After the grisly execution of American journalist Steven Sotloff by an ISIS terroristearlier this month, a chilling message from inside ISIS-controlled territory reached tens of thousands globally via social media: “I wish I did it.” It came from Umm Ubaydah, a Western woman who had converted to Islam, moved to Syria, married a jihadist fighter, and joined in the ISIS media campaign to drum up support for the movement among English-language Tweeters and bloggers everywhere. According to estimates by American and European centers for the study of radicalization, Umm UbaydahRead More

 SYED FAQIR IJAZUDDIN Dual nationality comes instinctively to Pakistanis: they are polygamous by nature. This explains why many of them found the referendum in Scotland superfluous. Why, they argued, couldn’t the Scots be allowed to hold Scottish passports as well as British ones? The recent Scottish referendum is the latest of a number of attempts by Scots to assert their identity as a separate nation. Their irritation at being treated as an appendage to other countries has chafed for centuries. In 1543, for example, the English King Henry VIII formalisedRead More

Cui Yuying Xinjiang is a place of breathtaking beauty, during this season of mellowing fruits and refreshing weather, for the 4th China-Eurasia Expo News Media Forum. Firstly, on behalf of the State Council Information Office of China, I’d like to extend warm congratulations to the convening of this forum and sincere greetings to the distinguished guests and friends from various countries who have come from afar.  In 2011, we held the first China-Eurasia Expo Forum of Ministers Responsible for Information. Since then, we’ve held another two forums for ministers responsibleRead More