Managing Editor

AFTER the 9/11 attacks, the West realized that it knew little about the Arab world—in fact, dangerously little. Why do they hate us so, and did this come out of the blue? It seemed imperative to learn more about the Arabs—to learn, for example, what they were saying to one another, in their media, in their schools, and in their mosques. The Arab world had always been dark this way; it needed to come into the light.

And this is where www.memri.org proved “invaluable,” as everyone has said. It is more than a website, of course; it is an institute, specifically the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. What it does, mainly, is provide translations of Arab newspaper articles, television shows, political statements, sermons, textbooks, and so on. MEMRI invites one and all to “Explore the Middle East Through Its Own Media”—which is what many people, including journalists, began to do last fall. Plenty of journalists leaned heavily on MEMRI’s translations, citing “the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute.” In fact, “invaluable” was written so often before MEMRI’s name that one could have been forgiven for thinking the word was part of the name. MEMRI served as an antidote to darkness, as a way not to be ignorant.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

AFTER the 9/11 attacks, the West realized that it knew little about the Arab world—in fact, dangerously little. Why do they hate us so, and did this come out of the blue? It seemed imperative to learn more about the Arabs—to learn, for example, what they were saying to one another, in their media, in their schools, and in their mosques. The Arab world had always been dark this way; it needed to come into the light.

And this is where www.memri.org proved “invaluable,” as everyone has said. It is more than a website, of course; it is an institute, specifically the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. What it does, mainly, is provide translations of Arab newspaper articles, television shows, political statements, sermons, textbooks, and so on. MEMRI invites one and all to “Explore the Middle East Through Its Own Media”—which is what many people, including journalists, began to do last fall. Plenty of journalists leaned heavily on MEMRI’s translations, citing “the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute.” In fact, “invaluable” was written so often before MEMRI’s name that one could have been forgiven for thinking the word was part of the name. MEMRI served as an antidote to darkness, as a way not to be ignorant.