The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region’s media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian, Urdu-Pashtu, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.
Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI’s headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in London, Rome, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Shanghai and Tokyo. MEMRI research is translated to English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew.
MEMRI.org is one of the most widely respected and utilized resources online about the Middle East. It is a significant dissemination tool, providing free translation of news from the Arab and Muslim world. MEMRI’s Special Dispatch, Inquiry & Analysis, and Special Report series can be found on the site, and together they include over 2,000 documents. Thus, MEMRI maintains the largest archive in the world of translated Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, and Urdu research material from the past decade.
The MEMRI TV Project maintains the world’s largest archives of footage translated from Arab and Iranian television. The project has so far produced over 1,500 clips, totaling more than 14,000 hours of footage. MEMRI TV is viewed in 197 countries around the world, and to date over 20 million visitors have accessed the website. MEMRI TV monitors over 50 channels around the clock.
As part of our Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project, MEMRI began a new project to monitor Islamist websites last year. The purpose of the Islamists Websites Monitor Project, which is part of our Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project, 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.
The MEMRI blog operating since November 2006, was created to complement MEMRI’s monitoring and research efforts – efforts which had until then focused on shapers of public opinion, but since the blog's establishment focus also on breaking news. In its short time online, the MEMRI blog's readership has grown steadily, with more and more blogs linking to our site. Since its launch, the blog has been visited millions of times.
In response to the dire need for translations from Urdu in the War on Terror – of which MEMRI was told by high-ranking government officials – MEMRI launched its Urdu Media Project in August 2007. In January 2008, MEMRI expanded the Urdu Media Project to include the MEMRI Urdu-Pashtu Blog. The Urdu/Pashto project focuses on translations from open-source Urdu- and Pashtu- language newspapers and websites. Its primary sources are material from Pakistan and the surrounding countries, as well as Urdu-language media outlets and websites in the U.K.
To enhance MEMRI's Iran Studies Project, MEMRI is now introducing a separate Iran Media News Blog. This blog will focus on breaking news and other developments from Iran. Like the Iran Studies Project, the Iran Media News Blog will provide primary-source material translated from Iranian media and websites.
In view of the historical developments that have been taking place recently in Turkey – developments that will determine the future of the Turkish republic, its relations with its neighbors in the region, and its position vis-à-vis, or its alignment with, the E.U. and the U.S. – MEMRI has launched its Turkish Media Blog. This blog contains translations of speeches, interviews, sermons, and segments from TV and film programs in Turkish, found on YouTube and other online video sites.
The MEMRI Economic Blog was launched in July 2007 to fill to gaps in the Western media’s coverage of economic news and developments in the Middle East. An example of the need for this blog is illustrated by the fact that while the Islamic banking sector rapidly grows, elevating terminology like sukuk (Islamic bonds) and murabaha (profit-sharing in lieu of interest, which is prohibited by Islam) to world recognition, much of this phenomenon is overshadowed by the more dramatic political events in the region.
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 on 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.
