On May 31, 2023, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist and Al-Qaeda suspect serving an 86-year jail term for trying to kill U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, met her visiting sister Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, at the Federal Medical Center, in Carswell, Texas. Her lawyer Clive Stafford Smith was also present. Two more meetings took place between the two sisters on
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas paid a four-day state visit to China starting June 13, 2023, and was honored with a 21-gun salute in Beijing at the controversial Tiananmen Square. This was his fifth official visit to China, the world's second-largest economy, and is being seen as helping shift the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of China. Following
Two columnists in Pakistan's Urdu newspapers have stirred a debate recently about the role of Islam as perceived by Islamists in Pakistan and the diverse experiences of Muslims worldwide as viewed by liberal activists in different parts of the Islamic world, including in Pakistan.
A recent column titled "Pakistani Generals' Idea Of India And Their Court Martial" and written Shahnawaz Farooqui in the Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper Roznama Jasarat, which is a pro-Islamist daily published by Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, questioned the Pakistani military generals' stances toward India and toward the people of Pakistan.