West Bank Jewish settler population soars
JERUSALEM: Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank numbered 382,031 at the end of June, up from 374,469 six months earlier, the leading settler organization said on Tuesday. The number […]
Author Archives
Rafiq A. Tschannen
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.
Islamic State: Assad lures President Obama into his web
The Syrian regime, which the US has sworn to overthrow, has asked America to co-operate in the fight against Isis militants. It is likely to exact a high price for any collaboration. Syria has asked Washington to engage in military and intelligence collaboration to defeat their mutual enemy Isis, inviting […]
Woman who dropped out of Cambridge PhD to enter into polygamous marriage to Muslim businessman with two other wives
– Nabilah Phillips dropped out of Cambridge to marry Hasan Phillips – She is one of three women married to the businessman and charity worker – There are as many as 20,000 polygamous Muslim marriages in Britain – New documentary, The Men with Many Wives, exposes rise in these unions […]
PDF English translation of complete books of Barahine-e-Ahmadiyya now on Alislam.org
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar has kindly forwarded us the following links: AA. Here are the links to download / read the English translation of Barahine-e-Ahmadiyya (the Arguments of Ahmad) — see below. […]
Qur'an lesson for today: 237. Commandment to forgive the People of the Book
237. Commandment to forgive the People of the Book [2:110] Many of the People of the Book wish out of sheer envy from their own selves that, after you have believed, they could turn you again into disbelievers after the truth has become manifest to them. But forgive and turn […]
Scotland and England are historical enemies
Source: Stratfor: Scotland and England are historical enemies. Their sense of competing nationhoods stretches back centuries, and their occupation of the same island has caused them to fight many wars. Historically they have distrusted each other, and each has given the other good reason for the distrust. The national question […]
PIA suspends staff over flight delay after Rehman Malik video goes viral
Source: ET KARACHI: Two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees were suspended on Tuesday after videos of former interior minister Rehman Malik and a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker being offloaded by fuming passengers went viral on social media. In the videos recorded via mobile phones, the lawmakers appeared to be the reason […]
Swiss universities top in mainland Europe
Switzerland’s federal technology institutes ETH Zurich and EPFL rank in the top 20 universities worldwide with the ETHZ coming in top in mainland Europe, according to the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings. Overall, the Swiss technology institutes’ rankings (12th for ETH Zurich and 17th for EPFL) put […]
ISIS Draws a Steady Stream of Recruits From Turkey
By CEYLAN YEGINSU SEPT. 15, 2014 THE NEW YORK TIMES ANKARA, Turkey — Having spent most of his youth as a drug addict in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Turkey’s capital, Can did not think he had much to lose when he was smuggled into Syria with 10 of […]
Another war to rearrange the ME
RAMZY BAROUD ARABNEWS.COM Published — Tuesday 16 September 2014 A few months ago, not many Americans, in fact Europeans as well, knew that a Yezidi community in fact existed in northwest Iraq. Even in the Middle East itself, the Yezidis and their way of life have been an enigma, shrouded […]
The Invention of the Land of Israel by Shlomo Sand – review In this second volume of his trilogy of Jewish studies, Sand explores how the 'Land of Israel' was invented, and debunks popular nationalist mythology
In 2009, Shlomo Sand published The Invention of the Jewish People, in which he claimed that Jews have little in common with each other. They had no common “ethnic” lineage […]
How historian Shlomo Sand "stopped being a Jew"
Rod Such – The Electronic Intifada 15 September 2014 “Is not the very fact of defining oneself as a Jew within the State of Israel an act of affiliation to […]
To Beat ISIS, the Arab World Must Promote Political and Religious Reforms
Source: The Daily Beast Last week’s counter-terrorism conference in Jeddah can be summed up in two words: lost opportunity. Why? None of the participants were representative of an independent, democratic or critical voice in the Middle East. Rather, the Muslim scholars who participated were voices of their inept governments, who […]
Saudi Arabia’s chief export is Wahhabism
Source: Daily Beast. More than oil, Saudi Arabia’s chief export is Wahhabism, which it has promoted around the world through its embassies and mosques to eventually be cloned by jihadist groups, like ISIS. Wahhabism is the most conservative, oppressive and exclusionary form of Islam, which considers all non-Wahhabists enemies — […]
Let's Not Destroy ISIS
Source: The Daily Beast: Americans should support this mission against ISIS. One may well choose to do so warily, because, as I wrote in the wake of President Obama’s speech last week, it depends on a lot of uncontrollable variables (the Saudis behaving like good guys) against which odds are […]
The U.S. plan leaves lingering doubts
Summary by Rami G. Khouri I dearly wish that ISIS will be contained and then defeated by the many countries and armed groups who say they are committed to achieving that goal. I lack confidence in this aspect of the American approach because it is foolhardy to expect that such […]
Netanyahu faces new Gaza reality
Israel’s failed war on Gaza has shifted the political ground on both sides of the conflict, bolstering Hamas, which Israel set out to destroy, and discrediting Israeli propaganda, which no one now believes, writes Ramzy Baroud Aside from being a major military setback, Israel’s latest war on Gaza has also […]
Impressed by Saudi students’ friendship bond, Briton embraces Islam
JEDDAH: P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR Published — Friday 12 September 2014 A simple act of kindness can do wonders. A Briton embraced Islam after he witnessed a fellow Saudi patient being bombarded with moral and financial support from two Saudi scholarship students, who had regularly visited their compatriot at a hospital […]
George Galloway on Scottish independence: The political class is doing what Hitler couldn’t – destroying Britain
If No triumphs it will be despite the mainstream parties rather than because of them by George Galloway, The Independent David Cameron may lose his premiership over this and Ed […]
Qur'an lesson for today: – 234. Commandment to be a beneficial to mankind
234. Commandment to be a beneficial to mankind [13:18] He sends down water from the sky, so that valleys flow according to their measure, and the flood bears on its surface swelling foam. And from that which they heat in the fire, seeking to make ornaments or utensils, comes out […]