Arabic news bared

Washington Times ^ | 6/20/02 | Sean Salai

[kattracks]

At the H Street home of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), five linguists can create a media stir simply by translating, accurately, Arabic-language news stories on their black Dell computers.

From its nine-room office, which looks more like the corporate headquarters of a small Saudi oil company, MEMRI distributes, via e-mail and fax, translations of comments about America in mainstream Arabic-language newspapers and in speeches by Muslim leaders.

[grimalkin]

"They obviously have a pro-Israeli agenda," says Raeed Tayeh, spokesman for the American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice."

Yes, they obviously say and do these things because they're Israelis (sarcasm). I believe C.S. Lewis called this type of thing "Bulverism". In other words, "evading the issue".

"They're trying to drive a wedge between the Western world and the Muslim world."

No. You are all doing this quite nicely amongst your small and like-minded selves.

[Mom_Grandmother]

.

.."U.S. officials say the translated texts sometimes are unnerving."

Some of the speeches are very unnerving, I was at this site today and found this speech below.

'Why We Fight America' The Entire Earth Must Be Subjected to Islam

The Middle East Media Research Institute | 6/19/02 | Suleiman Abu Gheith

Posted on 6/19/02 8:12 PM Pacific by Mom_Grandmother

[razorback-bert]

Bump for a good group of people.

[Prodigal Son]

I think as part of the war effort a portion of the war funds should go to translate on a daily basis all major Arabic media stories from television and newspaper and then publish/broadcast those in the American media or perhaps a new channel devoted solely to that. The American people would see first hand what type of mentality we're dealing with and the apologists of these murderers would have a whole lot harder time trying to defend these countries.

In London news stands and kiosks there are many Arabic language newspapers that call for the destruction of the US and the West on a regular basis but the average Londoner walks right past these papers and their headlines without giving it a thought because they can't read the Arabic script/language. How different would their reaction be if they could see it in plain old English- the calls for Britain to be turned into a Muslim state and a Muslim flag flown on Downing Street Number 10.

In the end this would be a weapon with two prongs. On the one hand, it would serve to better educate and unite American and Western opinion on the evils of the enemy we're dealing with and on the other, if the Arabs were smart they'd have to tone their rhetoric down and change the way they do the news which would have a dampening effect on radical Muslim/Arabic opinion.

[HHFi]

I seem to recall that during the Afghan bombing, we took out the local Talban/al-Jazeera TV studio with one smart bomb, even though it was in the middle of a block of buildings. The station owner's son-in-law was left standing there with a smoking camera tripod in his hand, babbling about how they had no idea our weapons could be so accurate. Well, maybe it's time we started once again aiming a few of them at satellite dishes, antennaes and studios in the Arab world.

[PatD]

Clearly, MEMRI is using the Islamic militants' own rope to hang them. What a lovely irony! The Islamists have copious government support from several states, and at least one such state has conducted a propaganda blitz on these shores, yet five faceless private citizens operating on a pittance can undo it all, simply by translating the Islamists' own words for our domestic consumption.

Now, if we can just keep MEMRI from getting any government grants!

[Elkiejg]

I think as part of the war effort a portion of the war funds should go to translate on a daily basis all major Arabic media stories from television and newspaper and then publish/broadcast those in the American media or perhaps a new channel devoted solely to that.

Totally agree. When we've been in Greece, we can read the English version of Greek newspaper - why not do the same with the Arab news?

[Elkiejg]

five linguists can create a media stir simply by translating, accurately, Arabic-language news stories on their black Dell computers.

Question for you computer techs. Aren't there computer programs that translate one language for another? When I go to the Intern. Herald to read Greek news, I can specify Greek or English. Or does that mean that both languages have been downloaded at the site?

[brityank]

Islam must be reformed and there are many Muslims out there trying to do it. But the Saudi-financed news media keeps them shut out of the public discourse."

Tell me again why the Saudi's are our friends and allies.

[general_re]

Aren't there computer programs that translate one language for another?

Yes. The technical description of them is that they "suck", however ;)

Seriously, they're not particularly reliable or accurate, partly because much of the meaning of language is contextual, and computers don't really understand context well. Maybe someday, but not now.

When I go to the Intern. Herald to read Greek news, I can specify Greek or English. Or does that mean that both languages have been downloaded at the site?

Correct. Either they have two different reporters, one writing in English and one in Greek, or, more likely, there's one reporter, and the paper has a translator on staff whose job is to translate the story for the other language editions of the paper. You can read the stories in Greek because the paper pays someone to translate all the stories to Greek, which are then posted as a Greek edition of the paper.

[TigersEye]

I also agree with your views. It would be nice to see Arafart's rants in Arabic (as well as what other Arabs are saying) published in English on a daily basis.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You've not heard of Babblefish, I guess.

Freeper Hal9000 during the Afghan campaign would post some translation using Babelfish and they were quite Funny but you could make sense of them, to some degree.