WikiIslam:Renovations
A number of transformative steps have been undertaken as part of an ongoing effort to improve the content, professionalism, and reliability of WikiIslam. Raising the wiki’s standards and expectations will serve both to attract higher quality contributors and contributions and to spark a positive-feedback loop conducive to WikiIslam’s continued enhancement.
Key changes:
A new mission statement
“To provide accurate and accessible information from traditional and critical perspectives on the beliefs, practices, and development of Islam”
A stricter, more academic scope
The scope of the wiki has been changed in a number of important ways. Whereas the wiki once stretched to comprise anything having to do with Muslims, Muslim-majority nations, and Islam throughout history, the scope is now more narrowly confined to topics related particularly to the “beliefs, practices, and development of Islam”. In addition to referencing primary Islamic sources, the wiki now aims to complement these primary sources with the growing body of modern, historical-critical scholarship on the origins of Islam. Finally, implicit in this transition is a broadening of the wiki’s focus from merely the criticism of Islam to Islam in general – that is, whereas WikiIslam may once have been concerned only with Aisha’s age, it is now interested in Aisha herself.
A zero-tolerance policy on hateful, misleading, unencyclopedic, and polemical content
WikiIslam no longer tolerates any amount of hateful, misleading, unencyclopedic, or polemical content. Likewise, given WikiIslam's newly encyclopedic spirit, articles are no longer permitted to maintain any point of view, be it political or religious – facts, straightforwardly described, are for the reader alone to judge.
The cleansing, re-conception, renaming, merging, archival, and deletion of several hundred articles
In a major stride towards realizing the wiki’s renewed standards and objectives, several hundred articles on the wiki have been reviewed, renovated, or removed. Salvageable articles have seen their very worst infractions expunged, sometimes being transformed in the process. Wiki content from before the renovation is available at WikiIslam archive for historical purposes.
An open invitation to sober and serious contributors, ex-Muslim, Muslim or non-Muslim.
WikiIslam is once again accepting editors and translators. While IP edits continue to be disabled due to persistent attempts at vandalism, serious contributors who request an account will be provided one. Due to the new demeanor of the wiki, contributors’ background and religious persuasion are not relevant. The devout Muslim moved to write about the intelligent piety of Abu Bakr, the scholar hoping to outline potential Aramaic readings of the Qur’an, and the atheist roused to documenting some seemingly-absurd injunctions of Islamic law are all equally welcome, encouraged, and competent to join the WikiIslam team.
As always, the wiki is a work in progress. Serious feedback and infraction-reports are welcome.