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.
BAGHDAD — An explosion claimed as a suicide bombing by the Islamic State killed three people on Thursday in the heart of Baghdad and another suicide bomber killed six people just outside the Iraqi capital, police and medics said. Three people were killed in central Baghdad when a roadside bomb […]
Gregg Carlstrom ALJAZEERA Israeli tanks entered Gaza on Thursday night after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion, a major escalation in a ten-day offensive that has already killed more than 230 Palestinians. Witnesses in Gaza reported heavy bombing from jets, warships and artillery stationed along the border, with […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent In an unprecedented criticism of the Israeli siege of Gaza, a senior official in the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) humanitarian charity has described his organisation’s work among the 1.8 million besieged Palestinian refugees as akin to being “in an open-air prison to patch up prisoners […]
Credit: USA Today A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 295 people aboard crashed Thursday in Ukraine near the Russian border after reportedly being hit by a missile, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry. Malaysia […]
Source: NY Times: MOSCOW — Malaysia Airlines reported Thursday it had lost contact with a flight bound from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukraine. More:
Geopolitical Diary STRATFOR Tuesday, July 15, 2014 Hamas and affiliate militant factions out of the Gaza Strip are so far rejecting an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire, having launched far more than 100 rockets since the cease-fire proposal. In exposing Israel’s inability to stem the rocket flow, Hamas is trying to claim a […]
Western governments are sending millions of pounds of aid to areas held by the radical Islamic group Isis in northern Syria, The Independent can reveal. The aid, which is paid […]
If you grew up in Ghana before the 80s, you would know that there is only one Islam – the one that your fellow Ghanaian Muslims practise. You would not […]
MIKE CORDER | AP Published — Thursday 17 July 2014 THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A court on Wednesday ordered the Netherlands to compensate the families of more than 300 Bosnian Muslims […]
Summary Hamas demanded changes Wednesday to an Egyptian proposal to end the deadly conflict with Israel in and around the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said. Hamas’ demand came as the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s punishing air campaign, now in its ninth day, rose to 220 people after the […]
Summary by Rami G. Khouri These have manifested themselves since the 1930s in so many different ways, all leading back to a basic issue: The battle between Zionism and Arabism in Palestine, more particularly the battle between the rights of a Jewish-majority state of Israel and a dismembered and exiled […]
by HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal A member of the Hashemite Royal Family working to address issues such as regional integration, inter-faith dialogues, water, energy and the human environment and human dignity. After weeks of rapid expansion in Syria and Iraq, ISIS announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. […]
Gaza, July 15. For three days I am with my son Frederic in Gaza. We will have to spend this night in Gaza t00. The borders are closed. The people […]
As the death toll from Israel’s savage bombardment of Gaza continues to climb, Israel has once again turned to students to sell the slaughter online. “Although they haven’t been called […]
Editor’s Note: This book dates back to 2006, but its importance is as “NEW” (acute) as ever. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing Israel of creating an apartheid system […]
Source: LUBP In the last 15 years a variety of Islamist Jihadi movements have erupted across the world in response to inequities, e.g. those in Israel, Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir and against local despots such as those in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other places. There is the probability and […]
Source: ET However, it is not the job of the military to make these calculations. It is the job of the civilian leadership in a democracy to take ownership and frame a holistic policy within which the military plans and operates military strategy and tactics. Unfortunately for Pakistan, Prime Minister […]
The Daily Star Lebanon Since the full headlines usually added that, in stark contrast, Israel had accepted the Egypt-brokered initiative, why is Hamas seemingly acting stubborn in the face of overwhelmingly superior military firepower, and amid horrific destruction in terms of lives and livelihoods in the Gaza Strip? In effect, […]
Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga says Switzerland is ready to help Italy in coping with the influx of migrants to its shores. So far this year, more than 63,000 migrants […]
BAGHDAD: Iraqi politicians named a moderate Sunni Islamist as speaker of parliament on Tuesday, a long-delayed first step toward a power-sharing government urgently needed to save the state from disintegration in the face of a Sunni uprising. A Shiite leader suggested the naming of Salim Al-Jabouri as speaker was part […]