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One or more users has been changing religion in BLPs from "Shi'a Islam" to "Islam", calling the use of the more specific term "sectarian". This includes category names, so this category (Iraqi Shi'a Muslims) is losing membership to the broader Iraqi Muslims category. I first noticed this on Nouri al-Malikidiffdiffdiffdiff and thought maybe his staff was seeking to create a more secular public image. But it has also been done to Moqtada al-Sadrdiff, a highly sectarian figure who would presumably be proud of the Shi'a label. The motivation is presumably to promote peace, but I fear that this campaign is removing valuable information from Wikipedia. Is this a valid reason for information removal? If not, how can we figure out how many pages have been affected and restore them? Thundermaker (talk) 01:02, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment It is indeed "sectarian", since it represents a sect of Islam. However, there is no reason whatsoever that the fact that it is "sectarian" would indicate that this information be removed from wikipedia. If it is a verifiable fact that these people are, in fact, Shiites, then they should be noted as such. It would be akin to changing all instances of "Lutheran" to just say "Christian". This Shi'at Ali are neither fringe, fiction, nor fallacy, so I can't see how it would be any less acceptable in BLP than in the B's of dead P. siafu (talk) 16:35, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
RfC comment - Recognizing the specific religious beliefs of biography subjects, up to and including any sect or other denomination which they belong to, is a perfectly legitimate and long-standing wikipedia practice, and, if properly sourced, even in accord with WP:BLP. I can see no reason not to include the information in articles if it can be well sourced, or to not include it in the categorization scheme if appropriate. John Carter (talk) 16:54, 16 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
