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Wikipedia has a policy of not calling people or groups "terrorist". This is not an indication of condoning "terrorist" activities, but of neutrality, and avoidance of passing judgment, affirming or denying. Please debate the merit of this policy at WT:Words to avoid, not here.
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Change the line "In his 2004 book Ghost Wars, Steve Coll writes that the CIA had contemplated providing direct support to the foreign mujahideen, but that the idea never moved beyond discussions.[468]" to "In his 2004 book Ghost Wars, Steve Coll writes that while the CIA had contemplated providing additional support to the foreign mujahideen beyond contributing funding, such as planning to incorporate radical anti-Soviet Islamic groups into an "international brigade," the idea never moved beyond discussions.[468]"
The reason for this change is that the source used here does not align with the conclusion and implication in the current sentence. Given its location in the section arguing against CIA involvement, use of the word "direct" implies that there was no involvement whatsoever, which is not what Coll argues. Here is the text of the passage that is being cited:
"From Pakistan arrived reports of a new group called the Islamic Salvation Foundation that had been formed in Peshawar to recruit and support Arab volunteers for the Afghan jihad, outside the control of any of the ISI-backed rebel parties. The network was operating offices and guesthouses along the Afghan frontier. Osama bin Laden, a wealthy young Saudi, was spreading large sums of money around Peshawar to help the new center expand. He was tapping into ISI’s guerrilla training camps on behalf of newly arrived Arab jihadists. The early reports of his activity that were passed along to the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center in this period suggested that bin Laden “certainly was not engaged in any fighting. He was not a warrior,” recalled Stanley Bedington, a senior analyst at the center from its beginning. Still, “When a man starts throwing around money like that, he comes to your notice."
When they first learned of efforts by bin Laden and allied Islamic proselytizers to increase the number of Arab volunteers fighting the Soviets, some of the most ardent cold warriors at Langley thought this program should be formally endorsed and expanded. The more committed anti-Soviet fighters, the better, they argued. As more and more Arabs arrived in Pakistan during 1985 and 1986, the CIA “examined ways to increase their participation, perhaps in the form of some sort of ‘international brigade,’ but nothing came of it,” Robert Gates recalled." Bisettes (talk) 04:03, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Not done for now: I don't read the passage that you've quoted from as establishing that Coll's argument is that the CIA provided some other kind of support. Rather, it seems to confirm what the current sentence in the article states, "that the CIA contemplated providing direct support", but ultimately did not. Is there another passage in the book that discusses other forms of support that the CIA provided? voorts (talk/contributions) 03:16, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.
In my opinion, it should only when it is the first letter of a sentence or the first word of a title. (For titles, it would be like how “the” is only capitalised if it is the first word.)
Agree. And the criterion is not Arabic rules of grammar, but how English sources spell it. Also, while many source use a hyphen, it seems to be a minority usage and we might consider changing it. TFD (talk) 04:10, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I just did a search inside Google Chrome, because that gave me counts of matches. "Al-Qaeda" reported 33.8 million matches. "Al Qaeda" reported only 29.4 million. However, "case:yes Al-Qaeda" reported only 3.83 million, while "case: yes Al Qaeda" reported 4.18 million. In sum, "Al-Qaeda" is preferred over "Al Qaeda" UNLESS I restricted the search using "case:yes", which flipped the preference.
AND using "case:yes" showed NO differences between "al-Qaeda" and "Al-Qaeda", etc.
My tentative conclusion:
Leave the title as is.
Change "Al-Qaeda" to "al-Qaeda" everywhere in this article except when it begins a sentence or appears in the title of something cited.
I will make those changes now. Currently, the article is inconsistent. I will make it consistent per this rule.
Someone else can do something different, if they wish ;-)
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I think there is a typo in the section titled "War on terror". Specifically, please change the text "The West was criticized for not being able to handle sl-Qaeda despite a decade of the war" to "The West was criticized for not being able to handle al-Qaeda despite a decade of the war" 98.208.46.5 (talk) 04:14, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Many of the sources, although quite valid, aren’t concrete and self declared ideological positions that AQ actually aligns with. Perhaps could it be altered to make it clear that it is an alleged ideology or just removed entirely? Guardafuuii (talk) 06:43, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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Not done for now: I don't read the passage that you've quoted from as establishing that Coll's argument is that the CIA provided some other kind of support. Rather, it seems to confirm what the current sentence in the article states, 
Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.
