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.
AFP, Washington The United States said it would close an unspecified number of embassies around the world on Sunday over security concerns. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Thursday called […]
Al Arabiya A sharia committee in a rebel-held area of Aleppo issued a fatwa deeming croissants ‘haram’ (forbidden in Islamic law) because of their “colonial” significance, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat […]
FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Thursday, amid signs that the euro zone economy could be slowly coming back to life. The E.C.B. kept its main rate at a record low of 0.5 percent, as expected. Recent surveys of business sentiment have raised hopes […]
Source: NY Times: After a month holed up in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of surveillance programs, has received temporary refugee status in Russia and left the airport, his lawyer said Thursday. The […]
Source: Miami Herald By FARID HOSSAIN ASSOCIATED PRESS DHAKA, Bangladesh — A Bangladesh court has disqualified the country’s largest Islamic party from taking part in the next general election, saying it opposes secularism. The High Court panel ruled Thursday that the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party’s regulations violate the constitutional […]
Source:News.Com. AU ONE of the west’s best known Italian clubs will be turned into a mosque under a plan being considered by Charles Sturt Council. The Veneto Club in Beverley plans to move to a smaller site in the western suburbs after dwindling membership forced it out of its Toogood […]
Source: The Spiegel: Pope Francis has sparked enthusiasm with his call for greater tolerance toward gays. But it’s too soon to celebrate, says theologian David Berger. The pope’s warning not to engage in gay propaganda puts him on par with homophobes like Russian President Vladimir Putin, he contends. More:
Source: The Speigel: We are sitting in a room on the sixth floor of the building occupied by the leftist-liberal Warsaw newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. There are stacks of newspapers and books everywhere, and on the walls are certificates from American and German universities next to photos of Adam Michnik with […]
Source: Dawn.Com The influential co-founder of a Sipah-e-Sahaba breakaway group now linked with al Qaeda and the Taliban received a stipend from the Punjab government while he was in jail, and like other key terror suspects, was allowed to use a mobile phone. Malik Ishaq had told an Urdu daily […]
Source: Dawn.Com DHAKA: The High Court in Dhaka on Thursday declared the registration of the Jamaat-i-Islami, the country’s biggest Islamic party, as a political party with the Bangladeshi election commission […]
Source: Asia Times: In a statement issued on July 27, 2013, US Secretary of State John Kerry grasped the fact that the revolution has not yet run its course. “Its final verdict is not yet decided,” he said, “but it will be forever impacted by what happens right now.” He […]
Source: Asia Times: By Victor Kotsev For many Syrian rebels, the unthinkable happened this week, when a key neighborhood of the centrally located city of Homs was recaptured by the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The fall of Homs, dubbed the rebel “capital,” seems inevitable, and while that will […]
by Christian Raaflaub, swissinfo.ch July 31, 2013 – A few months ago it was announced that Swiss universities would start training imams. Antonio Loprieno, leader of a working group on the issue, tells swissinfo.ch he hopes such a course will contribute to the debate about Islam in Switzerland. Muslims around […]
The trend of people sleeping in the Grand Mosque has been increasing each year, despite religious scholars declaring such an occurrence as a violation of Shariah. It is not merely […]
• XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data • NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches • Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history • NSA’s XKeyscore […]
Asif Haroon Raja PAKISTAN OBSERVER Thursday, August 01, 2013 – The unholy practice of Muslims fighting among each other is in vogue in many Muslim countries. Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had got infected by the Arab Spring in 2011, possibly triggered by CIA and […]
KEN MCGREGOR From: Weekly Times Inner City August 01, 2013 THE AUSTRALIAN NEWS ONE of the west’s best known Italian clubs will be turned into a mosque under a plan […]
Source: The Guardian, UK BY Julien Bouissou July 30, 2013 Passersby cast wary looks at a bunch of men lurking outside the entrance to the Hathazari madrasa. They stand out, having neither beards nor traditional dress. Indeed, one of them has had the bright idea of wearing a flowered shirt. For […]
Britain’s first Muslim MP, Mohammed Sarwar, has renounced his British citizenship to become the governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. Sarwar, a close aide of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz […]
(Reuters) – U.S. economic growth unexpectedly accelerated in the second quarter, laying a firmer foundation for the rest of the year that could bring the Federal Reserve a step closer to cutting back its monetary stimulus. Gross domestic product grew at a 1.7 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said […]