Islam in Bangladesh: what Wikipedia removed

This article surveys Islam’s role in Bangladesh, including its political dimension. In 2010 the opening said “in recent years there has been an increase in Islamism among some political parties.” Today’s opening is a navigation template of major figures, communities and organizations, and does not carry this observation; islamist survives once elsewhere in the article. A reader today does not learn, from the opening, that Islamism has been rising among Bangladeshi political parties.

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.

Where this comes from

We saved this article’s opening paragraph at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025. Everything below is Wikipedia’s own text, quoted from those saved copies. The interactive version, with every snapshot side by side and each removal marked in place, is at ilroot.com/case/islam-in-bangladesh.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

word	2005	2010	2015	2020	6 October 2023	2025
islamist	0	2	0	0	0	0
martyr	0	1	0	0	0	0
occupation	0	0	0	1	1	0
colonial	0	0	0	1	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

• A sentence describing Baitul Mukarram, the national mosque of Bangladesh in Dhaka, dropped from the opening.
• A sentence on religion’s role in Bangladeshi identity, dropped from the opening.
• A 2003 survey finding on religion as Bangladeshis’ first-choice identity, dropped from the opening.
• The sentence noting rising Islamism among political parties, dropped from the opening.

How it opened then, and now

2005 (revision 17905397):

Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka , the capital of Bangladesh , was built in 1962 . The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca Sunni Muslims constitute 83-85 percent of the population. They live with approximately 10 percent of the population that is Hindu . The remainder of the population is mainly Christian (mostly Catholic ) and Buddhist . Members of these faiths are found predominantly in the tribal (non-Bengali) populations of the Chittagong Hill Tracts , although many other indigenous groups in various parts of the country are Christian. There also are small populations of Shi’a Muslims, Sikhs , Bahá’ís , animists , and Ahmadis . Estimates of their populations vary from a few hu…

2025 (revision 1297625202):

Major figures Bakhtiyar Khalji Shah Jalal Khan Jahan Ali Shah Makhdum Titumir Shariatullah Karamat Ali Jaunpuri Sher-e-Bangla Siraji Nazrul Bhashani Communities Bengali Muslims Deshi Dhakaiyas Kan Mahifarash Mahimal Nashya Shaikh Shershabadia Sylhetis Rohingyas Bihari Muslims Pangals Ideology/schools of thought Ahl-i Hadith Barelvi/Rezvi Deobandi/Qawmi Fultali Maizbhandari Shia Educational organizations Alia Madrasa Qawmi madrasa Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board Islamic University, Bangladesh International Islamic University Chittagong Political parties Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan Islami Andolan Islami Front Islami Oikya Jote Jamaat-e-Islami Jamiat Ulema-e-Isla…

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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