Symbols of Islam: what Wikipedia removed
Symbols of Islam is Wikipedia’s article on emblems associated with the faith, including flags used by various movements. Through 2015 the opening described the Black Standard as used by various Islamist organizations since the late 1990s, consisting of a white-on-black shahada. Today the opening is a general definition of Islam with no mention of the Black Standard or Islamist organizations, though the word survives once in the body. A reader arriving now learns a general definition of Islam and not that the Black Standard flag has been used by Islamist organizations since the late 1990s.
The word “islamist” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2015. 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 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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 description of the Black Standard flag as used by various Islamist organizations since the late 1990s, dropped from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 17494100):
There are as such no “art works” prescribed by the Qur’an or Hadith as the “symbols” of Islam ; however there are some Sha’air or signs (of memory) initiated by the Qur’an. Most of the Hajj rituals are signs of memory of Abrahim (a.s)‘s family. Crescent is taken by Muslims as the symbol of Islam but it is not venerated as something sacred ; rather that is considered as one of Allah ‘s creations. Ka’ba, the Call for Prayer, As-Safa wal Marwa and several other things are venerated by Muslims on the command of Allah (s.w.t) and are not viewed as containing Sacred Himself!
2025 (revision 1294582567):
Something that represents the idea of Islam Calligraphic representation of the shahadah Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the world’s second-largest religion , with over 2 billion followers ( Muslims ) comprising nearly a quarter of the world’s population.
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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