Finsbury Park Mosque: what Wikipedia removed
Finsbury Park Mosque in London became internationally known after Abu Hamza al-Masri took it over as imam. The 2010 opening said leadership disputes in the 1990s allowed “extremist Islamist preachers” to take over the mosque, which “developed a reputation as a centre of radical Islamism in London.” Today’s opening calls Abu Hamza only “a radical preacher,” without the word Islamist; it survives once elsewhere in the article. A reader arriving at the opening today learns the mosque gained a radical preacher, and not that Wikipedia once described that takeover, and the mosque’s reputation, as Islamist.
The word “islamist” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 1. 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 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| terror | 0 | 0 | 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 image caption describing the mosque’s interior dome is gone, dropped with the photo it accompanied.
- The sentence naming the preachers who took over the mosque as extremist Islamist, many of them Algerian Civil War refugees, is gone.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16057993):
Finsbury Park Mosque Finsbury Park mosque in Finsbury Park, London, England was built c. 1990 to serve the large Muslim population in the area. The mosque became associated with radical Islamism in the early 2000s, in particular related to its association with Abu Hamza al-Masri . The Charity Commission expressed concerns about the management of the mosque, and its apparent use for political activities. On January 20 , 2003 the mosque was raided by British police, apparently as part of the investigation into the discovery of ricin in Wood Green . A number of men who were apparently living at the mosque were arrested. On February 4 , 2003, Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri was removed from his positi…
2025 (revision 1295314368):
Mosque in north London, England The Finsbury Park Mosque , also known as the North London Central Mosque , is a five-storey mosque located next to Finsbury Park station close to Arsenal Football Club ‘s Emirates Stadium , in the London Borough of Islington . It serves the local community in Islington and the surrounding boroughs of North London, and it is registered as a charity in England. The mosque gained national attention when Abu Hamza al-Masri , a radical preacher, became its imam in 1997. In 2003, the mosque was closed by its trustees following an anti-terrorist police raid, and re-opened in 2005 under new leadership. ^ “Finsbury Park Mosque” . MuslimsInBritain.org . Archived from th…
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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