoubtedly, as Salah is residing in the UK, a Christian country, and has a wide popularity among Westerners since Liverpool F.C. amasses fans from around the world. But the Muslim followers who believe "Christmas is haram" and should not be celebrated by Muslims were agitated to the fullest.
"Özil is defending Muslims and you're celebrating," one comment read, referring to when German-Turkish footballer Mesut Özil publicly denounced the treatment Uyghur Muslims are facing in China.
"After I saw all this, I am unfollowing you ... you pride of Christ," another user wrote, alluding to a phrase used to describe Salah as the "Pride of Arabs."
Some recited words from the Quran while others kindly reminded Salah that when he announces he's Muslim to the world, he should remember to act like one since he does not represent himself only for he's a public figure.
It's misleading to some extent what these comments are implying. What is the correct representation of Islam? Intolerance? If Islam is a loving and peaceful religion, why do some believers show their religiosity in a hateful way with obvious anger?
Mo Salah is a devout Muslim and his wife wears the hijab. If the West has decided to believe that Salah represents the epitome of Islam, it is the West's fault for choosing to be gullible instead of inquisitive.
No single human being and their actions can ever represent a religion that dates back thousands of years or a community that's been formed before the person's birth. Salah has already indirectly pushed people to convert to Islam. His celebration of a Christian holiday only shows tolerance and coexistence.
When he celebrated Halloween, Muslims and Arabs were also not satisfied
"Whyyyy don't you write in Arabic, you're Egyptian," a user on an Instagram photo of Salah in a Halloween costume wrote, underlining the "why" with passion.
"He writes in English," another person commented without further explanation. "Salah I need to ask you something, has the Arabic language been delinquent with you?" someone wrote with emojis of a sad face and a broken heart.
That was the Arabs' share of this section, all sad and confused to why Salah - whose fanbase covers the world - is not writing in Arabic. As for Muslims, it was another story. "You celebrated Halloween but not Mawlid al-Nabi Mohammed, whose name is after yours," one user said before correcting themselves with another comment, saying "your name is after his."
The caption to Salah's post, which sees him holding two fake spiders in each hand, is: "Trying my hardest to look scary." Well, to some extremists, he only had to celebrate Christmas for the caption to materialize.