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Fawaz Damrah: what Wikipedia removed

Fawaz Damrah was imam of the Islamic Center of Parma, the largest mosque in the Cleveland area. The 2010 opening said a video “was shown raising money for Islamic Jihad,” and that his citizenship case turned on lying about membership in organizations opposed to the United States. Today’s opening says only that Damra “was arrested by federal officials on an immigration violation,” without naming Islamic Jihad; jihad survives 5 times elsewhere in the article. A reader arriving at the opening today learns Damra was deported over an immigration violation, and not that the violation was tied to a video showing him raising money for Islamic Jihad.

The word “jihad” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 5. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word2010201520206 October 20232025
jihad22000
terror01000

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”
  • A sentence noting Damra’s interfaith outreach work was reworded when the opening was rewritten; that detail no longer stands beside his teaching post the way it once did.
  • The identification of Steve Emerson as the source of the video that exposed Damra is gone; a reader no longer learns who made the recording.
  • The direct statement that the video showed Damra raising money for Islamic Jihad is gone, along with the fact he was not rehired to teach afterward.
  • The clause explaining that his citizenship case turned on lying about ties to Islamic Jihad, even though the group is not formally organized against the United States, is gone.
  • The federal agency’s own account of Damra’s deportation is gone; a reader no longer learns which agency reported on his removal or what it said.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2010 (revision 360515370):

Fawaz Damra ( Template:Lang-ar , Fawwāz Damra ) was the imam of the Islamic Center of Parma, the largest mosque in the Cleveland area. Damra participated in numerous interfaith efforts and taught at Cleveland State University and the local community college. A 10 year old video made by Steve Emerson was aired on PBS; Emerson has systematically attacked many Palestinian and Arab Muslims accusing them of ties with anti-Israeli organizations. In one scene Damra was shown raising money for Islamic Jihad. He was not rehired in his teaching positions and the Islamic Center leadership called for him to step down, but he refused. The Center split between his supporters and those of its trustees. Due…

2025 (revision 1294845944):

Fawaz Mohammed Damrah ( Arabic : فواز ضمرة , Fawwāz Damra ) was the imam of the Islamic Center of Parma , the largest mosque in the Cleveland area and taught at Cleveland State University and the local community college. Damra was born in the West Bank city of Nablus in 1961. He studied law in Jordan . He arrived in the United States in the mid-1980s and was an active religious figure in the Muslim American community. In January 2004 Damra was arrested by federal officials on an immigration violation and he was ultimately denaturalized and deported back to the West Bank. He has three daughters who were all born in the United States. ^ PBS, NOW Jumpstart-. “NOW - Still in Harm’s Way & Man of …

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