Jeddah-Jazan train link to spur growth
Businessmen and officials have welcomed the Saudi Railway Organization’s (SRO) plan to establish a 660-km coastal railway line between Jeddah and Jazan, saying it would boost the two regions’ economic, […]
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.
Law and order: The Swiss Government has decided to outlaw the militant Islamic State group and similar organisations.
OCT 8, 2014 – SWISSINFO.CH Defence Minister Ueli Maurer has performed a U-turn regarding the Islamic State The Swiss government has decided to outlaw the militant Islamic State group and similar organisations. The ban includes activities, as well as propaganda and financial support of the jihadist fighters. “Islamic State has […]
Opinion pages: The Diversity of Islam – by Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof A few days ago, I was on a panel on Bill Maher’s television show on HBO that became a religious war. Whether or not Islam itself inspires conflict, debates about it certainly do. Our conversation degenerated into something close to a shouting match and went viral on the […]
Turkey’s Syria game
The Daily Star Turkey appears to be playing a game on its border with Syria, but it does not appear to have figured out how to win it, nor what […]
Saudis retrace route of Abraha’s army that came to destroy Kaaba
JEDDAH: P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR Published — Thursday 9 October 2014 A group of young Saudi history enthusiasts has retraced the path of the People of the Elephant who tried to […]
100 towers in SR50bn Madinah pilgrim city to house 200,000
Work on the first phase of the SR50 billion King Abdullah Pilgrim City in Madinah has begun as part of the government’s efforts to further improve services being extended to […]
CAIR NOT FATWA ISSUING BODY AHMADI MUSLIMS OR NON MUSLIMS, IBRAHIM HOOPER
WASHING DC – Speaking to the SFO Bay Area-based The Muslim News, Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) communications director Ibrahim Hooper dismissed an alleged report that CAIR took a stand a Pakistani convention on Imran Khan’s call to declare Ahmadi as non-Muslims. Ibrahim Hooper said, “CAIR is not a […]
U.S. fiscal 2014 budget deficit falls to $486 billion, CBO says
(Reuters) – The U.S. budget deficit fell by nearly a third during fiscal 2014 to $486 billion as federal revenues grew far faster than spending, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. Releasing preliminary estimates of final budget data for the year ended Sept. 30, the CBO said receipts grew […]
Life after death? Largest-ever study provides evidence that ‘out of body’ and ‘near-death’ experiences may be real
ADAM WITHNALL Author Biography Tuesday 07 October 2014 There is scientific evidence to suggest that life can continue after death, according to the largest ever medical study carried out on the subject. One man who was clinically dead – then brought back to life – accurately described what had been […]
Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah ‘worse than Hiroshima’
BY PATRICK COCKBURN Saturday 24 July 2010 Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed […]
U.S. Air Strikes Can’t Stop ISIS in the Fight for Kobani
Rebecca Collard / Beirut @rebeccacollard Oct. 7, 2014 Smoke rises from the city centre of the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds, as seen from […]
Civil-military imbalance
Credit: Dawn.com By Tariq Khosa The security establishment is firmly in the driving seat. It is calling the shots with respect to the multiple internal security challenges facing the nation. Caught in a political quagmire, the civilian government has ceded the national security space to the military due to its […]
Qur’an lesson for today: Commandment to exhort one another to accept truth
258. Commandment to exhort one another to accept truth [103:4] Except those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to accept truth, and exhort one another to be steadfast
Qur’an lesson for today: Commandment to be with the truthful
259. Commandment to be with the truthful [9:119] O ye who believe! fear Allah and be with the truthful.
Don’t Sell Consumer Spending Short, a Report Says
The encouraging September jobs report, which showed unemployment dipping below 6 percent, stole the limelight on Friday, but it is the quiet release of another government report that has presented economists with unexpected fodder for debate. An article, published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Monthly Labor Review, dismissed warnings […]
Lebanon faces Isis and Nusra incursions – and an influx of refugees
Arab compatriots show little sympathy for Syrian families fleeing violence ROBERT FISK Author Biography BEIRUT Monday 06 October 2014 The shooting went on for hours, heard even in the centre of ancient Baalbek as Hezbollah and the Jabhat al-Nusra/Isis insurgents from Syria fought it out on the ridgeline above the […]
HUMAN RIGHTS Israel refuses to renew travel documents for Jerusalemite in Canada
Charlotte Silver The Electronic Intifada 6 October 2014 In May of this year, Tamam Zubaidi received deeply disturbing word from the Israeli consulate in Toronto. Her travel documents would not be renewed and her permanent residency status in Jerusalem had expired. Tamam, a Palestinian from occupied East Jerusalem, had moved […]
Eid: binding celebration
Summary Perhaps no time in recent memory has seen such international attention focused on Islam and Muslims, while sectarian tension, pitting Sunnis against Shiites, is rife in several critically-important areas of the Middle East. Islam itself has been hijacked by a group of ultra-extremists who have distorted centrally-important aspects of […]
Qur’an lesson for today: 257. Commandment not to hide the truth knowingly
257. Commandment not to hide the truth knowingly [2:43] And confound not truth with falsehoodnor hide the truth, knowingly. [3:72] O People of the Book! why do you confound truth with falsehood and hide the truth knowingly?
Ben Affleck in passionate defence of Islam on Bill Maher show
Ben Affleck became embroiled in a furious debate about Islam on an American television show, accusing the host of being racist and the guests of being ignorant Harriet Alexander By Harriet Alexander1:56PM BST 05 Oct 2014 Ben Affleck, the Oscar-winning actor and director, has launched a ferocious defence of Islam, […]