Dear Friend,
#GivingTuesday – our nation's annual day of generosity, when we Americans recommit, through volunteering and charity, to causes important to us – is one week away. Please consider supporting MEMRI and its projects – including research on extremism, anti-Semitism, and hatred – on #GivingTuesday.
MEMRI monitors and translates hate-filled sermons at mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, exposing anti-Semitic motifs, including referring to Jews as apes and pigs, as well as calls for killing Jews and other incitement against them; denying the Holocaust and praising Hitler; promulgating the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and other manifestations of hatred. The MEMRI clips of these sermons have resulted in public condemnation of these statements, public apologies by the speakers, and disciplinary and, in some cases, legal action against them. At the same time, MEMRI seeks out and amplifies the voices of imams preaching tolerance, coexistence, and understanding.
This year, MEMRI exposed sermons by Imam Aymen Elkasaby at the Islamic Center in Jersey City, NJ, where an "Interfaith Gathering of Unity" had recently taken place, calling on Allah to count these "oppressors" – referring to the Jews – "one by one and kill them down to the very last one" and praying to be martyred at "Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is under the feet of the apes and pigs" – i.e. the Jews. Following this exposure by MEMRI, the president of the Tri-State Imams Council, Imam Mohamed Moussa, who is connected to the authorization of imams in the East Coast area, announced a workshop for training U.S. imams to avoid incitement and hate speech. He warned that calls for killing or harming Jews – which, he added, "many preachers recite by heart" – are illegal in America and that there are "institutions of Islamophobia" and "entire organizations, with budgets in the millions, whose only job is [to monitor] us."
Your support, on Giving#Tuesday and every day, allows MEMRI to continue to produce these primary-source translations, as well as unique analyses on topics of importance to Western policymakers.
Other MEMRI projects include: tracking Iran’s expanding influence in the Middle East and threats against the West; amplifying the voice of reformists in the Middle East and South Asia; and helping Western policymakers to better understand the complexities of the region and fight terrorism.
None of this research would be possible without the support of donors like you. We thank you in advance for your support.
With gratitude,
