Word: emperor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Liberhan Commission was appointed immediately after the events in Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The Babri mosque, which was built by a Mughal Emperor in 1528, is believed by many Hindus to have been built on the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram, and right-wing Hindu politicians had for years sought to exploit sectarian passions by promising to build a temple honoring Ram on the site of the mosque. On Dec. 6, 1992, amid the sounds of the ceremonial conch, a Hindu mob ravaged the mosque, reducing it to rubble. The act sparked Muslim outrage around...
...perception neither is an asset when navigating the intricacies of foreign policy, nor does it make potential allies especially receptive to American propositions. Courtesy and cultural sensitivity should be considered of paramount importance when dealing with other nations, and President Obama’s respectful bow to the Japanese emperor represents a sincere attempt to express respect and cultural acumen. Rather than deride this incident, observers should appreciate that Obama treats other countries with deserved respect...
Similarly, the critique that this is a peculiar gesture or in some way not in keeping with a tradition of diplomacy misses the mark; former President Nixon attempted a similar gesture when he met with an emperor of Japan in 1971, albeit with more success. Nixon certainly had other problems with his presidency, but showing respect to a foreign dignitary was not one of them...
...known without apology: Barack Obama is not above the bow. He dipped his head all through Asia - greeting Japan's Emperor with a deep bend at the waist, nodding to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on a Beijing tarmac, even bobbing forward in gratitude before his tour guide at the Courtyard of Loyal Obedience in the Forbidden City...
...Persian Emperor Cambyses dispatched 50,000 of his soldiers to lay waste to an oasis temple in the Sahara because its oracle had spoken ill of his plans for world domination. The punitive expedition proved to be one of antiquity's most dramatic episodes of imperial overreach. One morning, while the army was having breakfast, writes the ancient historian Herodotus in The Histories, it was set upon by "a violent southern wind, bringing with it piles of sand, which buried them." The Greek continues, "Thus it was that they utterly disappeared...