Abdel Wahab El-Messiri: what Wikipedia removed
An Egyptian scholar and general coordinator of the opposition movement Kefaya, and a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The 2010 opening described him as “self described as a moderate Islamist,” who “has on Al Jazeera contemptuously described Western civilization as genocidal.” The word is gone from the whole article today; the opening now lists his roles at Kefaya and the Muslim Brotherhood without either his Islamist self-description or the genocidal-West quote. A reader today learns he coordinated an opposition movement, and not that he called himself an Islamist or called Western civilization genocidal.
The word “genocide” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today it appears nowhere in the article at all, references included. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| genocide | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| islamist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| colonial | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The passage describing his self-identification as a moderate Islamist and his comment calling Western civilization genocidal was dropped entirely.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 348475575):
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri ( Template:Lang-ar , 1938 -July 2, 2008) was an Egyptian scholar , author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya . Elmessiri was born in Damanhur , Egypt, graduated with a BA in English literature from Alexandria University in 1959. He received a MA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University in 1964 and a PhD in the same field from Rutgers University in 1969. He was professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Ain Shams University , Egypt since 1988. He was also a University Professor at King Saud University , Saudi Arabia (1983-1988) and at Kuwait University , Kuwait (1988-1989) and a visiting Professor at the I…
2025 (revision 1280049363):
Egyptian scholar Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri ( Arabic : عبد الوهاب المسيري , 1938-July 2, 2008) was an Egyptian scholar , author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya . Previously, he was a communist and later a member of the Muslim Brotherhood . The author of some 50 books and numerous articles, his magnum opus was the eight-volume Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism . ^ “Leader of Egyptian movement dies” . Al Jazeera . 2008-07-03. Archived from the original on 3 July 2008 . Retrieved 2008-07-03 . ^ “Leader of Egyptian movement dies” . Al Jazeera . 3 July 2008. ^ Farouk-Alli, Aslam (3 August 2008). “On life, literature and Palestine, a tribute to Abdelwahab Elmessir…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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