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.
Varied views on whether Quran should influence laws in countries BY JACOB POUSHTER As strife in the Middle East continues to make headlines, from the militant group ISIS to Syrian refugees, the Muslim world is sharply divided on what the relationship should be between the tenets of Islam and the […]
ALPINE RESEARCH Iron Age man was a fan of Swiss cheese APR 26, 2016 – 19:25 Dominique Yersin produces Etivaz cheese on the Le Grin alpine pasture at Chateau d’Oex […]
Reuters International APR 27, 2016 – 19:26 VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s parliament on Wednesday passed tough new asylum measures, including a process under which migrants could be turned away at the border within an hour, which could be activated if lawmakers decree public order is threatened. Austria has mostly served […]
By AFP – Apr 26,2016 – JORDAN TIMES TEHRAN — Iran Tuesday summoned Switzerland’s ambassador, who represents Washington’s interests in Tehran, to protest a court ruling that $2 billion of frozen Iranian assets be used to compensate American victims of “terror”. The US Supreme Court ruled last week that […]
Apr 26,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – HASAN ABU NIMAH The French government’s repeated attempts to thaw the frozen Palestinian-Israeli peace process do not seem to have ceased despite lack of enthusiasm for the endeavour from almost all those supposedly concerned. Apart form the Palestinian Authority, the two other key partners, […]
Families were preferred, as were those whose homes had been destroyed in Syria, and all had to have proper documents Image Credit: Reuters Syrian couple Rami, 51, and Suhila, 50, walk with their sons Abdul Majid (right), 15, and Rashid, 18, at the Sant’Egidio community in Rome. Published: 18:56 April […]
Mission would be part of a broader Italian plan to close the Western Mediterranean route into the European Union Published: 16:29 April 25, 2016 AFP Rome: Nato is three months away from launching patrols off Libya as part of a plan to stop refugees arriving in Italy, Italian Defence […]
By JT – Apr 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania on Monday called for a collective global response to the growing refugee crisis, explaining that its impact is much greater than any one country or any one region’s capacity to cope. The Queen made these statements […]
Monday, April 25, 2016 Topics: Bible Just a day before the start of Passover last week, two of Israel’s most prominent rabbis got together to discuss the delayed coming of the Messiah. Rabbi Moishe Sternbuch is head of the Rabbinical Court and a leader of one of Israel’s largest and […]
April 25, 2016 Women in different parts of Damghan county, northern Semnan province, roll their infants below one year of age in pink roses, believing that it will keep them fresh and healthy. They perform a ritual called Gol Ghaltan (literally meaning rolling in flowers) in April-May when roses bloom […]
MAKHMOUR, IRAQ | BY STEPHEN KALIN Towering over his Kurdish partner at a checkpoint in northern Iraq, U.S. volunteer John Cole cuts an unusual figure on the road to the newest front in the war against Islamic State. Seven feet (2.1 meters) tall and holding his assault rifle upside down, […]
New, commercially available encryption software ‘had and is having major, profound effects on our ability’ to collect intelligence, ‘particularly against terrorists,’ James Clapper told reporters at a Monitor-hosted breakfast. By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer APRIL 25, 2016 Save for later Michael Bonfigli /The Christian Science Monitor View Caption WASHINGTON — […]
The Independent Kim Sengupta Twenty-eight secret pages of a report locked away in a room in the Capitol in Washington lie in the centre of a crisis between America and Saudi Arabia which threatens to have severe and widespread repercussions. The US Congress is considering legislation which would enable the […]
Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP Published: 25 Apr 2016 12:33 GMT+02:00 Solar Impulse 2, the Swiss-based plane attempting to be the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe on solar power, has landed in California after crossing the Pacific from Hawaii. Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard completed the 62-hour leg of the journey on […]
Syria has been rocked by fighting in recent weeks, particularly around the city of Aleppo. Photo: AFP Obama, UN envoy voice alarm at ‘fraying’ Syria truce Published: 24 Apr 2016 08:57 GMT+02:00 Syria’s fragile ceasefire is in grave peril, US President Barack Obama and the UN’s special envoy warned, as […]
APR 25, 2016 – 14:24 Many of the clandestine immigrants from Europe work in seasonal agricultural jobs (Keystone) According to a report released by the State Secretariat for Migration on Monday, the number of clandestine immigrants residing in Switzerland is estimated to have decreased over the last decade. The authorities […]
Apr 24,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – MARK LEONARD We have entered the age of migration. If all the people who live outside the country of their birth united to form their own — a republic of the rootless — it would be the fifth-largest country in the world, with a […]
Burying drowned migrants is part of a broader Greek problem Apr 20th 2016, 12:55 by M.TZ. and ERASMUS | MYTILENE THE newly established graveyard, a short drive west of Mytilene port, is a desperately sad place. In the middle of an olive grove, there are dozens of mounds of crumbly earth, some created only a […]
In late antiquity, the religion split the Mediterranean world in two. Now it is remaking the Continent. Robert D. Kaplan May 2016 Issue Global Europe was essentially defined by […]
ANADOLU AGENCY BERLIN PublishedApril 22, 2016 German former President Christian Wulff attends a talk on Islam in Germany in Berlin on April 21, 2016 (AFP Photo) Former German President Christian Wulff spoke against growing anti-Islam sentiment in the country and stressed that Islam belonged to Germany, contrary to what far-right […]