Damascus mosque blast kills 42 including senior Syrian imam
Mar 21, 2013 – 22:17 REUTERS / SWISSINFO.CH BEIRUT (Reuters) – An explosion at a mosque in the Syrian capital on Thursday killed at least 42 people, including a senior […]
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.
Turning consumers into creators: Swiss join the crowdfunding craze
by Michèle Laird, swissinfo.ch Mar 21, 2013 – 11:00 Switzerland is home to several crowdfunding platforms generating millions of francs from peer-to-peer financing. swissinfo.ch looks at how the online phenomenon is taking root. Recent projects in Switzerland, such as the revival of a legendary watchmaking company, the building of a […]
First love, then war? (or: Israelis not impressed by Obama)
When Obama acts decisively against Isfahan and Fordow he’ll gain our trust. The president shouldn’t expect Israelis to become “pliant” because he gave a few good speeches. US President Barack Obama speaks in Jerusalem on March 21, 2013. Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post US President Barack Obama’s thermonuclear charm […]
Documentary Exposes US Role in Iraq Sectarian Conflict
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay. Maggie O’Kane, Executive Producer, tells the story revealed by the Guardian documentary about the role of Col. James Steele in supporting torture, death squads and brutal sectarian conflict during the height of the Iraq war. Steel’s […]
The Decline of Marriage and the Rise of Unwed Mothers: An Economic Mystery
The real question here isn’t “Why so many babies?” It’s “Why so few marriages?” And we have an answer. by Derek Thompson THE ATLANTIC This was the most shocking statistic I read this weekend: 58 percent of first births in lower-middle-class households are now to unmarried women. Meanwhile, two in […]
Obama makes direct peace appeal to the Israeli people
(Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama appealed directly on Thursday to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognize that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace. In a showcase speech in Jerusalem to Israeli university students, Obama coupled his plea […]
A dying society
Source: LUBP by Shazia Nwaz The more I read from young Pakistanis on social media, the more I wonder how in the world they did this to us. Such inability to think critically is not easy to acquire, and yet countless have acquired it. Recently, Dr. Javed Iqbal, son of […]
Bought for $3 at yard sale, bowl sells for $2.2 million
Source: CNN (CNN) — A rare Chinese bowl bought for about $3 from a yard sale in the U.S. sold for $2.2 million at an auction in New York on Tuesday. The bowl, found in New York state, “was bought for a few dollars from a tag sale near the […]
Lawyer fights ‘widow sex’ tradition in Malawi
Source: CNN (CNN) — Lawyer and human rights activist Seodi White has long been an outspoken campaigner for gender justice in Malawi, a country where half its women are married before the age of 18. As the head of the Malawian chapter of Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), […]
Cyprus bailout deadline set for Monday
Source: Washington Post: Petros Giannakouris/AP – Women pass a Russian commercial bank in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 21, 2013. The European Central Bank says it will keep emergency aid for Cyprus’ troubled banks in place until Monday but will cut it off after that unless a suitable rescue program has […]
Australian Prime Minister Survives Ouster Attempt
Source: NY Times: SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday survived an effort by a senior lawmaker within her own party to oust her from her job, after her predecessor Kevin Rudd, whom she deposed in a 2010 party coup, unexpectedly declined to run against her. More:
PEW Research : Veterans of Post-9/11 Wars Ambivalent about Whether Iraq Was Worth It
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq — a war that started with solid public support, but ultimately became a politically-divisive issue. A survey of […]
Kurdish ceasefire boosts peace process in Turkey : Historic gesture by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan shows peace talks launched last year are building momentum
Constanze Letsch in Istanbul guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 March 2013 The jailed Kurdish guerrillas’ leader, Abdullah Öcalan , has used the Kurdish new year celebrations to call a ceasefire in the […]
Robert Fisk: The cost of war must be measured by human tragedy, not artefacts – What does heritage matter in the face of such tragic desolation?
by Robert Fisk, The Independent What is a child’s life worth against all the antiquities of Syria? Any reflection of Syria’s architectural disasters must include this question. The child, a humanitarian must say, is worth all the columns of Palmyra and mosques of Damascus. The child, a cold-hearted historian might […]
How real is the rise of Africa?
Source: The Economist: The continent has entered its 2nd decade of sustained growth. Most countries have been growing at more than 5% every single year since 2003, and projections show that this momentum will continue. While the new services industries are important, they alone will not enable African countries to […]
World Focus: The eyes of the world are trained on Israel. But will there be anything to see?
by Robert Fisk, The Independent So will it be tragedy, farce or tourism? Obama’s a tourist, so says the Davy Crockett of the American journalistic frontier and philosopher king of The New York Times (aka T Friedman, Esq), but he’s wrong. The winner of the Nobel Prize for Public Speech-making […]
Letters: An appeal to Indonesian Muslims
Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 will be noted as a sad day in the history of Indonesia. On that day, a group of people on their way home from attending an Islamic New Year parade attacked the Santo Albertus church under construction in Bekasi. Fortunately, no one was injured in the […]
Iraq Anniversary: 10 Lessons from America’s ‘Dumb War’
Source: Spiegel Polish special forces and US Navy Seals pose for pictures under a portrait of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the port of Umm-southern Iraq in March 23, 2003. A decade on, polls suggest that a majority of Americans view the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a mistake. Right […]
Pakistan’s Extremist Democracy
by Ahmed Rashid NYR BLOG This spring was supposed to open a new chapter in Pakistan’s tenuous embrace of inclusive democracy. At midnight on March 17, following constitutional rules, the […]
Decentralize the Church: How the New Pope Can Combat Catholic-Phobia
Source: Spiegel. The Catholic Church is out of touch with believers, and risks losing more of the flock if it fails to reform. An important step would be giving national […]