Arab European League: what Wikipedia removed
The Arab European League was a Pan-Arabist political organization in Belgium and the Netherlands, dissolved by court order in 2007. In 2005 the opening said that ‘while not Islamist, and eschewing violence itself,’ the AEL ‘does express support for the actions of Islamist resistance, militant, and terrorist groups in the Middle East.’ Today the opening describes the AEL only as a Pan-Arabist organization dissolved in 2007, with no mention of its expressed support for Islamist, militant or terrorist groups, though islamist survives twice elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns the AEL was Pan-Arabist and dissolved by court order, not that Wikipedia once documented its own stated support for Islamist, militant and terrorist groups in the Middle East.
The word “islamist” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 2. 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 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| islamist | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| terror | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| militant | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| resistance | 1 | 0 | 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 sentence describing the League’s expressed support for Islamist resistance, militant and terrorist groups is gone from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16400392):
The Arab European League or AEL is an organisation of European Muslims . It participated in elections in Belgium and the Netherlands . Its politics could be best described as Pan-Arabist and Arab Nationalist . While not Islamist , and eschewing violence itself, it does express support for the actions of Islamist resistance, militant,and terrorist groups in the Middle East .
2025 (revision 1283338275):
( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Political party in Belgium The Arab European League ( Dutch : Arabisch-Europese Liga , AEL) was a Pan-Arabist political organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands . The Arab European League was dissolved by court order on November 26, 2007, and liquidated on December 20, 2010. ^ Cite error: The named reference AEL_dissolution was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ Cite error: The named reference salon.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ “AEL boos over ‘homo-affiche’ Vlaamse Groenen (“AEL angry about ‘gay poster’ Flemish Greens”)” . Kenniscentrum lesbisch en homo-emancipatiebeleid (Knowledge Centre lesb…
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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