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 Dalton Bennett STORY SUMMARY Bahrain deported a U.S. citizen working as a teacher in the gulf kingdom over what it described Saturday as her “radical” writings on Twitter and websites as the government cracks down on dissent the country. In a statement Saturday, Bahrain’s Ministry of State for Communications […]
Civil War, Sanctions and a Falling Currency Produce Soaring Prices as People Shop for Ramadan By SAM DAGHER DAMASCUS, Syria—On a recent morning, a woman stood in front of a stall lining Bab Serijeh, the capital’s biggest and most raucous food market, and expressed amazement at how prices of local […]
A Commentary By Omid Nouripour Spiegel.de With a new moderate president and increasing focus on the civil war in Syria, Iran is finally in a position to compromise on its nuclear program. The West should seize the moment and head to the negotiating table. Everyone seems relieved to see Hassan […]
STORY SUMMARY Iraqi Kurdistan’s leader threatened on Saturday to intervene to protect Kurds in neighbouring Syria, who are caught up in fighting between Kurdish forces and jihadists. Kurds in Syria […]
Mariano Rajoy says Britain should act with ‘common sense and good judgement’ OLIVER WRIGHT Author Biography , ADAM WITHNALL FRIDAY 09 AUGUST 2013 THE INDEPENDENT Spain will take “all legal […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent No Muslim general wants to go down in history as the author of the Eid Massacre. That’s why many Egyptians last night suspected that their […]
STORY SUMMARY The situation in Egypt continues to deteriorate by the day, and the flurry of Western “mediators” who have been coming and going appear to be making a bad situation even worse. Thus, it is disturbing to see Graham and McCain show up as mediators and then voice opinions […]
August 08, 2013 12:20 AM By Michael Young The Daily Star STORY SUMMARY Today, with U.S. embassies in the region closed because electronic “chatter” suggested an attack was imminent, terrorists know this by listening to American officials. The news that the U.S. discovered that Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had ordered […]
by Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch August 9, 2013 – 18:05 Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has dismissed accusations by human rights groups of discriminatory restrictions against asylum seekers. Rules declaring certain areas off-limits in the town of Bremgarten, attracted criticism in international media. Sommaruga said there was no formal ban for […]
by Uri Avnery ARABNEWS AVRAHAM Burg (58) was a member of the Labor Party and for some time the chairman of the Knesset. His late father was a long-time Cabinet minister and a leader of the National-Religious Party, before it became a rabid messianic mob. The relations between Burg Sr. […]
Source: CNN For the world’s Muslims, the festival of Eid al-Fitr is a perfect conclusion to Ramadan — the month-long period of fasting and contemplation practiced by observers of Islam […]
Racism is alive and well, said media mogul Oprah Winfrey in an interview this week on Entertainment Tonight. And as proof, she recounted her own recent Zurich, Switzerland, shopping shame […]
Photos of the nearly fatal wreck won’t show him, but rescuers and emergency workers swear: A man dressed in priest garb did show at the scene of a recent roadway accident and administer aid and prayer that seemed to save the 19-year-old victim’s life. Katie Lentz, a Tulane University sophomore, […]
AUSTRALIA has lost 40 young men, sustained hundreds of seriously wounded troops and invested about $7.5 billion on war-fighting alone in Afghanistan – but that isn’t enough for an Afghan Government that now wants to tax us as we leave. The regime of President Hamid Karzai has imposed a $3545 […]
Source: The Conservative Papers: There has been a total of 10 Nobel prizes awarded to Muslims while Trinity College, Cambridge, has 32 Nobel laureates. It is not the first time Dawkins has angered the Muslim population after he described looters who destroyed manuscripts in Mali as ‘Islamic barbarians’ in January.The 71-year-old […]
Source: The Daily Beast: The intercept provided the U.S. intelligence community with a rare glimpse into how al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, manages a global organization that includes affiliates in Africa, the Middle East, and southwest and southeast Asia. Several news outlets reported Monday on an intercepted communication last week […]
Source The Daily Beast: Which is worse: claiming you can see Russia from your house in Alaska or mistaking Islam for a country? Sarah Palin is getting a run for her money from Australian Stephanie Bannister, a 27-year-old running for a seat in Australian Parliament, who seemed less than informed […]
Source: Morocco World News: MECCA, August 8,2013 (AA) Around two million Muslims performed their Eid prayer at Masjid al-Haram in the sacred city of Mecca on the first day of Eid […]
Source: Morocco world news: London, August 9, 2013 (AFP) In the damp basement room of a Caribbean restaurant in London, Naima leads prayers for an audience of male and female worshippers. They face Mecca, directed by an arrow scrawled on a blackboard in pink chalk. But Naima — she did […]
Source: TOI NEW DELHI: In a fascinating study of how different types of populations mixed in India, scientists have found that there were three stages of intermixing. In ancient times, over 4000 years ago, there were two separate populations based in north and south India with no mixing. Then, in […]