Dear MEMRI Subscriber,
For over seven years, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has relied upon the generosity of our donors, including many of our subscribers.
As a reader of MEMRI, you are familiar with our ongoing efforts to monitor more countries, research more subjects, and translate into more languages.
The production and distribution of our materials, as well as the maintenance and development of our websites, are a costly process.
PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO PROVIDE OUR MATERIAL FREE OF CHARGE (www.memri.org/donation)
MEMRI continues to lead in "Bridging the Language Gap Between the Middle East and the West" through its translations, analyses, studies, and TV footage. We have added coverage of the Turkish media. We have expanded our lecture series briefing not only to members of the U.S. government - including Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Library of Congress - but also to major international conferences and government bodies such as the European Union Parliament. Just last month, MEMRI held a second briefing on Saudi TV at the U.S. Senate.
We are asking our subscribers who have not yet contributed to MEMRI to please consider making a contribution. We are also asking our donors to renew their support and to consider increasing it. Your generosity will help us continue to provide the latest research on the Middle East media as well as to keep our archives available free of charge.
The following projects still need funding for this year:
MEMRI TV PROJECT (www.memritv.org): See what both The Weekly Standard and Thomas Friedman have called "invaluable." There are now over 775 clips, with new ones added daily. MEMRI TV monitors over 50 channels around the clock. Over the past year, the most popular clips viewed – and aired by major TV networks, such as FOX, NBC, MSNBC, BBC, and CNN – include: reactions to the London bombings; Friday sermons in the Palestinian Authority; discussions on wife-beating; confessions by terrorists captured in Iraq; Iraqi public service announcements prior to the elections; interviews with Arab reformists; reactions to the tsunami; and anti-American propaganda on Iranian TV. Other highlights of this project include translations of important statements by leading Arab figures, such as Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah accusing Zionists of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and leading Islamist Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi espousing anti-American and pro-Jihad rhetoric.
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The impact of MEMRI TV has been critical in exposing incitement, and among its effects is France's ban of Iran's Al-Sahar TV. Prior to that, MEMRI was also responsible for bringing to light the issue of incitement by Hizbollah’s Al-Manar TV, first in 2002 by translating the Ramadan series Al-Shatat. MEMRI’s report was personally shown to Germany’s chancellor and foreign minister; the French prime minister, the Swedish prime minister, and numerous high-ranking American government officials. The report prompted France to ban the channel.
REFORM PROJECT (www.memri.org/reform.html): This project monitors advocates of reform in the Arab and Muslim world, and the obstacles they face in advancing their cause. The goal of this project is twofold: to provide reformists with a platform from which they can reach out to their societies and to religious, political, and educational leaders, and also to provide Western policy makers with a solid basis for long-tem strategic plans aimed at supporting this effort. During the past year, MEMRI has provided a platform for activists in areas including, social reform and civil society, reform in state education and political systems, women's rights, the impact of Arab reformists in their own countries, pro-reform conferences and petitions, and criticism of extremist mainstream Muslim clerics.
As MEMRI board member and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke stated, “MEMRI allows an audience far beyond the Arabic-speaking world to observe the wide variety of Arab voices speaking through the media, schoolbooks, and pulpits to their own people. What one hears is often astonishing, sometimes frightening, and always important. Most importantly, it includes the newly emerging liberal voices of reform and hope, as well as disturbing echoes of ancient hatreds. Without the valuable research of MEMRI, the non-Arabic speaking world would not have this indispensable window.”
JIHAD & TERRORISM PROJECT (www.memri.org/jihad.html): This project monitors individuals and groups that educate and preach Jihad and martyrdom in mosques, school systems, and the media, and researches Islamist ideology and organizations that threaten the West. During this past year, MEMRI’s translation of Osama bin Laden’s speech immediately prior to U.S. Election Day 2004 was recognized as one of the few correct translations. MEMRI’s work in the area of Jihad and terrorism led to the shutting down of several Islamist websites in the U.S. this year. Also, along with translating Al-Qaeda magazines online, speeches by Al-Qaeda leaders including Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were translated this year. The Jihad & Terrorism Project has been especially helpful to U.S. government agencies involved in the war on terrorism.
As MEMRI board member and former CIA director James Woolsey stated, “MEMRI is the single most important source for understanding what is happening in the Greater Middle East and what we must know to fight effectively the war against terrorism both at home and abroad.”
ANTISEMITISM DOCUMENTATION PROJECT (www.memri.org/antisemitism.html): Antisemitism in the Arab world and Iran has evolved rapidly in recent years, and it is based on various sources: Islamic origins, that go so far as to call in sermons and in the media for killing Jews, and European libels and stereotypes. It also draws heavily on Nazi propaganda. This phenomenon has become a major catalyst of antisemitic incidents in the West. This project documents Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish newspaper reports, editorials, and other media sources on antisemitic themes, as well as expressions in the Arab and Muslim world against antisemitism.
As MEMRI board member and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel said, “I hope you receive MEMRI's publications. I do. I find its material – translations and analyses of poisonous articles, hate-filled statements and slanderous accusations – vitally needed for the fight against antisemitism in the Arab world. Policy makers, legislators, teachers, and news commentators greatly benefit from its efforts to use truth in the service of peace.”
MEMRI IN THE MEDIA (www.memri.org/mediaall.html): MEMRI’s research is used in the media throughout the world on a daily basis – and increasingly in blogs. The Wall Street Journal Editorial page on September 23, 2004 called us "… the indispensable Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org)." On July 22, the highly respected Spanish newspaper El Pais stated, “…There is a very useful site that offers an insight into fundamentalist ideology. It is written by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI - www.memri.org). The voice of the Middle East is to be found here, and not just the official voice, but even the sermons given each Friday in mosques around the world. Its pages may provoke revulsion, the variety and volatility of many of the positions is surprising, a mish-mash of opinions from the most moderate and even liberal, to the hardcore.”
Other news organizations which have used MEMRI recently include The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Sun, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, The BBC, The Boston Globe, The Daily Herald, The Wall Street Opinion Journal, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, New Republic Online, The Weekly Standard, The Los Angeles Times, U.P.I., Congressional Quarterly, Foreign Policy, Die Welt, and The London Times.
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Donating online is easy and secure and also keeps our administrative costs down. To contribute right now, visit www.memri.org/donation. You can indicate the project you wish to contribute to.
MEMRI is a 501 (c) (3) status organization, and your donation to MEMRI is tax-deductible.
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MEMRI
P.O. Box 27837
Washington, D.C. 20038-7837
