Mahdi Army: what Wikipedia removed
The Mahdi Army was an Iraqi Shia militia created by Muqtada al-Sadr that fought US-led occupation forces after a 2004 uprising. In 2005 the opening said The Islamist militants rose to international prominence on April 4, 2004. Today the opening calls it an “Iraqi Nationalist Shia militia,” and islamist survives four times in the body but not in the description of the group itself. A reader today learns the militia was Shia and nationalist, and not that Wikipedia’s own opening once called its fighters Islamist.
The word “islamist” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 4. 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 |
| terror | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| militant | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| jihad | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| massacre | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| occupation | 1 | 1 | 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 alternate name and transliteration for the militia, dropped from the opening.
- The description of the militia as Islamist militants that rose to international prominence, softened to a nationalist framing in today’s opening.
- A description of the militia’s weaponry, AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades, dropped with the passage it appeared in.
- The passage describing the June truce and the moves that followed it to disband the militia, reworded in today’s opening.
- The passage describing how the truce broke down in August 2004 with new hostilities, dropped from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16411260):
File:MahdiArmy.jpg Members parade in Sadr City The Mahdi Army , also known as the Mehdi Army or Jaish al Mahdi ( Arabic جيش المهدي ) , is a militia force created by the Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in June of 2003 . The Islamist militants rose to international prominence on April 4 , 2004 when it spearheaded the first major armed confrontation against the U.S-led occupation forces in Iraq from the Shiite community in an uprising that followed the banning of al-Sadr’s newspaper and attempts to arrest him, and lasted until June 6 . The group is armed with AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles , rocket propelled grenades , mortars , and other light weapons. The truce agreed to in June…
2025 (revision 1298293085):
Iraqi Shia jihadist militia (2003–2008) For the Mahdist army in 19th-century Sudan, see Muhammad Ahmad . The Mahdi Army ( Arabic : جيش المهدي , romanized : Jaysh al-Mahdi ) was an Iraqi Nationalist Shia militia created by Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in August 2008. The Mahdi Army rose to international prominence on April 4, 2004, when it spearheaded the first major armed confrontation against the US forces in Iraq from the Shia community. This concerned an uprising that followed the ban of al-Sadr’s newspaper and his subsequent attempted arrest, lasting until a truce on June 6. The truce was followed by moves to disband the group and transform al-Sadr’s movement into a politic…
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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