Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: what Wikipedia removed
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was the founder and first leader of the Islamic State, who proclaimed himself caliph in 2014. Through at least 2020 the opening said that after the 2003 invasion he ‘joined Salafi jihadist groups in Iraq.’ Today the opening says he ‘led the “Jama’at Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama’ah” insurgent group in Iraq,’ with jihadist gone from the opening though jihad survives 29 times elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns he led an insurgent group, not that Wikipedia once specifically described the groups he joined as Salafi jihadist.
The word “jihad” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 6 October 2023. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 29. 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 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| jihad | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| terror | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| militant | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| massacre | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| genocide | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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”- An earlier opening called him the first caliph of the Islamic State outright; the current opening instead says he proclaimed himself caliph and was the group’s founder and first leader.
- The passage naming the Salafi jihadist groups he joined after the 2003 invasion is gone from the opening, replaced with the description that he led an insurgent group.
- The sentence stating he joined al-Qaeda in Iraq and rose through its ranks is gone from the opening in this exact phrasing.
- The passage explaining that al-Qaeda in Iraq reorganized and renamed itself the Islamic State of Iraq is gone from the opening.
- The sentence describing how Baghdadi was chosen caliph by the Islamic State’s Shura Council is gone from the opening.
- The sentence noting that Baghdadi’s claim to the title of caliph was almost universally rejected by Muslims is gone from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2015 (revision 669481515):
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( Template:Lang-ar , ʾabū bakri l-baḡdādī ) or Abu Du’a , ( أبو دعاء , ʾabū duʿāʾ ) alternatively called Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi ( أبو بكر البغدادي الحسيني الهاشمي القرشي , ʾabū bakri l-baḡdādī l-ḥusaynī l-hāšimī l-qurašī ) and known to his supporters as Amir al-Mu’minin or Caliph Ibrahim ( خَلِيفَةُ إِبْرَاهِيم ḵalīfatu ʾibrāhīm ; born as Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri إبراهيم عواد ابراهيم البدري ), is the ringleader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Islamic extremist group in western Iraq , Libya , northeast Nigeria and Syria self-styled as the “Islamic State”. It is believed that he has been proclaimed by his followers to be a C…
2025 (revision 1297994549):
Leader of the Islamic State from 2013 to 2019 Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (28 July 1971 – 27 October 2019), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , was an Iraqi militant leader who was the founder and first leader of the Islamic State (IS), who proclaimed himself caliph in 2014 and stayed in power until his death in 2019. Baghdadi was born in Samarra and obtained graduate degrees in Islamic theology in the late 1990s and 2000s. According to supporters, he obtained a PhD at the Islamic University of Baghdad . Following the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Baghdadi led the ” Jama’at Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama’ah ” insurgent group in Iraq and was detained with…
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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