The mission of this project is to expose Arab antisemitism, which is a main catalyst of antisemitic incidents throughout the world during recent years. MEMRI's objective is to bring this issue to light and assure that the general media, legislators, policy makers, and research and academic institutions, become familiar with the phenomenon, and address it.

Modern Arab and Islamic antisemitism is comprised of four elements:

Antisemitism rooted in the Koran, in Muslim tradition, and in classical Muslim literature, dating back to the Prophet Muhammad's confrontation with the Jewish tribes of the Arabian peninsula.

2.Christianity and the West: Antisemitism from European and Christian tradition, such as the blood libel, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, common Jewish stereotypes (Shylock et al), and distortions of the Talmud.

3. The Holocaust: Denying the Holocaust while at the same time approving of it; equating Jews/Zionists with Nazis, and borrowing from Nazi propaganda.

4. Modern Manifestations: The continuing demonization of Jews, Israel, and Zionism as a single entity - that is, not legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, but dissemination of the idea that Jews, Zionists, and Israel have manipulated practically every critical event in modern history.

MEMRI is also planning to monitor other literary and cultural manifestations of antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world. The project will also include Arab and Muslim criticism of antisemitism.

NOTE: We have deliberately chosen to use the term "antisemitic" - widely accepted as synonymous with "Jew-hatred" - regardless of the Arab claim that since Arabs are also Semites they by definition cannot be antisemitic. This claim allows its inventors to skirt major issues of contemporary antisemitism in the Muslim world, such as: demonizing Jews, disseminating stereotypes regarding Jews based on Islamic religious sources, fanning hatred of Jews using these same sources, adoption of Western/Christian antisemitic themes, denial/approval of the Holocaust, etc.

We will be compiling a special collection of materials from this project, including an Iraqi blood libel and a Saudi government paper on Koran-based antisemitism. For more information, visit MEMRI at www.memri.org/antisemitism.html. Arab images and cartoons are also available online.