What’s the main purpose of MEMRI and how does it work?
As the sole founder and the President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), I have defined the goals of the Institute as follows: 1) To bridge the language gap between the Middle East and the West by providing to Western readers translations and analyses of primary source materials: media (press, Internet and TV), school books and religious institutions. 2) To amplify the voice of reformists and liberal-democrats by exposing them to the Western political public, and to help dissidents. MEMRI is headquartered in Washington DC. We have also an office in Asia (Tokyo) and two in the Middle East (Baghdad and Jerusalem), and until recently we had an office in Europe in Berlin. MEMRI has 70 translators and researchers, among them native Arabic, Farsi and Turkish speakers. Our material is posted on three main websites: www.memri.org, which focuses on printed primary source material, www.memritv.org, which posts TV clips translated into English and www.thememriblog.org, for news. We have also started a special project on Islamist websites. Our board includes figures like Tunisian Professor at the Manouba University Amel Grami; Peace Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel; Ambassador Richard Holbrooke; Italian MP and sociologist Khaled Fouad Allam; Die Zeit editor Josef Joffe; former publisher and editor of the Palestianian daily Annahar Othman Hallaq; and Iranian journalist Faraj Sarkouhi, among others.
How do you reply to the critics pursued by part of the media, first of all Mr. Brian Whitaker of the Guardian, on MEMRI being a partisan organization financed by important American conservative foundations such as the Bradley Foundation?
Mr. Whitaker’s information is false and misleading. MEMRI is a non-partisan research Institute, and all the events we do on Capitol Hill are bi-partisan. We have been praised by journalists like Tom Friedman from The New York Times, who refers to us as the “invaluable MEMRI”. The Guardian itself has published our material, as have many other media outlets including PBS, ABC, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the BBC, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Libération, Le Monde, and others. We receive donations from a wide range of foundations. The “Bradley Foundation” is a contributor which gave us a one-time donation eight years ago.
Around the world there are many organizations that work in order to stimulate dialogues between Western and Eastern countries. But, although all the efforts, there are still many problems. Don’t you think that often western media (CNN and especially Fox News) generalize too much and therefore simplify Arab Muslim’s issues and that, on the other hand, Arab media do the same sort of thing? What are the main steps that must be taken to carry out trustful and solid dialogue between these two civilizations?
You are absolutely right. The Arab world is often presented in a generalized and misleading way. In order to counter this tendency of stereotyping and over-generalizing, which can only lead to Islamophobia, we focus on the reformist and liberal voices to show the complexity and the thriving debate in the region. We want to reflect the fact that the majority in the Middle East and North Africa – especially the younger generation – are not oriented towards extremist ideological trends, but rather towards improving their socio-economic circumstances, and so is the immigrant Muslim community in the West.
What’s your opinion on Al-Jazeera Arab and English broadcasting?
Al-Jazeera is a modern Western-style news channel. When it started, 10 years ago, it was a revolution in Middle Eastern media. It changed the way news was made all over the Arab world and became a model of emulation for other channels. As a satellite channel, it was the very first media outlet that addressed the entire Arabic-speaking world, and it established a new form of discussion presenting both sides of an issue. In the Middle East, it even succeeded in strongly influencing a large part of the public’s political views. However, the balance between religious-nationalistic content and reformist content is not adequately maintained, which is contrary to the general Qatari approach. It should be noted that the general director Waddah Khanfar – known as an Islamist – has recently been removed from the channel’s board. The international Al-Jazeera channel operates like a Western channel – it has many Western journalists on staff and is not as ideologically oriented as the Arabic channel.
Do you consider them trustful and a good opportunity to understand Muslim countries?
First of all, let me point out that nowadays, the Arab world has several satellite TV news channels such as Al-Arabiyya, MBC, LBC, Abu Dhabi TV and others. Certainly, Al-Jazeera is one of the sources to learn about trends and developments in the Arab world. It has credibility, mainly due to its unique primary source materials, and scoops like Al-Qaida cassettes and videos, and so on. However, they have also been harshly criticized by Qatari journalists, and recently by Algerians journalists and by the leading newspaper in the Arab world, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.