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June 26, 2008 Special Alerts No. 73

Please Support Our Efforts

June 26, 2008
Special Alerts No. 73

Dear MEMRI Subscriber,

For a decade now, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has relied upon the generosity of our donors, including many of our subscribers, to produce primary source translations and original analyses that enable government, law enforcement, legislating bodies, academia, the media, and the public to gain a more in-depth understanding of the complexities of the Middle East, and to enable them to read primary source material.

As a reader of MEMRI, you are familiar with our continuing efforts to monitor more media outlets in more countries, research more subjects, and translate into more languages.

The production and distribution of our materials, as well as the maintenance of our websites, is an increasingly costly undertaking.

PLEASE HELP US TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE THIS SERVICE FREE OF CHARGE

We are now asking our subscribers who have not yet contributed to MEMRI to please consider making a contribution. At the same time, we thank those who have contributed to us in the past and ask them to kindly renew their support and to consider increasing it.

Please donate now at http://www.memri.org/donation/

WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT MEMRI NOW

  • MEMRI is the only available open source in the world of translated material from Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Urdu, and Pashtu media, mosques, and school curriculum. In fact, we maintain the largest archives of such material in the world.

  • MEMRI releases on average over 10 major reports every week – more than most, if not all, major think-tanks and research organizations. MEMRI adds information everyday to its nine websites, including hundreds of blog posts.

  • On a daily basis, MEMRI provides its research free of charge to:

    • The U.S. military, including the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force for classroom usage, training, information gathering, research, professional learning, briefing law enforcement, and educational and instructional use, among other usage to over 20 military units in Iraq.

    • Federal agencies such as the Office of the Secretary of Defense; the Department of Homeland Security; the Federal Bureau of Investigations; the Department of State; the Department of Justice and others.

    • State and local authorities in all 50 states, on matters related to homeland security, officer training, and many others.

    • MEMRI has worked with, or provided research to, over 500 universities and colleges throughout the world. MEMRI’s research has been used by over 100 university departments, ranging from Departments of Arabic Studies to Departments of International Communication. This includes every state in the United States as well as 172 countries worldwide.

    • Numerous media outlets, both print and television, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, ABC, and others.

NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD MAKES SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE. WITHOUT MEMRI'S EFFORTS, THE LANGUAGE GAP WOULD BE MUCH GREATER

*THE FOLLOWING PROJECTS STILL NEED FUNDING FOR 2008 – YOU CAN DIRECT YOUR DONATION TO THE PROJECT OF YOUR CHOICE

JIHAD & TERRORISM STUDIES PROJECT (www.memri.org/jihad.html): This project provides research about Islamist ideology and Islamist organizations that threaten the West. The research assists Western governments and academia in better understanding militant Islam, terrorism, and terrorism-sponsoring countries. MEMRI’s Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project also monitors groups that educate and preach jihad and martyrdom in mosques, school systems, and the media.

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 to provide reformists with a platform from which they can reach out to their societies and to religious, political, and educational leaders while also providing Western policy makers with a solid basis for long-term strategic plans aimed at supporting this effort. 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. In addition, MEMRI is working behind the scenes on multiple projects, involving reform websites, reform institutions, reformist associations, and blog networks in the Arab world.

ANTISEMITISM DOCUMENTATION PROJECT (www.memri.org/antisemitism.html): Antisemitism in the Arab world and Iran has evolved rapidly in recent years, from various sources: Islamic origins that go so far as to call for killing Jews in sermons and in the media; European libels and stereotypes; and Nazi propaganda. MEMRI's Antisemitism Documentation Project documents antisemitic themes in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish newspaper reports, editorials, and other media sources. This project, which consists of thousands of pages of translations and hundreds of hours of footage from the MEMRI TV Project, maintains the largest archive in the world of translated Arabic, Farsi and Turkish material on antisemitism from the past decade.

ARAB & IRANIAN TV MONITORING PROJECT (www.memritv.org): This project has so far produced nearly 1,800 clips, totaling more than 14,000 hours of footage – the largest archives in the world. MEMRI TV is viewed in 197 countries around the world, and to date over 20 million visitors have accessed its website. The MEMRI TV Project monitors over 50 channels from Iran and the Arab world, around the clock. No one else – including NGOs – does such work.

THE URDU & PASHTU TRANSLATION PROJECT (http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu): Following our research and translations from Arabic, Farsi and Turkish, this year MEMRI began translations from the Urdu and Pashtu languages, enabling us to present material from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

MEMRI.ORG's ONLINE ENHANCEMENT

MEMRI is continuously expanding its website with content and technologies. More new and exciting innovations are in development as we work to enhance our presence in the online world of the "blogosphere" and World Wide Web, by integrating the latest technologies into both our new projects and our existing web sites. Please check our website often for more developments – most recently including the development of the MEMRI Widget, a convenient and state-of-the-art way of staying well-informed about breaking news in the Middle East. Without needing to open a web browser, users receive exclusive information, videos, blogs, and articles from top experts directly to their desktop (www.thememriwidget.org).

THE MEMRI BLOG (www.thememriblog.org): The MEMRI Blog was created to complement MEMRI's monitoring and research efforts – efforts which to date have focused on shapers of public opinion, but from now on will also focus on breaking news.

THE ISLAMIST WEBSITES MONITOR PROJECT (www.memri.org/iwmp.html): As part of our Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project, MEMRI launched a project to monitor Islamist websites. The purpose of the Islamist Websites Monitor Project (IWMP), and its objective, is to keep Western audiences informed about the steadily growing phenomenon of jihadist sites on the Internet, which are used by terrorist organizations and their supporters to spread their extremist message and to recruit funds and activists. Please note that MEMRI's Islamist Websites Monitor Project is the largest open archives of translated material from Islamist websites.

THE MEMRI ECONOMIC BLOG (www.memrieconomicblog.org): As Middle Eastern economic news is often relegated to secondary, if not marginal, coverage, the MEMRI Economic Blog strives to compensate for this deficit. The blog is the authoritative source for those interested in economic news of the Middle East. Visit daily for the latest news on economic issues in the Middle East.

THE MEMRI TURKISH BLOG (www.thememriblog.org/turkey): The blog provides firsthand primary-source material translated from the Turkish media – left, center, right, and Islamist – as well as original analyses. Visit daily to see news about Turkey before it appears anywhere else in the Western media.

MEMRI ARAB CULTURE BLOG (www.memriblog.org/arabculture/): Visit the MEMRI Arab Culture blog daily for news updates you will find nowhere else. This blog focuses on the vibrant cinema scene in the Arab and Muslim world, and works, both fiction and non-fiction, by the most influential authors and publishing houses in the Middle East. It explores the Middle East through its popular music, especially music that is politically oriented and musicians who are also social activists, and also examines other Arab cultural and popular trends.

DONATE ONLINE

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 TO WHICH YOU WISH TO CONTRIBUTE. MEMRI IS A 501(C)(3) STATUS ORGANIZATION, AND YOUR DONATION TO MEMRI IS TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.

You can also send a check to MEMRI:

MEMRI

P.O. Box 27837

Washington, D.C. 20038-7837

Thank you,

Yigal Carmon Steven Stalinsky

President & Founder Executive Director

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