User:Anders Feder/ImproveIslamArticles

Wikipedia of course welcomes reliable, notable, neutral and balanced articles on Islam and the Middle East. But all too often these articles are written to promote rather than inform, on the false assumption that lying to make things seem more pretty than they are will cause people to like them more. However, nothing could be further from the truth: Most people are revulsed by lies, and crass exaggeration and glorification only serve to make the subject seem more corrupt and deceitful, and thus less likeable. Are Islamic and Middle Eastern countries really that weak that they only are able to make themselves appear prominent through various kinds of abuse and manipulation? That, to me, would be a shame.

General guidelines

Main page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Islam-related articles

• Islam-related articles should use the word "God" wherever it occurs outside of quotes, but inside any quotation marks, the wording of the referenced source must be maintained. Also, the first occurrance of "God" in the articles should be something to the effect of the following: "God (see Islamic concept of God)".[1][2] Using "Allah" implies that the Islamic god is some other god than the Judeo-Christian god, which is a belief held only by islamophobes.
• It is recommended that the template {{Cite quran}} be used to quote verses from the Quran which will provide an inline-superscripted link to the USC-MSA online translations of Yusuf Ali, Pickthall & Shakir.[3]
• Per Wikipedia:Reliable source examples#Religious sources, religious sources may be accepted as a source for their own views, and such personal views should be presented in an in-text attribution per WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV. Religious scripture is a primary source[4] and should be avoided per WP:PRIMARY, except for direct quotations. For everything else (history, science etc.), religious sources has long been demonstrated to be unreliable and untruthful and thus not acceptable under WP:RELIABLE.
• Wikipedia is not a place for you to practice your religion. If, for instance, your religion requires you to feel offended when religious sources are critically examined for reliability, then simply abstain from participating in editing Wikipedia, because critical examination of sources is a crucial part of Wikipedia's way of functioning, and no sources—religious or otherwise—are exempt from being put through this process.

Character catalog

Typical characters observed loitering around Islam and Middle East related articles:

The Happy Iranian

Relevant essay: WP:ADVOCACY

Person of Iranian origin or descent who almost certainly is not a paid stooge of the Iranian theocracy, but nonetheless pushes the theocracy's agendas and talking points in practically unaltered form, presumably for the same reason that someone may promote their local football team no matter how poorly it is doing. In addition to directly Iran- and Shia-related articles, their favorite subjects are the favorite subjects of the Iranian leadership, i.e. anti-Israelism, anti-Americanism, blaming "the West" for all problems Middle Eastern countries have created themselves etc. When you point out that some change they made is wrong, they stick their fingers in their ears and do a ululation (watch).

The Keyboard Jihadist

Relevant essay: WP:HOLYWAR

Person who mistakenly thinks Sharia law is one of the five pillars of Wikipedia. The prime example of this is the neverending struggle against vandalization of images of Muhammad in the name of a supposed aniconism in Islam.

The Idolatrous Muslim

Person who treats Wikipedia as their shrine to Islam—which is ironic because creating or worshipping shrines (idolatry) is one of the greatest sins in Islam. Muhammad is supposed to have addressed this form of idolatry specifically: "When a man gets up to pray and strives to beautify his prayer because people are looking at him; that is secret shirk (idolatry)." The taboo against "secret shirk" is due to it being seen as a symptom of a wavering or defective faith: the idolater does not truly believe in the word of the Quran, but goes out of their way to seem as if they do; either for material or social gains, or in an effort to have their faithfulness validated by others. The idolater is attempting to manifest in the outer world what they can not manifest in their inner world.

This person's additions to Wikipedia often have a mystical character (i.e., it's mumbo-jumbo). When you remove it (e.g. under WP:NONSENSE), they will take great personal offense, seeing that you are destroying not only a passage of mumbo-jumbo, but also the very embodiment of their faith; in effect, their religion.

Improved

Articles the Wikipedia community decided to salvage:

• Ahmad Keshvari