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.
Courtesy: NY Times By KEVIN J. O’BRIEN Published: August 3, 2011 BERLIN — A German regulator said Wednesday that he had asked Facebook, the social networking leader, to disable its new photo-tagging feature, which he warned could violate European privacy laws. Read More It is becoming more evident that the […]
France 24: France was proclaimed “world champion of misery” by its own press this week after a report published in the US rated the French as most likely to suffer from clinical depression. The statistics are there, but is the reality? A World Health Organisation (WHO) report published in the […]
The mayor of Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, has been filmed using an armoured vehicle to crush a car parked illegally in a cycle lane. “That’s what will happen if you park your car illegally,” Mayor Arturas Zuokas, an avid cyclist, says in a clip posted on the Vilnius City website. The […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private employers added more jobs than expected in July, though less than in June, but planned layoffs rose to a 16-month high, according to separate surveys on Wednesday. The data comes ahead of the U.S. government’s key jobs report on Friday, which is forecast to show […]
Source: Spiegel International In a SPIEGEL interview, bestselling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell talks about his reaction to the Utøya massacre, the absurdity of Anders Breivik’s ideas and the need to engage in dialogue with the right wing. SPIEGEL: Anders Breivik has confessed to the Oslo bombing and Utøya massacre, which killed a total of 77 […]
Source: Spuiegel International What drives families to commit ‘honor killings?’ Who are the killers and where do they come from? A new study commissioned by the German police has found that the killers are almost always first-generation immigrants from poor backgrounds, that cases aren’t increasing and that courts are making mistakes […]
Source: Spiegel International Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing into eastern Kenya to escape hunger, drought and Islamist militias in Somalia. Their new home is the world’s biggest refugee camp in Dadaab, which some of them will never leave. But the example of one man shows that it can […]
By ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has decided to continue shouldering the cost of customs duty on imports of Palestinian products for another year. The decision was made at a meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah at Al-Salam Palace in […]
By ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: A comprehensive study has been prepared for the expansion of the mataf (the circumambulation area around the Holy Kaaba) to reduce congestion. Col. Yahya Al-Zahrani, commander of the security force at the Grand Mosque in Makkah told Al-Watan Arabic daily that the mataf expansion would be […]
By Laila Azzeh, Jordan Times AMMAN – More and more Jordanian students are opting to pursue their higher education in Canada, citing easier visa procedures, lower tuition fees and the option of working while studying. read more
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies) – Jordan Times. An Israeli official is distancing the government from a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines with the West Bank. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials acknowledged Tuesday they remain far […]
AMMAN (Jordan Times) – His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday stressed that the reform process is progressing as scheduled in line with a roadmap and a well defined agenda, according to a Royal Court statement. During a meeting yesterday with a group of young Jordanians from various sectors, the Monarch […]
Courtesy: NY Times By LAURIE GOODSTEIN A decade after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a Gallup poll released on Tuesday found that the vast majority of Muslim Americans say they are loyal to the United States and optimistic about the future, even though they are more likely than other religious groups […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star For those many honest people around the world perplexed by the variations and inconsistencies in so many aspects of the current citizen revolts across the Arab world, historical analogies may be a good starting point to understand the full dimensions and implications of […]
By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Tarahum, the national organization for the welfare of prisoners, ex-convicts and their families, is organizing Umrah trips for 1,000 of its registered members in Qunfudha this month. “A number of ex-convicts and relatives of prisoners are being sent for Umrah in Ramadan in […]
By Abdi Guled, The Associated Press, Jordan Times. DADAAB, Kenya – As the holy month of Ramadan begins, Faduma Aden is fasting during the day even though she doesn’t have enough food to celebrate with a sundown feast. The Somali mother of three, who fled starvation in her homeland and […]
RAMALLAH/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies) – Jordan Times. Palestinian officials say they plan to begin mass marches against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank on September 20, the eve of a largely symbolic UN vote expected to recognise their independence, the Associated Press reported. Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said leaders hope […]
By Hani Hazaimeh, Jordan Times AMMAN – Although thousands of domestic helpers have been exempted from paying millions of dinars worth of accumulated work and residency permit fees under several government initiatives to streamline the sector, obstacles are still preventing hundreds from returning to their countries. Since the beginning of […]
By Rand Dalgamouni, Jordan Times BAPTISM SITE – A senior official on Monday called on Christian leaders to help establish beyond doubt that the Kingdom hosts the holy site where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist. “We request that your beatitudes help us in highlighting the historical facts […]