The five best Internet resources to get at original data and content from the Middle East.
Have you ever wondered why Arabs don't speak out against terrorism? Have you ever wondered what Arabic newspapers say about Americans? Have you ever wondered what the real social, economic, and religious differences are between the Middle East and the West? The answers to these questions are surprising sometimes, and often times we simply haven't heard what's being said. The following list of five resources will help bridge that gap, moving beyond polemics and Western commentators -- who though at times correct simply can't replicate access to real data and actual middle eastern perspectives, be they Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Persian (Iranian), or the myriad of other peoples to be found in that region of the world.
The most interesting resource that is of particular interest because of its uniqueness is MEMRI -- short for The Middle East Media Research Institute. MEMRI has what many Americans think doesn't exist: Arabs speaking out about important issues like terrorism, social inequality, and other issues. It also has quotes and articles by extremists and others with whom most of us would strongly disagree. In short, MEMRI is simply an online organization which translates various important Middle Eastern writing and speeches -- be they extremist, moderate, religious, political -- or what have you. If it's important then they publish it. MEMRI is used by reporters and journalists to get primary source material from the Middle East. You can sign up for their daily updates and other kinds of weekly notifications and such.
At Memri TV
they make available various video clips with subtitles from Middle Eastern TV stations. You can actually watch and listen to Saudi clerics, members of Hezbollah or other sometimes violent political movements, important political leaders, reformers, and others. Some of these are quite long, so they have transcripts available as well. At the bottom left of MEMRI's website there is a list of MEMRI's other spawned websites such as their blog, Islamist website Monitor Project, Iran blog, Urdu/pashtu blog, and more. It's important to note that they are not confined to Arabic resources but include many other resources from the region.
I included Al Jazeera because this Qatari newspaper is extremely popular in the Middle East. It's kind of useful to read the news about the Middle East by middle Easterners. Though the Arabic newspaper version deals more with the Middle East than the English version and is much more expensive, the English version really is quite good though brief. It can be found at http://english.aljazeera.net/English and is worth looking through.
The Arab World News
is probably a better English website -- it is not, however, as influential in the Middle East. Its website is
Among the best sources of data are the UN Human Development Reports. Founded by an Arab, Mahbub al-Huq, the various reports contain data and analysis and are available for various regions as well as individual nations. For our purposes, it is the Arab Human Development Report which we are interested in. These reports are available from a variety of locations on the Internet. Simply Googling "Arab Human Development Report" will return a variety of results. Currently available are years 2002 to 2005. Each report is published about two years after the date, so the report for 2005 was just published last year. They are available online for free or from Amazon.
Simply the best resource for understanding the world in terms of current events and economics is the London-based weekly periodical called The Economist. Though rather expensive in print, I still subscribe to it. Fortunately much of the content is available online, and in fact, there is a great deal of content online that you can't find in the print edition. The place to start is with the Economist's Africa and Middle East section. You will see a listing of various articles, and on the right, you'll see several other links which include useful country briefings, articles by subject, and backgrounders. If you're interested in a particular country, country briefings selection. Say for instance you choose Iraq. This will give you access to all the articles about Iraq, detailed economic data, a map, a forecast for the country, detailed descriptions of the political structure, and more. The economist has one of the best reputations for any news source in the world. Its reputation for nonpartisanship and un-polemic outlook has earned it the respect of a broad readership including many political leaders and other important people across the world.
It is important to note that the US government keeps information that is made available to the public and is extremely useful. Though you may not like the United States's positions in the Middle East, it's undeniable that the United States plays an important role. As a result it's worth reading. There's also a lot of general information that is pretty reliable. As every college student learns, the CIA factbook for instance is one of the best resources for statistics. Simply open the webpage and then select the country you wish to research. Following through with our Iraq example, if you select Iraq, you'll see a large article. At the top is a map with a short description which seems incredibly dense and technical but it is actually fairly accessible. Here you can find information such as total land area, amount of coastline, proportion of different age groups and population data, listing of major religious groups, GDP growth rate, and more.
The US State Department also keeps interesting alerts and information about various regions of the world. In particular, if you want information about the US's dealings in the Middle East, the State Department is a useful place to look. The website can be found here.
Though certainly there are other resources well worth mention, these five along the top of any list of this sort. There is nothing quite like seeing the data for yourself and actually read and hearing Middle Easterners speak for helping us understand the world defining conflicts. In my opinion we can come to see them as more like ourselves as humans that we may think -- and see other sources for conflict that would make more sense to us than what we hear day-to-day in the West.
