Soccer and militant Islam intersect in incidents across the Middle East

Tunisian soccer player-turned-jihadist Nidhal Selmi

By James M. Dorsey

A successful soccer player near the peak of his career, 22-year Nidhal Selmi died last week a foreign fighter for the Islamic State, the jihadist group that controls a swath of Syria and Iraq. His death followed that of Tunisian handball goalkeeper Ahmed Yassin and Ahmed El-Darawi, a f…