THE TALIBAN’S LIFE OF LUXURY
IS AFGHANISTAN DESTINED TO BE RUN BY A DRUG MAFIA? by Noorullah Shirzada—AFP Pashtunabad—a poor, wind- and fly-blown suburb of Quetta—is the type of Pakistani town where commanders in the […]
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.
First photos of German Annual Convention
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad opens Annual Convention with Friday Sermon The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat and Fifth Khalifa, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad opened the three-day Jalsa Salana […]
McDonald’s strikes a blow for legitimacy (may be the first positive News from McDonald!)
STORY SUMMARY by Rami Khouri, The Daily Star, Lebanon First, any just and mutually agreed permanent peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians will have to return all the territories occupied in 1967 to the Palestinians (with mutually agreed land swaps in some cases). Second, this can only be achieved when […]
The Syrian conflict
ARAB NEWS Sunday 30 June 2013 It is a pity that the leadership of both the sects, political and religious, has miserably failed to keep away from the treacherous plots of the Western right-wing lobbies steered by the neocons. Write-ups in the New York Times and The Washington Post by […]
GCC to finalize curbs on Hezbollah
RIYADH: ARAB NEWS Saturday 29 June 2013 The Gulf Cooperation Council will hold a meeting in Riyadh on Thursday to agree the mechanisms for imposing sanctions on members of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, its head Abdullatif Al-Zayani said. GCC decided on June 10 to impose sanctions on members of Hezbollah […]
Umrah packages will cost more in Ramadan
RIYADH: MD RASOOLDEEN ARABNEWS Saturday 29 June 2013 Local travel operators have raised the price of weekend Umrah package for Ramadan from SR 100 to SR 160 per pilgrim from Riyadh. A rush of pilgrims is expected for Ramadan, which starts on July 9. This year, the peak season coincides […]
Palestinian Criticizes Israel Over Construction (more of the same….)
By JODI RUDOREN The New York Times JERUSALEM — The chief Palestinian negotiator condemned Israel on Thursday for moving closer to constructing 69 apartments in a Jewish neighborhood on territory seized in the 1967 war even as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for a fifth round of meetings in […]
Latest U.S. data should not be deciding factor in QE3: Fed’s Stein
(Reuters) – As it considers scaling back asset purchases, the Federal Reserve must consider the overall economic improvements since it launched the stimulus and not give undue weight to the most recent economic data, a top Fed official said on Friday. Highlighting the upcoming September policy meeting as a possible […]
Halal Food Fraud Worries Muslim-American Community
Religion News Service | By OMAR SACIRBEY HUFFINGTON POST (RNS) When McDonald’s announced it would discontinue the sale of halal chicken nuggets and chicken sandwiches at two restaurants earlier this […]
The Syrian conflict and specter of sectarianism
AIJAZ ZAKA SYED ARABNEWS Thursday 27 June 2013 REMEMBER Sarah Palin? The former governor of Alaska may well have ended up the US vice president and perhaps even more considering the advanced years of John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate, if a certain colored man with an impossible name and […]
Ahmadiyya Muslims to host intercultural exhibition in Galway, Ireland
GALWAY ADVERTISER, JUNE 27, 2013. By Kernan Andrews An exhibition covering issues of religion, interculturalism, integration, and diversity, opens in the Ballybane Library on Tuesday. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Ireland […]
Division among Muslim people solely benefits US, Israel: Iran minister
Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has warned that the United States and Israel are the sole beneficiaries of sectarian division in the Muslim world. In a Wednesday interview, Vahidi condemned […]
Court: Hospitals must have prayer rooms for non-Jews
Epigraph: Were you present when death came to Jacob, when he said to his sons, ‘What will you worship after me?’ They answered, ‘We will worship thy God, the God […]
Suicide bomber strikes Damascus Christian community
DAMASCUS — A suicide bomber killed at least four people in a Christian area of the Syrian capital on Thursday as aid groups said they cannot keep pace with the […]
Know your history: Imam Malik — A great scholar of Hadith
ABU TARIQ HIJAZI ARABNEWS Friday 28 June 2013 Imam Malik was one of the most respected scholars of Fiqh also known as Imam Darul Hijrah. His great grandfather Abi Aamer, who was from Yemen, embraced Islam in 2 AH and migrated to Madinah. He participated in all the battles alongside […]
Saudi Arabia: Domestic Haj to cost 60% more
JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS Thursday 27 June 2013 The costs of performing Haj and Umrah are expected to increase this season according to pilgrim service providers. The surge in prices has […]
Capacity of mataf to reach 105,000 in 2015
MAKKAH: ARAB NEWS Friday 28 June 2013 The ongoing expansion of the mataf (the circumambulation area around the Kaaba) will double the hourly capacity of the area from 48,000 pilgrims […]
Burma’s Rohingya Muslims Targeted by Buddhist Mob Violence
Source: The Daily Beast Muslims from an obscure ethnic group in western Burma have become targets of vicious Buddhist mob attacks. Brendan Brady reports from Rakhine state on the increasing violence. A woman cries moments after she and other Rohingya Muslims, trying to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh […]
Blind rhetoric
STORY SUMMARY It appears as if Kerry didn’t send the Israelis a memo about his current efforts. From time to time in recent years, and decades, U.S. officials suddenly begin making positive statements about the need for a Palestinian-Israeli peace; sometimes, they even hold talks with the two sides. As […]
U.S. to Suspend Trade Privileges With Bangladesh
Courtesy: NY Times U.S. to Suspend Trade Privileges With Bangladesh By STEVEN GREENHOUSE The Obama administration on Thursday will suspend trade privileges for Bangladesh over concerns about safety problems and labor rights violations in that country’s garment industry, according to administration and Congressional officials. The administration has come under intense […]