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Amin al-Husseini: what Wikipedia removed

Amin al-Husseini was the Palestinian Arab nationalist and Mufti of Jerusalem who allied with Nazi Germany during World War II. Through October 6, 2023, the opening said that at war’s end he “sought refuge in Cairo to avoid prosecution for war crimes.” By 2025 the word had been removed and appears nowhere in the article today. A reader today does not learn that al-Husseini fled prosecution for war crimes after World War II, a fact that survived in the opening through the eve of October 7, 2023, and disappeared afterward.

The word “resistance” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 6. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word20052010201520206 October 20232025
resistance100000
militant000001
jihad001110
antisemitism001322
genocide000100
colonial000100

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 family description was reworded from ‘a family of Jerusalemite Arab notables’ to naming the al-Husayni family specifically as ‘Arab nobles,’ without dropping the underlying claim of descent from Muhammad.
  • The sentence describing his education in Islamic, Ottoman, and Catholic schools was reordered rather than removed; the underlying fact remains in today’s opening.
  • The specific reference to the Franco-Syrian War was replaced with a description of the Arab Kingdom of Syria’s disestablishment; the reader still learns he moved from Damascus back to Jerusalem, though not by that name for the conflict.
  • The description of his opposition to Zionism from 1920 is preserved, but the sentence’s continuation was reworded to lead into the 1920 Nebi Musa riots.
  • This dropped the fact that al-Husseini was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for incitement and then pardoned, a detail absent from today’s opening.
  • The sentence describing him as ‘an important ally’ during 1921-1936 was reworded; the packet does not show to whom he is called an ally today.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2005 (revision 16086781):

File:AlHusayni.jpg Mohammad Amin al-Husayni Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (ca. 1895 - July 4 , 1974 , امين الحسيني, also spelt al-Husseini or el-Husseini , also known as Al-Hajj Amin or Haj Amin ), was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim religious leader. A member of Jerusalem ‘s most prominent family, his most important positions were as Mufti of Jerusalem and President of the Supreme Muslim Council . Known as the “Grand Mufti of Jerusalem”, he received this title in 1921 after the death of his father (the Mufti of Jerusalem) under the auspices of the then High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel . He played a major role in Arab resistance to Zionist political ambitions in Palestine and recru…

2025 (revision 1297394590):

Palestinian Arab nationalist (1897–1974) Mohammed Amin al-Husseini ( Arabic : محمد أمين الحسيني ; c. 1897 – 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine . Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad . Husseini was born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire in 1897, he received education in Islamic , Ottoman , and Catholic schools . In 1912, he pursued Salafist religious studies in Cairo. Husseini later went on to serve in the Ottoman army during World War I . At war’s end he stationed himself in Damascus as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria , but following its…

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