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.
A 65-year-old British atheist who has lived in the US for 30 years has been denied US citizenship, unless she joins a church by Friday. During her application process to become a naturalized US citizen, Texas resident Margaret Doughty did not agree to bear arms to defend the country, claiming […]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:18pm EDT (Reuters) – Islamist rebels have cut access to a Kurdish area in northern Syria and clashed with Kurdish nationalist PKK fighters whom they accuse of backing President Bashar al-Assad, sources on both sides said on Thursday. The confrontation […]
Source: The Conservative Papers. The mainstream media in the United States have ignored comments made by President Barack Obama during his a speech in Northern Ireland this week in which he described religious education as a source of conflict. The president’s comments have sparked widespread controversy and criticism in the […]
Source: The Economist THE headline stories on one of the Polish papers on June 13th made typical reading. Four people killed when their car ploughed into a shop near Poznan; five dead after their car rolled off the tarmac and into a ditch along a rural road in the northwest. Nine […]
Source: Spiegel The economic crisis has caused the United Kingdom to drift apart, creating ever-widening rifts between rich and poor, native and immigrant, English and Scot. With the anti-Europe UKIP party on the rise, Great Britain stands at a crossroads. More:
Source: LUBP Religious minorities in Pakistan, are facing an increase in persecution at the hands of Takfiri Deobandi militants of Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASWJ-LeJ) Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its other affiliate groups who believe the country is only made for Muslims and all other religious and sectarian minorities are Kafirs and wajabul […]
Source: LUBP by Ayesha Siddiqa The writer is an independent social scientist and author of Military Inc. and was a media consultant for NAB from 2011 to 2012 The terrorist attack on the residency in Ziarat, Balochistan, where Muhammad Ali Jinnah spent the last days of his life has created […]
Source: Asia Times: By Ramzy Baroud In the hotel lobby of an Arab Gulf country, a family walks in aiming for the Westernized cafe that sells everything but Arabic coffee. The mother seems distant as she presses buttons on her smartphone. The father looks tired as he puffs away on […]
Source: Asia Times By Abubakar Siddique The Taliban have expressed their readiness to share power in Afghanistan a day after the hardline Islamic group opened a political office in Qatar. Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Qatar office, told RFE/RL that the Taliban want to have an inclusive Afghan government. […]
Source: Asia Times: By Nick Turse The Gulf of Guinea. He said it without a hint of irony or embarrassment. This was one of US Africa Command’s big success stories. The Gulf … of Guinea. Never mind that most Americans couldn’t find it on a map and haven’t heard of […]
Source: ET Film-makers Zakir Thaver and Omar Vandal express their love for science through a documentary on Mohammad Abdus Salam. DESIGN: ABEERA KHAN / FAHAD NAVEED LAHORE: It was during a casual conversation over a meal that film-makers Zakir Thaver and Omar Vandal came up with the idea of making a […]
Source: ET ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA called for the release of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the man who gunned down Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011. PTI MNA from Mardan, Mujahid Ali Khan made the demand during a debate on the budget in the National Assembly. Khan had won the […]
JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS Thursday 20 June 2013 Over 8,000 men and women workers have been deployed to prepare for Ramadan at the two holy mosques, said Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, […]
Petra | Jun 19, 2013 | AMMAN — Saudi Arabia has reduced by 20 per cent the number of pilgrims from Muslim countries who will be allowed to perform the Hajj (the greater Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) this year, in light of expansion work taking place at the Grand Mosque […]
by Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch June 19, 2013 – 17:42 Parliament has thrown out a draft law enabling Swiss banks to hand over confidential data to the United States for cracking down on suspected tax cheats. However, it called on the cabinet to find legal means to resolve the standoff. For […]
by Olivier Pauchard, swissinfo.ch June 19, 2013 – 11:00 One hundred days after his election, Pope Francis is enjoying a positive image and heightened popularity. Although he hasn’t been in […]
Huffington Post UK | By Sara C Nelson Posted: 19/06/2013 1 A pregnant Muslim woman has miscarried her baby after she was reportedly attacked in Paris for wearing a veil. The unnamed 21-year-old was four months pregnant when she claims she was attacked by “skinheads” in the suburb of Argenteuil. […]
There’s no reason to waste more words on the necessity of the two-state solution. What’s important to stress is that this pessimism, which feeds on the feeling that we’ve missed the deadline, stems from shortsightedness and impatience. By Avi Shilon | Jun.19, 2013 | HAARETZ ISRAEL Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s […]
The US will keep Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets in Jordan after a military exercise, angering Russia. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the US enjoyed “a long-standing partnership with […]
By SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN and MOHAMMAD ALI SHABANI The New York Times THE stunning election of a pragmatic former Iranian nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, has offered the Obama administration a once-in-a-lifetime chance to end the atomic stalemate with Iran. In the West, Mr. Rowhani is widely seen as a turbaned […]