Juhayman al-Otaybi: what Wikipedia removed
Juhayman al-Otaybi is the Saudi figure who led the 1979 seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca. Through October 6, 2023 the opening called him ‘a Saudi Arabian terrorist and soldier who in 1979 led the seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca.’ Today’s opening calls him a ‘Saudi dissident and Ikhwan militant,’ though terror survives once in the body. A reader arriving today does not learn that Wikipedia once called the man who seized Islam’s holiest mosque a terrorist.
The word “terror” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 6 October 2023. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| militant | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| islamist | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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
Section titled “What was taken out”- The description of him as a Saudi Arabian terrorist who led the 1979 seizure of the Great Mosque of Mecca was replaced with ‘religious dissident and ex-soldier’.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16965661):
Little is known about Juhayman al-Otaibi , famous for his seizure of Masjid al Haram (The Great Mosque) in Mecca on November 20 , 1979 . v t e
2025 (revision 1283587956):
Saudi dissident and Ikhwan militant (1936–1980) Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi ( Arabic : جهيمان بن محمد بن سيف العتيبي ; 16 September 1936 – 9 January 1980) was a Saudi religious dissident and ex-soldier who led the Ikhwan during their Grand Mosque seizure in 1979. He and his followers besieged and took over the Grand Mosque of Mecca on 20 November 1979 ( 1 Muharram 1400 ) and held it for two weeks. During this time, he called for an uprising against the House of Saud and also reportedly proclaimed that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of the Ikhwan’s leading officials; al-Otaybi’s insurgency ended with Saudi authorities capturing the surviving militants and publicly exec…
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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