Rafiq A. Tschannen is a Swiss national. He converted to Islam and joined the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community at the age of 16 after reading the German translation of the Holy Qur'an. He worked in 15 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, first as Finance Director in the private industry and later as Chief Executive Officer of NGOs and International Governmental Organizations. He is now devoting his time to The Muslim Times as Editor for Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Switzerland and as Associate Chief Editor.
Angela Merkel. Photo: DPA Over 2 in 3 Germans don’t blame Merkel for terror attacks Published: 03 Aug 2016 15:10 GMT+02:00 Updated: 03 Aug 2016 15:10 GMT+02:00 Since two violent attacks in Bavaria by Islamist fanatics Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under pressure for her open-door refugee policy. But most […]
FACE COVERINGS By swissinfo.ch and agencies AUG 2, 2016 – 21:33 Police in Locarno cautioning a member of the Islamic Central Council Switzerland on July 1, the day a ban on face coverings in canton Ticino came into effect (Keystone) Banning the wearing of face coverings is a question of […]
August 23, 2015 “After its defeats in Anglo-Afghan wars in 1842, 1880 and 1919, Britain wanted to avenge the defeats in form of carving Pakistan out from the land of Afghanistan and India. Pakistani leadership was aware of the fact that Pashtuns would never accept Pakistan as their homeland, therefore, […]
BY MICHAEL LIPKA4 COMMENTS Many Americans are wary of the prospect of implanting a computer chip in their brains to improve their mental abilities or adding synthetic blood to their veins to make them stronger and faster, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey gauging the public’s views […]
BY ANGELINA E. THEODOROU Apostasy and blasphemy may seem to many like artifacts of history. But in dozens of countries around the world, laws against apostasy and blasphemy remain on the books and often are enforced. Last December, for instance, authorities in Sudan charged 25 men for apostasy – the […]
Recent wave accounts for about one-in-ten asylum applications since 1985 BY PHILLIP CONNOR A record 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the 28 member states of the European Union, Norway and Switzerland in 2015 – nearly double the previous high water mark of roughly 700,000 that was set in […]
Aug 02,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – HASAN ABU NIMAH Like the many annual Arab summits in the last decade, the latest in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott was an unexciting event. Other than expressions of goodwill, empty promises and routine political rhetoric, the summit produced nothing that can be viewed as […]
File photo: Martin Abegglen Published: 02 Aug 2016 Members of Switzerland’s Socialist Party (SP) are volunteering to be “naturalization advisers” under a new campaign to help foreigners in the country […]
ORGANOIDS Revolutionising biomedical science: mini-brains in a vat By Celia Luterbacher, Lausanne AUG 2, 2016 – 11:00 Many people know that cancer is made up of cells. But equally important is the extracellular matrix, which surrounds those cells and inhibits or promotes their growth. (swissinfo.ch) Miniature organs and cancers grown […]
By AFP – Aug 01,2016 – JORDAN TIMES A woman feeds the pigeons next to the Ortakoy Mosque in Istanbul, on Monday (AP photo) ISTANBUL — Turkey admitted Monday there may have been some “unfair” treatment in its post-coup crackdown as it voiced anger at Germany for barring […]
By AFP – Jul 26,2016 – JORDAN TIMES QALANDIYA — Israeli authorities early Tuesday destroyed 11 Palestinian homes in an area on the outskirts of Jerusalem divided from the city by Israel’s separation wall, residents and an NGO said. A convoy of Israeli army vehicles and bulldozers carried out […]
Jul 31,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – HANS-PETER LENZ On August 1, citizens in Switzerland and abroad celebrate the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291. Some 725 years ago, representatives of the three Swiss original Cantons secretly met on an isolated mountain meadow to swear to each other mutual support […]
28.05.2015 Deutschland, Islam, Terrorism/War, WorldJulia DR. JUERGEN TODENHOEFER: Dear friends, according to the US secret service, DIA, the Obama administration has known as early as August 2012 that Al Qaeda /AQI, IS, ISIS) and other extremists were heading the Syrian rebellion. As a result, the “possibility that a Salafist principality […]
23.01.2015 DR. JUERGEN TODENHOEFER Dear friends, Today, heads of states and foreign ministers are discussing ISIS at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Have they really understood that phenomenon, called ISIS, and its root causes? 1. Terrorism has as little to do with Islam as rape has to do with […]
At some point, we in the West are going to have to learn that if we intervene militarily in Mali or Iraq or Libya or Syria or interfere in Turkey, or Egypt, or the Gulf, or the Maghreb – then we will not be safe ‘at home’ Robert Fisk @indyvoices […]
Blair Imani meeting Bill Clinton. Courtesy of Blair Imani On April 13, 2016, barely a month after I started observing hijab, I attended an event called “Conversations with Bill.” It was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, one of the first I had attended, and I was so excited to hear […]
July 26, 2016 DANIEL ESTRIN i Majda Belaroui, 21, answered the call to volunteer for the French military reserves following the recent terrorist attack in Nice. But Majda, a Muslim, refused to remove her headscarf and hijab, as required under a French law that prohibits displays of religion in government […]
July 30, 2016 JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — There has never been a better time for women in Islamic Economies to be entrepreneurs. There are more business opportunities and more openings in the employment market for women today. They are being recognised for their value in contributing to […]
By Mohammad Ghazal – Jul 30,2016 – JORDAN TIMES AMMAN — The Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) is preparing to deploy Thai technology to make artificial rain, JMD Director Mohammad Samawi said on Saturday. “We have taken many steps towards the implementation of the experiment and these steps are in […]
How come a Muslim can be a terrorist in Europe but a mere ‘attacker’ in south-west Asia? Robert Fisk @indyvoices Monday 25 July 2016 377 comments The frightful and bloody […]