EU opens new chapter in Turkey membership talks
By AFP – Jul 01,2016 – JORDAN TIMES BRUSSELS — The EU opened a new negotiating chapter with Turkey on Thursday on its long-stalled bid for membership, a week after […]
Author Archives
Rafiq A. Tschannen
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.
TURKISH AID SHIP TO GAZA, THE FIRST IN SIX YEARS, DOCKS IN ISRAEL
Turkey and Israel announced a deal to normalize ties earlier in June. BY CONOR GAFFEY ON 7/4/16 Turkish ship Lady Leyla, carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, arrives at the Israeli port of Ashdod, July 3. The ship is the first aid ship sent from Turkey to Gaza since 2010.JACK […]
Asian insects make a beeline for Switzerland
NASTY FOREIGN PESTS Asian insects make a beeline for Switzerland By Samuel Jaberg www.swissinfo.ch SEP 11, 2012 – 11:00 The Asian longhorn beetle arrived in Switzerland in wooden pallets Mountains, seas and deserts used to provide considerable barriers to the movement of plants or animals, but Switzerland has […]
Free movement of EU workers has worked for Switzerland – so far
By Anand Chandrasekhar JUL 5, 2016 – 18:00 Many of the workers involved in the Swiss project to build the world’s longest railway tunnel came from different EU countries (Keystone) A government report underscores the importance of Switzerland’s free-movement accords with the European Union – and offers Britain a potential […]
Eid 2016: When is it? How do Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan? All you need to know
Eid al-Fitr is one of the most important days in the Muslim calendar Jasmin Lavoie Ramadan will finish on 5 July this year for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, marking […]
Dealing with immediate monster threat
Jul 05,2016 – JORDAN TIMES EDITORIAL The three terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia on Monday have all the hallmark of Daesh hands. The most ominous is the blast that struck at the heart of Islam, the Prophet Mohammad Mosque in Medina, where the Prophet was buried. The other attacks were […]
From Wahhabism to Isis … by Karen Armstrong
François Hollande’s declaration of war against Isis (also known as Islamic State) was, perhaps, a natural reaction to the carnage in Paris but the situation is now so grave that we cannot merely react; we also need sustained, informed and objective reflection. The French president has unwittingly played into the […]
You can’t understand ISIS if you don’t know the history of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia
Alastair Crooke The dramatic arrival of Da’ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed — and horrified — by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia’s ambivalence in the face of […]
Erdogan’s pragmatism
Jul 05,2016 -JORDAN TIMES – OSAMA AL SHARIF Turkey’s about-face in its regional and international politics has come as a shock for some, and as proof that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is capable of embracing a pragmatic approach on challenging issues, for others. In the past few weeks Ankara has […]
Welcome to Dera’a, Syria’s ‘Graveyard of terrorists’
The city in northern Syria, once the centre of fierce fighting in the country’s civil war, is now triumphantly claimed to be back in government control. But, as Robert Fisk reports, the city’s war-weary occupants are not counting on peace just yet Robert Fisk Dera’a @indyvoices Into the brigadier’s general’s […]
Welcome to Pakistan: The Council of Islamic Ideology was never meant to be a permanent body, so why does it still exist?
Source: The Tribune Express By Yasser Latif Hamdani Published: July 5, 2016 The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) is a constitutional body established under Article 228 of the Constitution of […]
Switzerland: Muslim chaplaincy for asylum-seekers launched
Source: Swiss Info A one-year pilot project offering religious and spiritual guidance to asylum-seekers of the Muslim faith has been launched in Zurich. Christian and Jewish religious services of the […]
Heartbreak, selfies and soccer: The life of a Bangladesh cafe killer
Hindustan Times Until late 2014, Nibras Islam appeared to acquaintances to be a typical student: fun-loving, in and out of love, and keen on sport, especially soccer. Women found him handsome. On a “confessions” Facebook page for Monash University students, one anonymous admirer gushed in a post on October 11, […]
The Day I Got My Green Card
A London-born writer never felt he truly belonged in the places he and his family were from: India, Pakistan, Britain. In America, finally, he feels free—and at home By AATISH TASEER July 1, 2016 “Welcome home, sir,” the immigration officer said when I presented him with my green card at […]
Inside Aleppo, the Syrian city with a past and present shaped by war
Inside Aleppo, the Syrian city with a past and present shaped by war Robert Fisk tours Aleppo and finds a broken civilisation with painful reminders of ancient tragedies Robert Fisk @indyvoices Maybe dust is the vital physical element of war. It lay across the old cobbled streets of the burned […]
Suicide bombers hit Saudi cities of Madinah, Qatif and Jeddah
Agencies (Photo via Twitter) PrevNext The bomber detonated his suicide vest Monday evening when most residents of the neighborhood were at home ending the Ramadan fast. A blast occurred on Monday in Saudi Arabia outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, a Saudi-owned television channel reported. […]
Blast strikes near Prophet’s Mosque in Saudi
A photo from social media reportedly shows a flaming car from a bombing in the parking lot of the Al-Haram Al-Nabawi, the Prophet Mohammad’s mosque, in the city of Madinah […]
Racism After Brexit Is ‘Celebratory’ And ‘Englishness’ Is Becoming Exclusively White And Christian, Says Expert
The Huffington Post June 29, 2016 The country has become ‘more racist in terms of its public culture’. 02/07/2016 21:11 | Updated 18 hours ago 1.4 K Louise RidleyAssistant news editor at The Huffington Post UK The UK is seeing a surge of “celebratory racism” after the vote to leave […]
Strategy for Saudi-Iran War to Come?
REUTERS James B.T. Dickey 06.23.16 A 30-year-old prince disillusioned with the U.S. is running the show in Saudi Arabia—fighting Iran directly and through proxies all over the map. Is there a strategy? Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 30-year-old son of the king and ever more obviously the heir […]
Cameroon debates criminalising adultery
Men who commit adultery could be sent to jail under a new law being debated by parliament in Cameroon. The law, which has the backing of President’s Paul Biya’s party, is expected to be approved. Currently, women can be jailed for between two to six moths for having sexual […]