Hisham Kabbani: what Wikipedia removed
Hisham Kabbani was a Lebanese-American Sufi Muslim scholar known for opposing radical currents within Islam. Through 2005 the opening said he criticized organizations “for supporting radical Islamism.” Today the opening says only that he “counseled and advised Muslim leaders to build community resilience against violent extremism”; the word appears nowhere in the article. A reader today learns he opposed generic violent extremism, and not that he specifically named and criticized radical Islamism.
The word “islamist” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today it appears nowhere in the article at all, references included. 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 | 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 account of his public criticism of organizations for supporting radical Islamism is gone from the opening, replaced by a vaguer reference to countering violent extremism.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 17892605):
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani is a scholar and Sufi shaykh born in Lebanon who has been active in North America lecturing, spreading Sufi teachings and founding Sufi centers. He was sent to America by his shaykh to establish the foundation of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order there. Since then, he has opened thirteen Sufi centers in Canada and the United States. Kabbani graduated from the American University of Beirut in Chemistry . He studied for a medical degree at Leuven in Belgium . Then he received his Islamic law Degree from Damascus . From childhood he has accompanied Shaykh ‘Abdullah ad-Daghestani and Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani , then grandshaikhs of the Most Distinguished Naqshbandi …
2025 (revision 1273228450):
Lebanese-American Islamic scholar (1945–2024) Hisham Kabbani (28 January 1945 – 4 December 2024) was a Lebanese-American Sunni Sufi Muslim scholar belonging to the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi order . Kabbani has counseled and advised Muslim leaders to build community resilience against violent extremism . In 2012, the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre named him on The 500 Most Influential Muslims . ^ Di Stefano Pironti, Alexandra (January 4, 2013). “Mystical Islam Deters Fundamentalism” . Inter Press Service . Retrieved 17 January 2013 . ^ “The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims, 2012” . The Muslim 500 . Retrieved 18 December 2012 .
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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