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.
Story Summary Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Arab League-U.N. envoy Wednesday that foreign support for the armed opposition must end if any political solution to the country’s conflict is […]
RIYADH: RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR. | Arab News Staff The Saudi non-governmental organization, Rekaaz, aims to instil values among youth aged 15 to 25 through its campaign on forgiveness, scheduled for next year. “We are drawing up a plan for activities for 2014 and we are working on courses in […]
Source: BBC News Green rice paddies surround the dusty, narrow road to the heart of Kalai, a village six hours north of Dhaka, in Bangladesh’s Jotpurhat district. Children play naked, hanging off stringy bits of bamboo that hold up the makeshift hut they live in. They, like millions of other […]
Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, the highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, has urged young Saudis to refrain from fighting in Syria. The kingdom has backed the rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad, publicly calling on the world powers to “enable” Syrians to protect themselves, but is wary that fighters […]
The Nobel Peace Prize-winner and economist drinks a glass of water and talks about microcredit This is awkward: I am about to sit down to lunch with a man who […]
Atheists in Egypt are on the rise — and assertively pushing their way into the country’s political debates By Khaled Diab Is Egypt going through a crisis of faith? During my recent visit to Egypt, I met so many non-believers that it was almost tempting to think that atheism has […]
(Reuters) – U.S. private-sector employers hired the fewest workers in six months in October while tepid domestic demand kept inflation benign last month, suggesting the economy was still in need of stimulus from the Federal Reserve. The slowdown in private job growth was the latest signal that the labor market […]
The ongoing Lal Masjid case, leaving aside everything else, is an example, if one were still needed, of what’s wrong with us. By Ejaz Haider TRIBUNE Two sets of people […]
DAMASCUS (AFP) — UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, in Syria Tuesday on the most sensitive leg of a regional push for peace talks, has warned of the ‘Somalization’ of the war-ravaged country. His grim warning came as fighting prevented chemical weapons inspectors from visiting two sites, although UN chief Ban […]
From Nor Baizura Basri LONDON, Oct 30 (Bernama) — Malaysia is the only Muslim country that has successfully climbed the rank to become among the top 10 global economies in terms of ease of doing business, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Tuesday. Referring to the World Bank’s […]
British Muslims contribute more than £31 billion to the UK economy and wield a spending power of £20.5 billion, a new report has found. (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – British Muslims contribute more than £31 billion to the UK economy and wield a spending power of £20.5 billion, a new […]
In the following interview from Der Spiegel, a Pakistani nuclear physicist gives a lucid account of the state of Islam in the 21st century. Notice that the interviewer is actually […]
Al Qassam website – The Islamic-Christian Commission for the support of Jerusalem and holy sites warned on Tuesday of the occupation authority’s intention to organize a large Jewish festival in […]
Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Gideon Saar have agreed to build 1,500 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo, Israeli army radio said Wednesday. The early-morning report came shortly after Israel freed 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners alongside US-brokered peace talks. Last week, […]
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29: A record-equalling 188 countries condemned on Tuesday the five-decade-old US embargo against communist Cuba in an annual UN General Assembly vote that signalled hardening opposition to US sanctions. Only Israel joined the United States in the opposing resolution, the smallest number ever. Last year two allies […]
Unforgettable scenes as Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad given traditional Maori welcome On 29 October 2013, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jamaat) and Fifth Khalifa, Hazrat Mirza Masroor […]
Cairo court Judges, who presided over the trial of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, step down for reason of conscience. The judges presiding over the trial of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leaders have […]
Various political powers are shirking responsibility – including the British Government by EMANUEL STOAKES THE INDEPENDENT In recent days, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, having just been awarded a […]
by Robert Fisk, THE INDEPENDENT A pan-European digital library has collected 500,000 mementos The French embassy in Beirut held a gloomy ceremony last week to mark the killing of its 58 paratroopers in a suicide truck bombing 30 years ago. An Islamic Jihad bomb. For which, I suppose, read Iran. […]
On a recent Thursday, dozens of Latina immigrants clustered in a small, noisy second-floor office in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, waiting for one of a half-dozen loan officers to call their names and hand over a check. Children loitered in the stairwell or sprawled, calflike, over their mothers’ […]