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.
An architect’s model of the mosque planned for the Leipzig plot where the dead piglet was found. Photo: DPA Published: 25 Feb 2016 14:51 GMT+01:00 An empty lot in Leipzig where a local Muslim community plans to build a mosque was the target of an apparent Islamophobic attack on Wednesday, […]
Economists have been calling on authorities to speed up the integration process by offering training more swiftly. Photo: DPA Published: 20 Feb 2016 THELOCAL.DE The 24-year-old, who spent months on the road after fleeing the Taliban, told AFP: “I’ll do anything to not go mad.” VIDEO: ‘hate mob’ chants […]
Feb 24,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – DAOUD KUTTAB In the battle of wills between Israel and the international community there comes a time and a place where this will is tested. The Israeli occupation and colonisation of Palestine is a creeping endeavour largely built on the attempt to wear out […]
By AFP – Feb 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES A Palestinian teacher leads a class of Palestinian bedouin children from the Abu Anwar community near the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim (background), in the West Bank city of Al Azariya, east of Jerusalem, on Wednesday (AFP photo) OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s […]
‘England is helping Isis and an English reporter is here asking for information’ Robert Fisk @indyvoices Tuesday 23 February 2016 28 comments We knew who they were the moment they approached us on the front line outside Aleppo. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards – no longer merely advisers but fighting troops […]
Reuters International FEB 24, 2016 – 13:18 PARIS (Reuters) – French special forces and intelligence commandos are engaged in covert operations against Islamic State militants in Libya in conjunction with the United States and Britain, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday. It said President Francois Hollande had authorised […]
In this April 11, 2007 file photo, Egyptian cleric Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was allegedly kidnapped by CIA agents off the streets of an Italiancity and taken to Egypt where he said he was tortured, talks on his mobile phone as he walks in […]
•KSA envoy urges Beirut to retain its ‘Arabness’ Lebanese children in battle gear ride a vehicle during the funeral of a Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon in this January 20, 2015 photo. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have banned their citizens from travel to Lebanon in view of the hostile […]
Feb 23,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – Kailash Satyarthi It is a blot on the face of humanity that we have yet to eradicate slavery — of children, no less. Not only does child slavery persist; the number of child slaves, 5.5 million, has remained constant in the last two decades. They […]
Feb 23,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – OSAMA AL SHARIF It has been some time since US Secretary of State John Kerry talked about the two-state solution, illegal Israeli settlements and “tensions” — that should read daily Israeli provocations — at Al Aqsa Mosque compound. This week he met with His […]
Feb 23,2016 -JORDAN TIMES – Hasan Abu Nimah The government of Morocco has declined hosting the annual Arab summit due at the end of March in Rabat. The situation in the Arab world and the challenges facing the Arab nation were cited by a Moroccan foreign ministry official as causes of […]
By Khetam Malkawi – Feb 23,2016 – JORDAN TIMES Edward Kallon (Photo by Osama Aqarbeh) AMMAN — Jordan has been very helpful in facilitating delivery of humanitarian aid to the south of Syria, a UN official has said, as the conflict in the area across the northern border has intensified […]
Field Notes FEBRUARY 19, 2016 | STRATFOR.COM By Jasmin Mahmoud There are no perfect measures of the toll the Gaza blockade is taking on the 1.9 million residents locked inside, but those that give a glimpse tend to be pretty macabre. The number of suicide attempts handled by Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, […]
By SPIEGEL Staff DER SPIEGEL The New Germany: Within only 12 months, over 1 million people moved to Germany. How will they integrate? More than a million refugees are now living in Germany. The next task is to integrate them. SPIEGEL spoke with dozens of experts and people working in […]
Photo: Christophe G Published: 23 Feb 2016 More and more foreigners in Switzerland are seeking Swiss citizenship according to official figures, reversing a downward trend over the previous 10 years. Figures from the Swiss immigration office show that the number of naturalizations rose by around 20 percent in 2015, with […]
SCHOOL DRESSCODE FEB 22, 2016 – 20:54 Two young women studying in Zurich (Keystone) With an eye on Muslim hijab, Swiss People’s Party members in canton Valais have collected more than 4,000 signatures calling for a ban on headgear in public schools – despite a recent federal court decision rejecting […]
SAAD AL-DOSARI Published — Tuesday 23 February 2016 As the world governments and security agencies are stepping up their efforts to fight online terrorism, terrorist groups are actively changing and upgrading their tactics. Social media platforms have become their open playgrounds they use to recruit fighters, to communicate between cells, […]
By AFP – Feb 20,2016 – JORDAN TIMES Members of Iraqi security forces are deployed at the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (Reuters photo) BAGHDAD — Iraqi tribesmen battled Daesh militants inside their Fallujah stronghold for a second day Saturday, a significant challenge to long-standing extremist control […]
By Omar Obeidat – Feb 22,2016 – JORDAN TIMES Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour speaks at a ceremony in Amman on Monday to announce the preliminary findings of the 2015 population census (Petra photo) AMMAN — Jordan’s population increased by nearly 87 per cent over a decade, with the number […]
Feb 22,2016 -JORDAN TIMES EDITORIAL UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura made a surprise visit to Damascus last week for urgent talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem, in a bid to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas besieged by the Syrian army. Damascus agreed, or […]