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.
By Ramzy Baroud When Arab streets exploded with fury, from Tunis to Sanaa, pan-Arabism seemed, then, like a nominal notion. Neither did the so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’ use slogans that affirmed its Arab identity, nor did angry Egyptian youth raise the banner proclaiming Arab unity atop the high buildings adjacent to […]
Mar 02,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – DAOUD KUTTAB A big question is looming regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: How serious is the French initiative that aims at leading an international effort to help kick start negotiations on the two-state solution? Equally important is to figure out where exactly Washington stands on this […]
Mar 03,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – RAMI G. KHOURI Jordan gave the Arab world two reasons to be proud this week. One was the nomination of the film Theeb for an academy award, the other was the statement to the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council by HH […]
After pouring billions into rebuilding the country following successive Israeli invasions and air raids, the Saudis find that they cannot prevent the Shia from expressing their fury at Riyadh Robert Fisk Beirut @indyvoices Wednesday 2 March 2016 If you drive from Sunni Muslim Sidon to Shia Muslim southern Lebanon, you […]
Louisa GOULIAMAKIKaterina Nikolopoulou| Agence France Presse Idomeni, Greece: Stranded migrants lay with their children on rail tracks at Greece’s northern border Sunday, demanding to be allowed to continue their journey, as Athens warned the number of people “trapped” on its soil could more than triple next month. Tensions between European […]
Feb 27,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – ELIZABETH DREW Being Hillary Clinton, one of the most celebrated women in the world, holder of some of the highest offices in American politics and possibly the next president of the United States, has had more than its share of agony. Widely regarded a […]
Feb 27,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – MUSA KEILANI US President Barack Obama signed this week a law that opposes boycotting Israel. During the signing ceremony, he referred to the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, but named them as “Israeli-controlled territories”. The Israeli government has exerted relentless efforts […]
By AFP – Feb 27,2016 – JORDAN TIMES A woman carries goods she allegedly looted in Shadadi town, Hasaka countryside, Syria, on Friday (Reuters photo by Rodi Said) DAMASCUS — Fighting subsided across much of Syria on Saturday as the first major ceasefire of the devastating, five-year war […]
Feb 27,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – Walid M. Sadi The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is not shedding any tears over the exodus of millions of Syrians to neighbouring countries and beyond out of fear for their lives because of the five-year-old civil war in the country. No less than […]
As a witness to the massacre of 1982, I went back often to this place of memories and ghosts, to talk to the survivors Robert Fisk @indyvoices 3 comments Sabra and Shatila were the scene of war crimes. In September of 1982, Israel’s Lebanese Christian allies – watched by Israeli […]
The regime has lost over 60,000 men since the war began, but new Russian equipment is helping turn the tide Robert Fisk You can see the Syrian army’s spanking new Russian T-90 tanks lined up in their new desert livery scarcely 100 miles from Isis’s Syrian “capital” of Raqqa. There are […]
Hysterical claims about ‘predatory male refugees invading Britain’ don’t really stack up when, in fact, 34 per cent of asylum seekers are children – and almost all contribute positively to the economy Yasmin Ahmed 8 hours ago 136 comments The new quarterly migration figures which were released by the Office for National […]
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE http://tp.srgssr.ch/p/inline?urn=urn:swi:video:41965588 EMBED CODE FEB 26, 2016 – 09:00 The Swiss will be going to the polls this weekend to vote on four separate issues. It was only 45 years ago this month that men voted in favour of women’s suffrage. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Despite Switzerland’s democratic tradition, the country was […]
FOOTBALL FEB 26, 2016 – 18:05 Gianni Infantino is a Swiss citizen from canton Valais, with a long career in football administration (Keystone) UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino has been voted in as FIFA’s new president, replacing Swiss compatriot Sepp Blatter. “We will revive the image and respect of FIFA and […]
By Reuters – Feb 23,2016 – JORDAN TIMES ANKARA — A DNA report from a suicide bombing that killed 29 people in the Turkish capital Ankara last week suggests the main perpetrator was Turkish-born, not Syrian as initially stated by the government, a senior Turkish security official said on […]
Feb 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – George S. Hishmeh As expected, the current front runners in the American presidential elections, much as the leaders in the Middle East, are missing the boat as they voice their mediocre views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that started in 1948 when the British mandate ended. […]
By Mohammad Ghazal – Feb 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES AMMAN — The summit His Majesty King Abdullah held with US President Barack Obama this week “testifies to the credibility and balanced positions of Jordan” on regional crises and issues of global nature. In particular, analysts referred in phone interviews […]
Feb 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES EDITORIAL US President Barack Obama lauded the strategic alliance between Jordan and the US and praised His Majesty King Abdullah’s and Jordan’s constructive role in various regional files in statements to the media at the White House, following the two leaders’ summit on Wednesday. The […]
By JT – Feb 26,2016 – JORDAN TIMES His Majesty King Abdullah meets with representatives of American Jewish organisations in Washington on Wednesday (Photo courtesy of Royal Court) AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday met with representatives of several leading American Jewish organisations over ways to […]
By Maryam Qarehgozlou TEHRAN — Imam Abdul Alim Musa (Clarence Reams), the director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington D.C., believes that the policy that the new rulers in the Saudi kingdom has adopted is “suicidal”. “Saudi Arabia has built a road to its own destruction,” Alim Musa, an African-American Muslim […]