title: White privilege

text: In discussing unequal test scores between public school students, opinion columnist Matt Rosenberg laments the Seattle Public Schools' emphasis on "institutional racism" and "white privilege":


title: White privilege

text: The disparity is not simply a matter of color: School District data indicate income, English-language proficiency and home stability are also important correlates to achievement ... By promoting the "white privilege" canard and by designing a student indoctrination plan, the Seattle School District is putting retrograde, leftist politics ahead of academics, while the perpetrators of "white privilege" are minimizing the capabilities of minorities.


title: White privilege

text: Conservative author Shelby Steele believes that the effects of white privilege are exaggerated, saying that blacks may incorrectly blame their personal failures on white oppression, and that there are many "minority privileges": "If I'm a black high school student today ... there are white American institutions, universities, hovering over me to offer me opportunities: Almost every institution has a diversity committee ... There is a hunger in this society to do right racially, to not be racist."


title: White privilege

text: Anthony P. Carnevale and Jeff Strohl show that whites have a better opportunity at getting into selective schools, while African Americans and Hispanics usually end up going to open access schools and have a lower chance of receiving a bachelor's degree. In 2019, a National Bureau of Economic Research study found white privilege bias in Harvard University's application process for legacy admission.


title: White privilege

text: In a 2013 news story, Fox News reported, "A controversial 600-plus page manual used by the military to train its Equal Opportunity officers teaches that 'healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian' men hold an unfair advantage over other races, and warns in great detail about a so-called 'White Male Club.' ... The manual, which was obtained by Fox News, also instructs troops to 'support the leadership of non-white people. Do this consistently, but not uncritically,' the manual states." The manual was prepared by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, which is an official unit of the Department of Defense under the control of the Secretary of Defense.


title: White privilege

text: Indigenous Australians were historically excluded from the process that lead to the federation of Australia, and the White Australia policy restricted the freedoms for non-white people, particularly with respect to immigration. Indigenous people were governed by the Aborigines Protection Board and treated as a separate underclass of non-citizens. Prior to a referendum conducted in 1967, it was unconstitutional for Indigenous Australians to be counted in population statistics.


title: White privilege

text: Holly Randell-Moon has said that news media are geared towards white people and their interests and that this is an example of white privilege. Michele Lobo claims that white neighborhoods are normally identified as "good quality", while "ethnic" neighborhoods may become stigmatized, degraded, and neglected.


title: White privilege

text: Some scholars claim white people are seen presumptively as "Australian", and as prototypical citizens. Catherine Koerner has claimed that a major part of white Australian privilege is the ability to be in Australia itself, and that this is reinforced by, discourses on non-white outsiders including asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants.


title: White privilege

text: Some scholars have suggested that public displays of multiculturalism, such as the celebration of artwork and stories of Indigenous Australians, amount to tokenism, since indigenous Australians voices are largely excluded from the cultural discourse surrounding the history of colonialism and the narrative of European colonizers as peaceful settlers. These scholars suggest that white privilege in Australia, like white privilege elsewhere, involves the ability to define the limits of what can be included in a "multicultural" society. Indigenous studies in Australian universities remains largely controlled by white people, hires many white professors, and does not always embrace political changes that benefit indigenous people. Scholars also say that prevailing modes of Western epistemology and pedagogy, associated with the dominant white culture, are treated as universal while Indigenous perspectives are excluded or treated only as objects of study. One Australian university professor reports that white students may perceive indigenous academics as beneficiaries of reverse racism.


title: White privilege

text: Some scholars have claimed that for Australian whites, another aspect of privilege is the ability to identify with a global diaspora of other white people in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. This privilege contrasts with the separation of Indigenous Australians from other indigenous peoples in southeast Asia. They also claim that global political issues such as climate change are framed in terms of white actors and effects on countries that are predominantly white.


title: White privilege

text: White privilege varies across places and situations. Ray Minniecon, director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries, described the city of Sydney specifically as "the most alien and inhospitable place of all to Aboriginal culture and people". At the other end of the spectrum, anti-racist white Australians working with Indigenous people may experience their privilege as painful "stigma".


title: White privilege

text: Studies of white privilege in Australia have increased since the late 1990s, with several books published on the history of how whiteness became a dominant identity. Aileen Moreton-Robinson's "Talkin' Up to the White Woman" is a critique of unexamined white privilege in the Australian feminist movement. The Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association formed in 2005 to study racial privilege and promote respect for Indigenous sovereignties; it publishes an online journal called "Critical Race and Whiteness Studies".


title: White privilege

text: In New Zealand, a localized relationship to the concept, frequently termed Pakeha privilege, due to the legacy of the colonizing Pākehā settlers, has developed.


title: White privilege

text: In the country's colonial era, Pakeha privilege was enforced in school classrooms by strict time periods, European symbols, and the exclusion of te reo (the Māori language). All of which would have been alienating and disadvantaging for Māori children.


title: White privilege

text: Academic Huia Jahnke's "Mana Tangata: Politics of Empowerment" has explored how European New Zealanders rejecting the 'one people' national narrative, naming themselves 'other' by embracing the label Pākehā, has allowed space to examine white privilege and the societal marginalization of Māori people. Massey University scholar Malcolm Mulholland has stated that "studying inequalities between Maori and non-Maori outcomes allows us to identify Pakeha privilege and name it."


title: White privilege

text: In 2016, on the 65th anniversary of Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko I te Ora, the League's president criticized the "dominant Pakeha culture" in New Zealand, and embedded Pakeha privilege.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Babri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning "Mosque of Babur") was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities since the 18th century. According to the mosque's inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 (935 AH) by Mir Baqi, a general of the Mughal emperor Babur. The mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, which ignited communal violence across the Indian subcontinent.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The mosque was located on a hill known as Ramkot ("Rama's fort"). According to Hindus, Baqi destroyed a pre-existing temple of Rama at the site. The existence of this temple is a matter of controversy. However, Archaeological Survey of India conducted an excavation of the disputed site on the orders of the Allahabad High Court. Various materials have been found during excavation which suggest the presence of a Hindu structure beneath. Also, The High Court noted that the Babri Masjid was not built on vacant land and the excavated underneath structure was not Islamic in nature.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Starting in the 19th century, there were several conflicts and court disputes between Hindus and Muslims over the mosque. In 1949, after India became independent, Hindu activists associated with the Hindu Mahasabha surreptitiously placed idols of Rama inside the mosque, after which the government locked the building to avoid further disputes. Court cases were filed by both Hindus and Muslims asking for access.


title: Babri Masjid

text: On 6 December 1992, a large group of Hindu activists belonging to the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations demolished the mosque, triggering riots all over the Indian subcontinent, resulting in the death of around 2,000 people.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In September 2010, the Allahabad High Court upheld the claim that the mosque was built on the spot believed to be Rama's birthplace and awarded the site of the central dome for the construction of a Rama temple. Muslims were also awarded one-third area of the site for the construction of a mosque. The decision was subsequently appealed by all parties to the Supreme Court, wherein a five judge bench heard a title suit from August to October 2019. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court quashed the lower court's judgement and ordered the entire site ( land) to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternative plot to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to replace the Babri Masjid that was demolished in 1992. The government allotted a site in the village of Dhannipur, from Ayodhya and by road from the site of the original Babri Masjid. The construction of the mosque started on 26 January 2021.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The name "Babri Masjid" comes from the name of the Mughal emperor Babur, who is said to have ordered its construction. Before the 1940s, it was called "Masjid-i Janmasthan" ("mosque of the birthplace") including in official documents.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and their successors, the Mughals, were great patrons of art and architecture and constructed many fine tombs, mosques and madrasas. These have a distinctive style which bears influences of "later Tughlaq" architecture. Mosques all over India were built in different styles; the most elegant styles developed in areas where indigenous art traditions were strong and local artisans were highly skilled. Thus regional or provincial styles of mosques grew out of local temple or domestic styles, which were conditioned in their turn by climate, terrain, materials, hence the enormous difference between the mosques of Bengal, Kashmir and Gujarat. The Babri Mosque followed the architectural school of Jaunpur Sultanate. When viewed from the west side, it resembled the Atala Masjid in Jaunpur.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The architecture of the mosque is completely a replica of the mosques in the Delhi Sultanate. Babri was an important mosque of a distinct style, preserved mainly in architecture, developed after the Delhi Sultanate was established, seen also in the Babari Mosque in the southern suburb of the walled city of Gaur, and the Jamali Kamili Mosque built by Sher Shah Suri. This was the forerunner of the Mughal architecture style adopted by Akbar.


title: Babri Masjid

text: "A whisper from the Babri Masjid mihrab could be heard clearly at the other end, 200 feet [60 m] away and through the length and breadth of the central court" according to Graham Pickford, architect to Lord William Bentinck (1828–33). The mosque's acoustics were mentioned by him in his book "Historic Structures of Oudhe" where he says "for a 16th-century building the deployment and projection of voice from the pulpit is considerably advanced, the unique deployment of sound in this structure will astonish the visitor".


title: Babri Masjid

text: Modern architects have attributed this intriguing acoustic feature to a large recess in the wall of the mihrab and several recesses in the surrounding walls which functioned as resonators; this design helped everyone to hear the speaker at the mihrab. The sandstone used in building the Babri Mosque also had resonant qualities which contributed to the unique acoustics.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The Babri mosque's Tughluquid style integrated other design components and techniques, such as air cooling systems disguised as Islamic architectural elements like arches, vaults and domes. In the Babri Masjid a passive environmental control system comprised the high ceiling, domes, and six large grille windows. The system helped keep the interior cool by allowing natural ventilation as well as daylight.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The date of construction of the Babri Masjid is uncertain. The inscriptions on the Babri Masjid premises found in the 20th century state that the mosque was built in 935 AH (1528–29) by Mir Baqi in accordance with the wishes of Babur. However, these inscriptions appear to be of a more recent vintage.


title: Babri Masjid

text: There are no records of the mosque from this period. The "Baburnama" (Chronicles of Babur) does not mention either the mosque or the destruction of a temple. The "Ramcharitamanas" of Tulsidas (1574) and "Ain-i Akbari" of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1598) made no mention of a mosque either. William Finch, the English traveller who visited Ayodhya around 1611, wrote about the "ruins of the Ranichand [Ramachand] castle and houses" where Hindus believed the great God "took flesh upon him to see the "tamasha" of the world." He found "pandas" (Brahmin priests) in the ruins of the fort, recording the names of pilgrims, but there was no mention of a mosque. Thomas Herbert described in 1634 the "pretty old castle of Ranichand built by a Bannyan Pagod of that name" which he described as an antique monument that was "especially memorable". He also recorded the fact of Brahmins recording the names of pilgrims.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The earliest record of a mosque at the site traditionally believed by Hindus to be the birthplace of Rama comes from Jai Singh II (or "Sawai Jai Singh") – a Rajput noble in the Mughal court who purchased land and established a "Jaisinghpura" in the area surrounding the mosque in 1717 (as he had also done in several other Hindu religious places). The documents of Jai Singh preserved in the Kapad-Dwar collection in the City Palace Museum of Jaipur,


title: Babri Masjid

text: include a sketch map of the Babri Masjid site. The map shows an open court yard and a built structure with three temple spires ("sikharas") resembling today's Babri Masjid with three domes. The courtyard is labelled "janmasthan" and shows a "Ram chabutra". The central bay of the built structure is labelled "chhathi", which also denotes birthplace.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The European Jesuit missionary Joseph Tiefenthaler, who lived and worked in India for 38 years (1743–1785) and wrote numerous works about India, visited Ayodhya in 1767. Johann Bernoulli translated his work "Descriptio Indiae" (in Latin) into French, published in 1788. According to this account, Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) had demolished the Ramkot fortress, including the house that was considered as the birthplace of Rama by Hindus. A mosque with three domes was constructed in its place. However, he also noted, "others say that it was constructed by 'Babor' [Babur]". The Hindus continued to offer prayers at a mud platform that marked the birthplace of Rama. Tiefenthaler was well-versed in Persian and Sanskrit, having written a Sanskrit–Persian dictionary, and other works in Persian. Evidently he did not find an inscription on the walls of the mosque stating that it was constructed under Babur's orders. He "emphatically attributed it to Aurangzeb, and Babur's name is carried by a few persons", states writer Kishore Kunal.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Francis Buchanan-Hamilton (Buchanan) did a survey of the Gorakhpur Division in 1813–14 on behalf of the British East India Company. His report was never published but partly reused by Montgomery Martin later. Kishore Kunal examined the original report in the British Library archives. It states that the Hindus generally attributed destruction "to the furious zeal of Aurangzabe". However it said that the mosque at Ayodhya was ascertained to have been built by Babur by "an inscription on its walls". The said inscription in Persian was said to have been copied by a scribe and translated by a Maulvi friend of Buchanan. The translation however contained five pieces of text, including "two" inscriptions. The first inscription said that the mosque was constructed by Mir Baqi in the year 935 AH or 923 AH. The second inscription narrated the genealogy of Aurangzeb. In addition to the two inscriptions and their monograms ("tughras"), a fable concerning a dervish called Musha Ashiqan was also included. The translator doubted that the fable was part of the inscription but recorded that the scribe "positively says that the inscription was executed at the erection of this building". The translator also had a difficulty with the anagram for the date, because one of the words was missing, which would have resulted in a date of 923 AH rather than 935 AH. These incongruities and mismatches made no impression on Buchanan, who maintained that the mosque was built by Babur.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1838, British surveyor Montgomery Martin wrote that the pillars in the mosque were taken from a Hindu temple. A section of historians, such as R. S. Sharma, deny this, and state that such claims of temple demolition sprang up only after the 18th century.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1877, Syed Mohammad Asghar the Mutawalli (guardian) of the "Masjid Baburi at Janmasthan" filed a petition with the Commissioner of Faizabad asking him to restrain the Hindus that raised a chabutara on the spot regarded as the birthplace of Rama. In the petition, he stated that Babur had inscribed one word "Allah" above the door. The district judge and the sub-judge visited the mosque in the presence of all parties and their lawyers and confirmed this fact. No other inscriptions were recorded.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1889, archaeologist Anton Führer visited the mosque and found three inscriptions. One was a Quranic verse. The inscription XLI was Persian poetry in the metre Ramal, which stated that the mosque was erected by a noble 'Mir Khan' of Babur.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The inscription XLII was also Persian poetry in metre Ramal, and said that the mosque was founded in year 930 AH by a grandee of Babur, who was (comparable to) "another King of Turkey and China".


title: Babri Masjid

text: The year 930 AH corresponds to 1523, three years before Babur's conquest of Hindustan. Despite the apparent contradiction, Führer published the date of "A. H. 930 during the reign of Babar", in his book of 1891.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Writer Kishore Kunal states that all the inscriptions claimed were fake. They were affixed almost 285 years after the supposed construction of the mosque in 1528, and repeatedly replaced. His own assessment is that the mosque was built around 1660 by governor Fedai Khan of Aurangzeb, who demolished many temples in Ayodhya. Lal Das, who wrote "Awadh-Vilasa" in 1672 describes the "janmasthan" (Rama's birthplace) accurately but does not mention a temple at the site.


title: Babri Masjid

text: These developments were apparently known to local Muslims. In mid-nineteenth century, the Muslim activist Mirza Jan quoted from a book "Sahifa-I-Chihil Nasaih Bahadur Shahi", which was said to have been written by a daughter of the emperor Bahadur Shah I (and granddaughter of Aurangzeb) in the early 18th century. The text mentions mosques having been constructed after demolishing the "temples of the idolatrous Hindus situated at Mathura, Banaras and Awadh etc." Hindus are said to have called these demolished temples in Awadh ""Sita Rasoi"" (Sita's kitchen) and "Hanuman's abode." While there was no mention of Babur in this account, the Ayodhya mosque had been juxtaposed with those built by Aurangzeb at Mathura and Banaras.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The manuscript, "Sahifa-I-Chihil Nasaih Bahadur Shahi", has not yet been found, and scholar Stephan Conermann has stated that Mirza Jan book, "Hadiqa-yi shuhada", is not reliable.


title: Babri Masjid

text: According to an early 20th-century text by Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar and the surrounding historical sources examined by historian Harsh Narain,


title: Babri Masjid

text: the young Babur came from Kabul to Awadh (Ayodhya) in disguise, dressed as a "Qalandar" (Sufi ascetic), probably as part of a fact-finding mission. Here he met the Sufi saints "Shah Jalal" and "Sayyid Musa Ashiqan" and took a pledge in return for their blessings for conquering Hindustan. The pledge is not spelled out in the 1981 edition of Ghaffar's book.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Lala Sita Ram, who had access to the older edition in 1932 wrote, "The faqirs answered that they would bless him if he promised to build a mosque after demolishing the "Janmasthan" temple. Babur accepted the faqirs' offer and returned to his homeland."


title: Babri Masjid

text: However, some historians have argued that it was built during the Delhi Sultanate period (13th–15th century), and may have been renovated during Babur's period. R. Nath has stated that, judging from the architecture of the mosque, it should be taken to have been built in the pre-Mughal period.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Apart from Hindus, Jains and Buddhists have also claimed the site. According to Jain Samata Vahini, the mosque was built over a 6th-century Jain temple. Similarly, Udit Raj's Buddha Education Foundation has claimed the mosque was built over a Buddhist shrine.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1853, a group of armed Hindu ascetics occupied the Babri Masjid. Periodic violence erupted in the next two years, and the civil administration had to step in, refusing permission to build a temple or to use it as a place of worship. In 1855, after a Hindu-Muslim clash, a boundary wall was constructed to avoid further disputes. It divided the mosque premises into two courtyards; the Muslims offered prayers in the inner courtyard. The Hindus offered their prayers on a raised platform, known as "Ram Chabutara", in the outer courtyard.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1883, the Hindus launched an effort to construct a temple on the platform. After Muslim protests, the deputy commissioner prohibited any temple construction on 19 January 1885. On 27 January 1885, Raghubar Das, the Hindu mahant (priest) of the Ram Chabutara filed a civil suit before the Faizabad Sub-Judge. In response, the "mutawalli" (Muslim trustee) of the mosque argued that the entire land belonged to the mosque. On 24 December 1885, the Sub Judge Pandit Hari Kishan Singh dismissed the suit. On 18 March 1886, the District Judge F.E.A. Chamier also dismissed an appeal against the lower court judgment. He agreed that the mosque was built on the land considered sacred by the Hindus, but ordered maintenance of status quo, since it was "too late now to remedy the grievance". A subsequent appeal before the Judicial Commissioner W. Young was also dismissed on 1 November 1886.


title: Babri Masjid

text: On 27 March 1934, a Hindu–Muslim riot occurred in Ayodhya, triggered by cow slaughter in the nearby Shahjahanpur village. The walls around the Masjid and one of the domes of the Masjid were damaged during the riots. These were reconstructed by the British Indian government.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 1936, the United Provinces government enacted U.P. Muslim Waqf Act for the better administration of waqf properties in the state. In accordance with this act, the Babri Masjid and its adjacent graveyard (Ganj-e-Saheedan Qabristan) were registered as "Waqf no. 26 Faizabad" with the UP Sunni Central Board of Waqfs. The Shias disputed the Sunni ownership of the mosque, claiming that the site belonged to them because Mir Baqi was a Shia. The Commissioner of Waqfs initiated an inquiry into the dispute. The inquiry concluded that the mosque belonged to the Sunnis, since it was commissioned by Babur, who was a Sunni. The concluding report was published in an official gazette dated 26 February 1944. In 1945, the Shia Central Board moved to court against this decision. On 23 March 1946, Judge S. A. Ahsan ruled in favour of the UP Sunni Central Board of Waqfs.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In December 1949, the Hindu organisation Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana Mahasabha organised a non-stop nine-day recitation of the "Ramacharitamanas" just outside the mosque. At the end of this event, on the night of 22–23 December 1949, a group of 50–60 people entered the mosque and placed idols of Rama there. On the morning of 23 December, the event organisers asked Hindu devotees to come to the mosque for a "darshan". As thousands of Hindus started visiting the place, the Government declared the mosque a disputed area and locked its gates.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru directed the state's Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant and Uttar Pradesh Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to have the idols removed from the mosque premises. Pant issued orders to remove the idols, but Faizabad's deputy commissioner K. K. Nayar feared that the Hindus would retaliate and pleaded inability to carry out the orders.


title: Babri Masjid

text: On 16 January 1950, Gopal Singh Visharad filed a civil suit in the Faizabad Court, asking that Hindus be allowed to worship Rama and Sita at the place. In 1959, the Nirmohi Akhara filed another lawsuit demanding possession of the mosque. On 18 December 1961, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board also filed a lawsuit, demanding possession of the site and removal of idols from the mosque premises.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In April 1984, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) initiated a campaign to gather public support for Hindu access to the Babri Masjid and other structures that had been allegedly built over Hindu shrines. To raise public awareness, VHP planned nationwide "rath yatra"s (chariot processions), the first of which took place in September–October 1984, from Sitamarhi to Ayodhya. The campaign was temporarily suspended after assassination of Indira Gandhi, but revived in from 25 places on 23 October 1985. On 25 January 1986, a 28-year-old local lawyer Umesh Chandra Pandey, appealed to a court to remove the restrictions on Hindu worship in the Babri Masjid premises. Subsequently, the Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the locks on the Babri Masjid gates to be removed. Earlier, the only Hindu ceremony permitted at the site was a Hindu priest performing an annual puja. After the ruling, all Hindus were given access to the site, and the mosque gained some function as a Hindu temple.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Communal tension in the region worsened when the VHP received permission to perform a "shilanyas" (stone-laying ceremony) at the disputed site before the national election in November 1989. A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, L K Advani, started a "rath yatra", embarking on a 10,000 km journey starting from the south and heading towards Ayodhya. On 6 December 1992, BJP, VHP and RSS leaders gathered at the site to offer prayers and perform a symbolic "kar seva". At noon, a teenage "Kar Sevak" (volunteer) was "vaulted" on to the dome and that signalled the breaking of the outer cordon. Soon after, a large number of "kar sevak"s demolished the mosque.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Communal riots between Hindus and Muslims occurred across India immediately following demolition of the mosque. Rioting in the immediate aftermath resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2,000 people. Six weeks of riots further erupted in Bombay, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 900 people.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Jihadist outfits like Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba have cited the demolition of Babri Masjid as justification for attacks directed against India. Gangster Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in India for his alleged ties to the 1993 Bombay bombings which killed 257 people, is believed to have been infuriated by the Babri Masjid's demolition.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The site has since become a magnet for pilgrims. According to "The Economist", "Among its souvenir stalls, those doing the briskest trade are the ones playing videos on a loop of Hindu fundamentalists demolishing the mosque."


title: Babri Masjid

text: Riots in the aftermath of Babri Masjid's demolition extended to Bangladesh, where hundreds of shops, homes and temples of Hindus were destroyed. Widespread retaliatory attacks against scores of Hindu and Jain temples also took place across neighbouring Pakistan, with police not intervening. Reprisal attacks against Hindus in both countries, in turn, entered the discourse of right-wing Hindu nationalists – for example, in 1995, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) appealed to the United Nations to protect Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan and Kashmir. The impact of Babri Masjid's demolition and its repercussions negatively affects relations between India and Pakistan until the present day.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The Liberhan Commission set up by the Government to investigate the demolition later blamed 68 people including senior BJP, RSS and VHP leaders for the demolition. Among those criticised in the report were Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party's chief LK Advani, and chief minister Kalyan Singh. A 2005 book by the former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Joint Director Maloy Krishna Dhar claimed the senior leaders of RSS, BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal had planned the demolition 10 months in advance. He also suggested that the Indian National Congress leaders, including prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and home minister S B Chavan, had ignored warnings about the demolition for deriving political benefits.


title: Babri Masjid

text: In 2003, by the order of an Indian court, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was asked to conduct a more in-depth study and an excavation to ascertain the type of structure that was beneath the rubble. The excavation was conducted from 12 March 2003 to 7 August 2003, resulting in 1360 discoveries. The ASI submitted its report to the Allahabad high court.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The summary of the ASI report indicated what appears to be the presence of a 10th-century shrine under the mosque. According to the ASI team, the human activity at the site dates back to the 13th century BC. The next few layers date back to the Shunga period (second-first century BC) and the Kushan period. During the early medieval period (11–12th century), a but short-lived huge structure of nearly 50 metres north–south orientation was constructed. On the remains of this structure, another massive structure was constructed: this structure had at least three structural phases and three successive floors attached with it. The report concluded that it was over the top of this construction that the disputed structure was constructed during the early 16th century.


title: Babri Masjid

text: Muslim groups immediately disputed the ASI findings. The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) criticised the report saying that it said that "presence of animal bones throughout as well as of the use of 'surkhi' and lime mortar" that was found by ASI are all characteristic of Muslim presence "that rule out the possibility of a Hindu temple having been there beneath the mosque." The report claimed otherwise on the basis of 'pillar bases' was contested since no pillars were found, and the alleged existence of 'pillar bases' has been debated by archaeologists. Syed Rabe Hasan Nadvi, chairman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) alleged that ASI failed to mention any evidence of a temple in its interim reports and only revealed it in the final report which was submitted during a time of national tension, making the report highly suspect.


title: Babri Masjid

text: A land title case on the site was lodged in the Allahabad High Court, the verdicts of which was pronounced on 30 September 2010. In their verdict, the three judges of The Allahabad High Court ruled that the of Ayodhya land be divided into three parts, with one-third going to the Ram Lalla or Infant Lord Rama represented by the Hindu Maha Sabha for the construction of the Ram temple, one-third going to the Islamic Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the remaining one-third going to Nirmohi Akhara, a Hindu religious denomination. While the three-judge bench was not unanimous that the disputed structure was constructed after demolition of a temple, it did agree that a temple or a temple structure predated the mosque at the same site. The excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India were heavily used as evidence by the court that the predating structure was a massive Hindu religious building.


title: Babri Masjid

text: The five judges Supreme Court bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019. The Court observed that archaeological evidence from the Archaeological Survey of India shows that the Babri Masjid was constructed on a "structure", whose architecture was distinctly indigenous and non-Islamic. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternative plot to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to build a mosque, which the government allotted in Dhannipur, Ayodhya.


title: Willie Robertson

text: Willie Jess Robertson (born April 22, 1972) is an American TV personality, businessman, author and news contributor. He is best known for his appearances on the reality TV series "Duck Dynasty" on A&E, and is the current CEO of the company Duck Commander. Robertson lives in West Monroe, Louisiana with his wife Korie and his children: John Luke, Sadie, Will, Rowdy, Bella, and Rebecca.


title: Willie Robertson

text: Robertson was born at Tri-Ward General Hospital in Bernice, Louisiana, in Union Parish, to Phil and Marsha Kay Robertson. He was born 2 days before his father's 26th birthday. He has two older brothers, Alan and Jase, one younger sister, Phyllis, and one younger brother, Jep. Willie grew up around hunting and the outdoors, and spent considerable time around Duck Commander, a small business run by his father. Willie handled various tasks at the company, including building duck calls and handling business calls.


title: Willie Robertson

text: Ever since childhood, Robertson and his brothers have been interested in the duck call business started by their father, Phil. Willie attended Harding University and graduated from Northeast Louisiana University. In 2014, Harding declared Willie and Korie Howard Robertson jointly as Outstanding Young Alumni. His business degree helped take Duck Commander from a family business to a multimillion-dollar empire. Duck Commander is the company that generated a great portion of the wealth that he has acquired and also generated the interest to start the TV show "Duck Dynasty". In 2006, Robertson started another pursuit, the company Buck Commander. This company has also created the Buckmen series of DVDs and the television show Buck Commander Protected by Under Armour on the Outdoor Channel. Along with Si, he appeared on an episode of "Last Man Standing", and made a cameo in the Christian film, "God's Not Dead," with his wife. In the movie he is being interviewed by Amy about his show and states that while hunting is his life, his important thing in life is Jesus Christ. He also appears in the end of the film during a Newsboys concert, where he gives a message to the concert audience to text "God's not dead" to everyone, having heard about the events in college when Josh stood up to Radisson for his beliefs. Willie's daughter, Sadie Robertson would later be featured in its sequel "God's Not Dead 2" as high school student Marlene.Willie Robertson was the guest of United States Representative Vance McAllister at the 2014 State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama.


title: Willie Robertson

text: In 2021, Robertson competed in season six of "The Masked Singer" as "Mallard". He was eliminated alongside Bobby Berk as "Caterpillar".


title: Willie Robertson

text: Robertson is known for his Christian faith and often preaches about it to others. He is a member of the Churches of Christ. He is also almost always seen wearing a bandana in the pattern of the American flag on his head, and he often wears a white suit jacket to look more professional, though the jacket has drawn comparisons to "The Dukes of Hazzard" character Boss Hogg (Willie's Twitter handle is "williebosshog").


title: Willie Robertson

text: Robertson, like many of his family members featured on "Duck Dynasty", is known for his ZZ Top-style beard.


title: Willie Robertson

text: On April 25, 2020, Robertson's house was shot up in a drive-by shooting. While he was shopping at a store, his family were still at home when Daniel King Jr. shot 8 to 10 bullets at the property. He stated that he was "Pretty shook up" when a bullet passed through a window of the bedroom where his son John-Luke and his wife and infant son were sleeping. No one was hurt, and eventually the perpetrator was caught.


title: Willie Robertson

text: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal presented Willie Robertson with the inaugural Governor's Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in March 2014, at the Duck Commander warehouse in West Monroe.


title: 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries

text: Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016.


text: A total of six major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency, but Warren declined to run, as did incumbent Vice President Joe Biden. Webb, Chafee, and Lessig withdrew prior to the February 1, 2016, Iowa caucuses.


text: Clinton won Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the state's Democratic caucus to date. O'Malley suspended his campaign after a distant third-place finish, leaving Clinton and Sanders as the only two candidates. The race turned out to be more competitive than expected, with Sanders decisively winning New Hampshire, while Clinton subsequently won Nevada and won a landslide victory in South Carolina. Clinton then secured numerous important wins in each of the nine most populous states including California, New York, Florida, and Texas, while Sanders scored various victories in between. He then laid off a majority of staff after the New York primary and Clinton's multi-state sweep on April 26. On June 6, the Associated Press and NBC News stated that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including both pledged and unpledged delegates (superdelegates), to secure the nomination. In doing so, she became the first woman to ever be the presumptive nominee of any major political party in the United States. On June 7, Clinton officially secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning in the California and New Jersey primaries. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren formally endorsed Clinton on June 9. Sanders confirmed on June 24 that he would vote for Clinton over Donald Trump in the general election and formally endorsed Clinton on July 12 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


text: On July 22, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives seemed to deride Bernie Sanders' campaign and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination, leading to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other implicated officials. The leak was allegedly part of an operation by the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton. Although the ensuing controversy initially focused on emails that dated from relatively late in the primary, when Clinton was already close to securing the nomination, the emails cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality and, according to Sanders operatives and multiple media commentators, showed that the DNC had favored Clinton since early on. This was evidenced by alleged bias in the scheduling and conduct of the debates, as well as controversial DNC–Clinton agreements regarding financial arrangements and control over policy and hiring decisions. Other media commentators have disputed the significance of the emails, arguing that the DNC's internal preference for Clinton was not historically unusual and did not affect the primary enough to sway the outcome. The controversies ultimately led to the formation of a DNC "unity" commission to recommend reforms in the party's primary process.


text: On July 26, 2016, the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Clinton for president and a day later, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for vice president. On November 8, 2016, Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Clinton in the general election, though Clinton won the popular vote.


text: The following candidates were frequently interviewed by news channels and were invited to forums and candidate debates.


text: Other candidates participated in one or more state primaries without receiving major coverage or substantial vote counts.


text: In the weeks following the re-election of President Obama in the 2012 election, media speculation regarding potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election began to circulate. The speculation centered on the prospects of Clinton, then-Secretary of State, making a second presidential bid in the 2016 election. Clinton had previously served as a U.S. Senator for New York (2001–09) and was the First Lady of the U.S. (1993–2001). A January 2013 "Washington Post"–ABC News poll indicated that she had high popularity among the American public. This polling information prompted numerous political pundits and observers to anticipate that Clinton would mount a second presidential bid in 2016, entering the race as the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination. From the party's liberal left wing came calls for a more progressive candidate to challenge what was perceived by many within this segment as the party's establishment. Elizabeth Warren quickly became a highly touted figure within this movement as well as the object of a draft movement to run in the primaries, despite her repeated denials of interest in doing so. The MoveOn.org campaign 'Run Warren Run' announced that it would disband on June 8, 2015, opting to focus its efforts toward progressive issues. The draft campaign's New Hampshire staffer, Kurt Ehrenberg, had joined Sanders' team and most of the remaining staffers were expected to follow suit. Given the historical tendency for sitting vice presidents to seek the presidency in election cycles in which the incumbent president is not a candidate, there was also considerable speculation regarding a potential presidential run by incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in the election cycles of 1988 and 2008. This speculation was further fueled by Biden's own expressions of interest in a possible run in 2016. However, on October 21, 2015, speaking from a podium in the Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama by his side, Biden announced his decision not to enter the race, as he was still dealing with the loss of his son, Beau, who died weeks earlier at the age of 47. Biden would become the nominee for the Democratic Party four years later in the 2020 presidential election where he would go on to become the 46th President of the United States after defeating incumbent president Donald Trump in the general election.


text: On May 26, 2015, Sanders officially announced his run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, after an informal announcement on April 30 and speculation since early 2014. Sanders had previously served as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont (1981–89), Vermont's sole U.S. Representative (1991–2007) and Vermont's junior Senator (2007–present). He emerged as the biggest rival to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, backed by a strong grassroots campaign and a social media following. In November 2014, Jim Webb, a former U.S. Senator who had once served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, announced the formation of an exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run for the Democratic presidential nomination. This made Webb the first major potential candidate to take a formal action toward seeking the party's 2016 nomination. Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Maryland as well as a former Mayor of Baltimore, made formal steps toward a campaign for the party's nomination in January 2015 with the hiring and retaining of personnel who had served the previous year as political operatives in Iowa – the first presidential nominating state in the primary elections cycle – as staff for his political action committee (PAC). O'Malley had started the "O’ Say Can You See" PAC in 2012 which had, prior to 2015, functioned primarily as fundraising vehicles for various Democratic candidates, as well as for two 2014 ballot measures in Maryland. With the 2015 staffing moves, the PAC ostensibly became a vehicle for O'Malley – who had for several months openly contemplated a presidential bid – to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign for the party's presidential nomination. In August 2015, Lawrence Lessig unexpectedly announced his intention to enter the race, promising to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by Labor Day. After accomplishing this, Lessig formally announced his campaign. He described his candidacy as a referendum on electoral reform legislation, prioritizing a single issue: the Citizen Equality Act of 2017, a proposal that couples campaign finance reform with other laws aimed at curbing gerrymandering and ensuring voting access.


text: Despite being heavily favored in polls issued weeks earlier, Clinton was only able to defeat Sanders in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus by the closest margin in the history of the contest: 49.8% to 49.6% (Clinton collected 700.47 state delegate equivalents to Sanders' 696.92, a difference of one-quarter of a percentage point). This led to speculation that she won due to six coin-toss tiebreakers all resulting in her favor. However, the only challenge to the caucus' results was in a single precinct, which gave Clinton a fifth delegate.


text: The victory, which was projected to award her 23 pledged national convention delegates (two more than Sanders), made Clinton the first woman to win the Caucus and marked a clear difference from 2008, where she finished in third place behind Obama and John Edwards. Martin O'Malley suspended his campaign after a disappointing third-place finish with only 0.5% of the state delegate equivalents awarded, leaving Clinton and Sanders the only two major candidates in the race. A week later, Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, receiving 60.4% of the popular vote to Clinton's 38%, putting him ahead of Clinton in the overall pledged delegate count by four, and making him the first Jewish candidate of a major party to win a primary. Hillary Clinton's loss in New Hampshire was a regression from 2008, when she defeated Obama, Edwards, and a handful of other candidates including Joe Biden with 39% of the popular vote.


text: Sanders' narrow loss in Iowa and victory in New Hampshire generated speculation about a possible loss for Clinton in Nevada, the next state to hold its caucuses on February 20. For her part, Clinton, who had won the state eight years prior in the 2008 Nevada Democratic caucuses, hoped that a victory would allay concerns about a possible repetition of 2008 when she ultimately lost to Obama despite entering the primary season as the favorite for the nomination. Ultimately, Clinton emerged victorious with 52.6% of the county delegates, a margin of victory similar to her performance in 2008. Sanders, who attained 47.3% of the vote, was projected to receive five fewer pledged delegates than Clinton and the result was not promising for the following weekend's primary in South Carolina, more demographically favorable to Clinton than the prior contests. On February 27, Clinton won the South Carolina primary with 73.5% of the vote, receiving a larger percentage of the African American vote than Barack Obama had eight years earlier – 90% to Obama's 80%.


text: The 2016 primary schedule was significantly different from that of 2008. During that election cycle, many states moved their primaries or caucuses to earlier in the calendar to have greater influence over the race. In 2008, February 5 was the earliest date allowed by the Democratic National Committee, leading 23 states and territories to move their elections to that date, the biggest Super Tuesday to ever take place. For 2016, the calendar was more disparate than it was in 2008, with several groups of states voting on different dates, the most important being March 1, March 15, April 26 and June 7. The day with the most contests was March 1, 2016, in which primaries or caucuses were held in 11 states (including six in the Southern United States) and American Samoa. A total of 865 pledged delegates were at stake.


text: Clinton secured victories in all of the southern contests except Oklahoma. Her biggest victory of the day came in Alabama, where she won 77.8% of the vote against Sanders' 19.2%, although her most significant delegate prize came from Texas, where she received 65.2% of the vote with strong support from non-white as well as white voters. Collectively, the southern states gave Clinton a net gain of 165 pledged delegates. Apart from the South, Clinton also narrowly defeated Sanders in Massachusetts, as well as winning in the territory of American Samoa. Sanders scored comfortable wins in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and Oklahoma primary and won an 86.1%–13.6% landslide in his home state of Vermont - one of only two times either of the two main candidates missed the 15% threshold in a state or territory, with the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Clinton received over 87% of the vote, being the other one. Although the results overall were unfavorable for Sanders, his four wins and narrow loss allowed him to remain in the race in anticipation of more favorable territory in New England, the Great Plains, Mountain States and the Pacific Northwest. At the end of the day, Clinton collected 518 pledged delegates to Sanders' 347, taking her lead to 609–412, a difference of 197 pledged delegates.


text: Sanders found more hospitable ground on the weekend of March 5, 2016, winning caucuses in Kansas, Maine and Nebraska by significant margins. Clinton answered with an even larger win in Louisiana's primary, limiting Sanders' net gain for the weekend to only four delegates. Clinton would also win the Northern Mariana Islands caucus, held the following weekend on March 12. Two states had held nominating contests on March 8 – Michigan and Mississippi – with Clinton heavily favored to win both. Mississippi went for Clinton, as expected, by a landslide margin. The Mississippi primary was the highest vote share Clinton won in any state. However, Sanders stunned by scoring a narrow win in Michigan. Analysts floated a number of theories to explain the failure of the Michigan polling, with most centering on pollsters' erroneous assumptions about the composition of the electorate stemming from the 2008 primary in Michigan not having been contested due to an impasse between the state party and DNC. Although Clinton expanded her delegate lead, some journalists suggested Sanders' upset might presage her defeat in other delegate-rich Midwestern states, such as Missouri, Ohio and Illinois, who voted a week later on March 15, along with North Carolina and Florida, where Clinton was more clearly favored. Clinton was able to sweep all five primaries, extending her pledged delegate lead by around 100 delegates, although Sanders was able to hold Clinton to narrow margins in her birth-state of Illinois and especially Missouri, where Clinton won by a mere 0.2 points. Missouri state law allowed for a possible recount had any of the candidates requested it; however, Sanders forwent the opportunity on the basis that it would not significantly affect the delegate allocation. By the end of the evening, Clinton had expanded her pledged delegate lead to more than 320, several times larger than her greatest deficit in the 2008 primary.


text: Following the March 15 primaries, the race moved to a series of contests more favorable for Sanders. On March 21, the results of the Democrats Abroad primary (held March 1–8) were announced. Sanders was victorious and picked up nine delegates to Clinton's four, closing his delegate deficit by five. Arizona, Idaho and Utah held primaries on March 22, dubbed "Western Tuesday" by media. Despite continued efforts by Sanders to close the gap in Arizona after his surprise win in Michigan, Clinton won the primary with 56.3% of the vote. However, Clinton lost both Idaho and Utah by roughly 60 points, allowing Sanders to close his delegate deficit by 25.


text: The next states to vote were Alaska, Hawaii and Washington on March 26, 2016. All three states were considered as favorable for Sanders, and most political analysts expected him to win them all, given the demographics and Sanders' strong performance in previous caucuses. Sanders finished the day with a net gain of roughly 66 delegates over Clinton. His largest win was in Alaska, where he defeated Clinton with 82% of the vote, although the majority of his delegate gain came from the considerably more populous state of Washington, which he won by a 46% margin, outperforming then-Senator Obama's 2008 results, when he defeated Clinton 68%–31%.


text: The Clinton and Sanders campaigns reached an agreement on April 4 for a ninth debate to take place on April 14 (five days before the New York primary) in Brooklyn, New York, which would air on CNN and NY1. On April 5, Sanders won the Wisconsin primary by 13 and 1/2 percentage points, closing his delegate deficit by 10 more. The Wyoming caucuses were held on April 9, which Sanders won with 55.7% of the state convention delegates choosing him; however, Clinton had a stronger showing than expected, given her demographic disadvantage and that she did not campaign personally in the state. Each candidate was estimated to have earned 7 of Wyoming's 14 pledged delegates.


text: On April 19, Clinton won New York by 16 points. While Sanders performed well in Upstate New York and with younger voters, Clinton performed well among all other age groups and non-whites, and she won a majority in all boroughs of New York City.


text: Five Northeastern states held primaries a week later on April 26. The day was dubbed the "Super Tuesday III" or the "Acela Primary" after Amtrak's "Acela Express" train service that connects these states. Clinton won in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut while Sanders won the Rhode Island primary.


text: On May 3, Sanders pulled off a surprise victory in the Indiana primary, winning over Clinton by a five-point margin despite trailing in all the state's polls. Clinton then won the Guam caucus on May 7 and, on May 10, she won the non-binding Nebraska primary while Sanders won in West Virginia.


text: Clinton narrowly won Kentucky on May 17 by half a percentage point and gained one delegate, after heavily campaigning in the state. On the same day, Sanders won his second closed primary in Oregon where he gained nine delegates, a net gain of eight on the day. Clinton then went on to win the non-binding Washington primary on May 24.


text: June contained the final contests of the Democratic primaries, and both Sanders and Clinton invested heavily into winning the California primary. Clinton led the polls in California but some predicted a narrow race. On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two decisive victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, both the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had sufficient support from pledged and unpledged delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Clinton's campaign seemed reluctant to accept the mantle of "presumptive nominee" before all the voting was concluded, while Sanders' campaign stated it would continue to run and accused the media of a "rush to judgement." Six states held their primaries on June 7. Clinton won in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota, the latter being the only caucus contest held on that day. Clinton finally declared victory on the evening of June 7, as the results ensured that she had won a majority of the pledged delegates and the popular vote. Sanders stated he would continue to run for the Democratic Party's nomination in the final primary in the District of Columbia on June 14, which Clinton won. Both campaigns met at a downtown Washington D.C. hotel after the primary. The Sanders campaign said that they would release a video statement on June 16 to clarify the future of Sanders' campaign; the video announced that Sanders looked forward to help Clinton defeat Trump. On July 12, 2016, Sanders endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


text: On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released online tens of thousands of messages leaked from the e-mail accounts of seven key DNC staff. Some e-mails showed two DNC staffers discussing the possibility that Sanders' possible atheism might harm him in a general election with religious voters. Others showed a few staffers had expressed personal preferences that Clinton should become the nominee, suggesting that the party's leadership had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. Then-DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the accusations lies. The furor raised over this matter escalated to Wasserman Schultz's resignation ahead of the convention, and that of Marshals, Dacey, and Communications Director Luis Miranda afterwards. Following Wasserman Schultz's resignation, then-DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile took over as interim DNC chairwoman for the convention and remained so until February 2017. In November 2017, Brazile said in her book and related interviews that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had colluded 'unethically' by giving the Clinton campaign control over the DNC's personnel and press releases before the primary in return for funding to eliminate the DNC's remaining debt from 2012 campaign, in addition to using the DNC and state committees to funnel campaign-limitation-exceeding donations to her campaign. Internal memos later surfaced, claiming that these measures were not meant to affect the nominating process despite their timing. At the end of June 2016, it was claimed that "more money [from the Hillary Victory Fund] will be moved to the state parties in the coming months." Brazile later clarified that she claimed the process was 'unethical', but 'not a criminal act'.


text: DNC officials including chairman Tom Perez pointed out that the same joint-fundraising agreement had been offered to Sanders and applied only to the general election; however, the Clinton campaign also had a second agreement that granted it additional, unusual oversight over hiring and policy, even though the text of the agreement insisted on the DNC's impartiality and focus on the general election. Brazile later denied that the primary was rigged, because "no votes were overturned," but described herself as "very upset" about a DNC–Clinton fundraising agreement. "The Washington Post" characterized Brazile's eventual argument as: "Clinton exerted too much power but did win the nomination fairly."


text: After the general election, the U.S. intelligence community and the Special Counsel investigation assessed that the leaks were part of a larger interference campaign by the Russian government to cause political instability in the United States and to damage the Hillary Clinton campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein. The Russian government is alleged to have promoted Sanders beginning in 2015 as a way to weaken or defeat Clinton, who Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed. The influence campaign by the Internet Research Agency targeted Sanders voters through social media and encouraged them to vote for a third party candidate or abstain from voting. Sanders denounced these efforts and urged his supporters to support Clinton in the general election.


text: When news of the DNC leak first surfaced in June 2016, the Russian government denied allegations of hacking. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also stated that the Russian government was not source of the leak. In July 2018, the special counsel indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking and leaking the emails.


text: The 2016 Democratic National Convention was held from July 25–28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, with some events at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The delegates selected the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees and wrote the party platform. A simple majority of 2,383 delegates was needed to win the presidential nomination. While most of the delegates were bound on the first ballot according to the results of the primaries, a progressively larger number of pledged delegates would have become unbound if the nomination required more than one ballot. Clinton was nominated on the first ballot by acclamation, although all states were allowed to announce how they would have voted under a typical roll call vote. On July 12, 2016, the Vermont delegates had supported Clinton in Sanders' request; asking for party unity, he dropped out on July 26, 2016, and announced he would return to the Senate as an independent.


text: This is an overview of the money used in the campaign as it is reported to Federal Election Commission (FEC) and released on April 27, 2016. Outside groups are independent expenditure only committees—also called PACs and SuperPACs. Several such groups normally support each candidate, but the numbers in the table are a total of all of them. This means that a group of committees can be shown as technically insolvent (shown in red) even though it is not the case of all of them. The Campaign Committee's debt is shown in red if the campaign is technically insolvent. The source of all the numbers is OpenSecrets. Some spending totals are not available, due to withdrawals before the FEC deadline.


text: The Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses are indirect elections in which voters elect delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention; these delegates in turn directly elect the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. In some states, the party may disregard voters' selection of delegates or selected delegates may vote for any candidate at the state or national convention ("non-binding" primary or caucus). In other states, state laws and party rules require the party to select delegates according to votes, and delegates must vote for a particular candidate ("binding" primary or caucus). There are 4,051 pledged delegates and 714 superdelegates in the 2016 cycle. Under the party's delegate selection rules, the number of pledged delegates allocated to each of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. is determined using a formula based on three main factors:


text: A candidate must win 2,383 delegates at the national convention, in order to win the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. For the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and for Democrats Abroad, fixed numbers of pledged delegates are allocated. All states and territories then must have used a proportional representation system, where their pledged delegates were awarded proportionally to the election results. A candidate must receive at least 15% of the popular vote to win pledged delegates in a state. The current 714 unpledged superdelegates (or "soft" delegates) included members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, state and territorial governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, and other party leaders. Because of possible deaths, resignations, or the results of intervening or special elections, the final number of these superdelegates may be reduced before the convention. The Democratic National Committee also imposed rules for states that wished to hold early contests in 2016. No state was permitted to hold a primary or caucus in January and only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada were entitled to February contests. Any state that violated these rules were penalized half its pledged delegates and all its superdelegates to the 2016 convention.


text: The following are the results of candidates that won at least one state. These candidates were on the ballots for every state, territory and federal district contest. The results of caucuses did not always have attached preference polls and attendance was extremely limited. The unpledged delegate count did not always reflect the latest declared preferences.


text: Superdelegates are elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee who vote at the Democratic National Convention for their preferred candidate. Also known as "unpledged delegates," they comprise 15% of the convention (712 votes out of 4,763) and they may change their preference at any time. The table below reflects current public endorsements of candidates by superdelegates, as detailed and sourced in the full list above. Because commonly referenced estimates of superdelegate support, including those by CNN and the AP, do not identify individual delegates as supporting a given candidate, their published tallies may differ from the totals computed here.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Strange Magic is a 2015 American computer-animated jukebox musical fantasy film directed by Gary Rydstrom and produced by Lucasfilm, with feature animation by Lucasfilm Animation and Industrial Light & Magic. The film's screenplay, by Rydstrom, David Berenbaum, and Irene Mecchi, is based on a story by George Lucas inspired by William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The film stars Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Sam Palladio, and Alfred Molina. The score was composed by Marius de Vries and includes contemporary songs, such as "Love Is Strange" and "Strange Magic".


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Lucas had been working on developing the project for 15 years before production began. This was his first writing credit since the 1994 film "Radioland Murders" not to be associated with the "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" franchises.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: The film was released in the United States on January 23, 2015 by Touchstone Pictures, making it the first Lucasfilm production to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, following their parent company's acquisition of the studio on December 21, 2012. The film was panned by critics, who criticised its script, humor and songs but praised its animation, and was a box-office bomb, grossing $13.6 million worldwide and losing around $40–50 million. This is, to date, the only Lucasfilm Animation production not to be part of the "Star Wars" franchise.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: When fairy princess Marianne sees her fiancé, Roland, kissing another fairy on their wedding day, she vows never to fall in love again. In the Dark Forest, the Bog King has the same view on love, despite his caring mother Griselda's protests.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Marianne's sister, Dawn, and her elf friend, Sunny, are nearly devoured by a giant lizard before Marianne rescues them. After falling through the border and into the Dark Forest, Sunny finds a primrose petal and hides it. At the Spring Ball, Roland tries to win back Marianne, who angrily drives him away. Roland consults his warriors, who jokingly tell him to procure the love potion to woo Marianne. Roland then encounters Sunny, who has an unrequited love for Dawn. He convinces Sunny to venture into the Dark Forest to get the love potion, which they would both use on their respective fairies. Sunny goes back and finds the hidden primrose petal and, with the guidance of an Imp, travels to the Bog King's lair, where the Sugar Plum Fairy was being held prisoner by the Bog King. Sunny finds the Sugar Plum Fairy, who agrees to make the love potion if Sunny promises to set her free.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Plum's escape rouses Bog King, who recaptures her while Sunny and the Imp escape. Sunny returns to the ball and tries to hit Dawn with the love potion. Bog interrupts the celebrations and captures Dawn just as she is sprayed by the love potion and the imp steals it in order to spread it throughout the forest. Bog orders them to deliver the potion to him by moon-down or he will harm Dawn. Defying her father's order, Marianne flies off after her sister while he grants Roland a small army to head off on foot to Bog's castle.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Dawn falls in love with Bog due to the potion, and Bog has her imprisoned for his own sanity. Marianne arrives and fights with Bog to return her sister. When she realizes the severity of the situation, the two of them begin to find common interests. When they consult Sugar Plum for an antidote, she explains that true love will negate the effects of the potion. A mutual attraction begins to develop between Marianne and Bog, but only Griselda sees it.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Sunny recovers the potion from the imp and gives it to Roland as they march on to the castle. Bog sees this and suspects that Marianne had set him up, breaking his heart again as he leaves her stranded in a spider web. She escapes and joins in the battle taking place at the castle. Sunny frees Sugar Plum, Dawn, and the love-stricken forest creatures that the imp had hit with the love potion.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: In the escape, Bog holds the mouth of his den open long enough for everyone to escape. He survives, to Marianne's relief, and Sunny reveals his true feelings to Dawn, and they kiss. Bog and Marianne finally admit their feelings for each other and kiss.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: George Lucas had long wanted to make a film for his three daughters, with the original idea for the movie being generated 15 years prior. He described the film as "Star Wars" for a female audience stating ""Star Wars" was for 12-year-old boys; I figured I'd make one for 12-year-old girls." On the film's plot, director Gary Rydstrom stated, "We pitched it as a "Beauty and the Beast" story where the Beast doesn't change." According to Rydstrom, Lucas "really wanted to make a beautiful fairy tale with goblins and elves, and do it in a way that only this company can do. He had been working on it for a long time." Rydstrom mentioned that Lucas emphasized that the story should be about "finding beauty in strange places". Rydstrom also stated "It was important for him to tell this story where you saw the beauty in something you didn't expect to see—that it looked ugly on the outside but you saw the beauty underneath." The film was in the works for 15 years including, at one point development alongside the "Star Wars" prequels. Before The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in late 2012, production on "Strange Magic" was already well underway. Rydstrom and his crew screened the film for Disney executives. Rydstrom stated, "We're not Pixar or Disney Animation, so in some ways George was our John [Lasseter] on this one ... I like the fact—not that I don't like advice from all over—but this is our own thing, this is a Lucasfilm project ... I remember when "Labyrinth" came out and how exciting that was. There was a magic to that, this has the same vibe to me."


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: One of the biggest inspirations for the film's soundtrack was another Lucasfilm production, "American Graffiti" (1973). For "Strange Magic", Lucas revealed: "I had a lot of Beatles songs in there originally, but we couldn't afford them." Many of the songs that did make it into the film were tweaked to help tell the story such as "Bad Romance", which became a march for an invading army, and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", which was made into a warrior anthem for Marianne. According to Lucas, the main message of the film is that "A real relationship rests in a much deeper place, where you love somebody and you've thought through it carefully as you've been carrying on conversations and doing things. You fall in love with their mind and everything else more than just the way they look." At one point during production the crew experimented with the idea of having the entirety of the dialogue sung.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: The hair design of sisters Marianne and Dawn went through several revisions. According to Meredith Anne Bull, the voice of Dawn, "[The sisters'] hair has changed a lot since the beginning, we used to have long, brown hair. It was red for a while and now it has ended up short and blonde! ... There's a lot of work that goes into creating the hair of an animated character. There are actually groups of people where that's their only job, to do the animation of hair! That was really cool, learning that." On the subject of voice recording, Bull stated, "There's just a lot of really cool stuff [that our director] would show us—tricks and stuff to do when we were recording: Special effects with our mouths, or by chewing stuff. One time I watched Peter Stormare chew an entire pack of gum while he was trying to record!" Bull also noted that while recording she did not have many visuals to reference, "For the first year of production, I really had no idea, sometimes they would have drawings, but other than that I just had to use my imagination of what was going on!"


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: The film's soundtrack includes cast performances of new versions of pop and classic rock songs which were chosen for the film by George Lucas. The soundtrack was released by Buena Vista Records on January 20, 2015, followed by a physical release on February 17, 2015.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Additionally, there are songs used in the film, but not in the album. An instrumental of "People Are Strange" can be heard during the mushrooms' first spread messages through the bog forest, and the chorus from "Bad Romance" is used as a march for an invading army.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: "Strange Magic" was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through its Touchstone Pictures banner on January 23, 2015. A trailer for the film was released on November 21, 2014.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: In its opening weekend, "Strange Magic" opened at #7 and grossed $5.5 million. It had the lowest ticket sales of any animated film released in over 3,000 theatres. The previous animated films with lowest opening weekend gross were "The Wild Thornberrys Movie" (2002) and "Quest for Camelot" (1998). The film closed on April 16, 2015 and had earned $12,429,583 in the domestic box office, with $1,173,870 overseas for a worldwide total of $13,603,453.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of , . The website's critical consensus states, "Like most modern animated movies, "Strange Magic" is lovely to look at; unfortunately, there isn't much going on beneath the surface." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 25 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Alonso Duralde of "The Wrap" gave a negative review, writing "That terrible character design, combined with a painful lack of laughs and a crushing plethora of ghastly songs, makes "Strange Magic" perhaps the worst animated feature ever to come out of Disney." Conversely, Drew Taylor of Indiewire gave the film a B−, stating in his review ""Strange Magic" does manage to enchant you (mostly) with its oddball charm." Justin Chang of "Variety" gave the film a negative review, saying "This noisy, unappealing children's fantasy fails to distinguish itself among January's many, many reasons to steer clear of the multiplex." Alan Scherstuhl of "The Village Voice" described "Strange Magic" as "the best Lucas film in 25 years: funny, idiosyncratic, hippy-dippy, packed with creatures and visions worth beholding." Michael Rechtshaffen of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "A shrill, garish hodgepodge of familiar elements from other animated vehicles (most evidently 2013's "Epic"), there's virtually nothing about this forced, fractured fairy tale that feels remotely fresh or involving." Michael Ordoña of the "San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film one out of four stars, saying "The plot movement feels very much like an unpleasant formality, shoved forward by tiresome devices." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film two out of four stars, saying ""Strange Magic" is strange all right, but hardly magical." Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a B, saying "The movie maintains its own level of oddball invention that at least feels pleasantly removed from the grind of big-studio cartoon manufacturing." Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" gave the film one out of four stars, saying "A noxious cauldron of ingredients that shouldn't have been mixed: fairies, Shakespeare and classic rock."


title: Strange Magic (film)

text: Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" gave the film one out of four stars, saying "If Lucasfilm had bought Disney instead of the other way around, the smash hit "Frozen" might have turned out like "Strange Magic", a jaw-droppingly terrible animated musical that mismatches George Lucas' inane story about a pair of fairy princesses to an oddball selection of the "Star Wars" creator's favorite pop tunes." Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a negative review, saying ""Strange Magic", the new animated musical fairy tale from the mind and the mixtape of George Lucas, is indeed strange. What's missing is the magic." Ben Kenigsberg of "The New York Times" gave the film a negative review, saying "Said to be inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the film plays more like "Avatar" scored to a karaoke competition." Bilge Ebiri of "New York" magazine gave the film a negative review, saying "The problem with "Strange Magic" isn't so much its derivative story as it is the odd, half-complete way it unfolds. You can sense the weird mixture of tones, influences, ideas—as if the whole thing were still in its planning stages." Glenn Kenny of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying ""Strange Magic" is essentially a jukebox musical so song-laden as to practically be an operetta, and the songs are so eclectic that they never quite fit into the movie's flying-insect world, which is divided into dark and light forests." Keith Phipps of "The Dissolve" gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying ""Strange Magic" certainly isn't an ordinary sort of mess, and the personal nature of the project is still evident in the finished film."


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: A Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha (abbreviated: MP) is the representative of a legislative constituency in the Lok Sabha; the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of parliament of Lok Sabha are chosen by direct elections on the basis of the adult suffrage. The maximum permitted strength of members of parliament in the Lok Sabha is 550. This includes the maximum 530 members to represent the constituencies and states and up to 20 members to represent the union territories (both chosen by direct elections). Between 1952 and 2020, two seats were reserved for members of the Anglo-Indian community. The current elected strength of the Lok Sabha is 543. The party—or coalition of parties—having a majority in the Lok Sabha chooses the Prime Minister of India.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: The first instance of member of parliament equivalent in India dates back to 9 December 1946, the day Constituent Assembly of India was formed with the purpose of drafting a constitution for India. As opposed to be elected on the basis of adult suffrage, the Constituent Assembly of India consisted of indirectly elected representatives and were not categorised between Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Muslims and Sikhs were given special representation as minorities. The Constituent Assembly of India took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to draft the constitution for independent India and was dissolved in 1949.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: On 26 January 1950, the Indian constitution came into force and the first general elections (under the new constitution) were held in 1951–1952. The 1st Lok Sabha was constituted on 17 April 1952 and had 489 constituencies, thereby first set of elected members of parliament of Lok Sabha in India.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: A person must satisfy all following conditions to be qualified to become a member of parliament of the Lok Sabha;


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: The term of a member of parliament of Lok Sabha (dissolved) is five years from the date appointment for its first meeting. During a state of emergency, the term however can be extended by the Parliament of India by law for a period not exceeding one year at a time. After the state of emergency ends, the extension cannot exceed beyond a period of six months.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: India paid to its 543 Lok Sabha members in salaries and expenses over 2015, or just over per month per member of parliament in including pensions to dependents of ex MPs . The Salary, allowances and pension of Member of the Lok Sabha is governed by the Members of Parliament Act, 1954. The act is in pursuance to the constitutional provisions where article 106 of the Constitution of India provides that the members of either House of Parliament shall be entitled to receive such salaries and allowances as may from time to time be determined by Parliament by law.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: The rules governing salaries, allowances and facilities such as medical, housing, telephone facilities, daily allowance etc... is looked after by a joint committee of both the houses (Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha). The committee is constituted from time to time after consultation with the Government of India.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: Article 81 of the Constitution of India 1949 has specified maximum strength of members of parliament in the Lok Sabha to be 552. The number of members of parliament is distributed among the States in such a way that the ratio between the number of seats allotted to each State and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States. Out of the maximum permitted strength,


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: Members of the lower house of the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) were elected in the Indian general election, 2019 held in April–May 2019. The total strength of the 17th Lok Sabha is 544, against the then-approved strength of 552.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: The following is a list of the number of constituencies in the Lok Sabha in each election year, beginning in 1951. The numbers do not include two seats from the Anglo-Indian community, to which individuals were nominated by the President of India.


title: Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

text: In January 2020, the Anglo-Indian reserved seats in the Parliament and State Legislatures of India was discontinued by the 126th Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2019, when enacted as . As a result the maximum permitted strength of the Lok Sabha was reduced from 552 to 550.


title: Katie Morgan

text: Katie Morgan is an American pornographic actress, film actress, former radio talk-show host, podcast host and feature dancer.


title: Katie Morgan

text: Morgan initially entered the porn industry as a means to pay off her bail and plea bargain after being arrested in 2000 for transporting over of marijuana from Mexico into the United States. Her first sex scene was in Ed Powers' "Dirty Debutantes 197" in 2001. In the HBO documentary film "Katie Morgan: A Porn Star Revealed" (2005), she describes having chosen the surname "Morgan" in reference to the alcoholic beverage Captain Morgan's Rum, and the first name "Katie" in reference to the real first name of the Scarlett O'Hara character in "Gone with the Wind".


title: Katie Morgan

text: She unofficially retired from adult films in 2008, and it was made official when she married a year later. In September 2015, she ended seven years of retirement by announcing her signing with Nexxxt Level Talent and began shooting productions in Los Angeles and Miami.


title: Katie Morgan

text: She has been featured on HBO's "A Real Sex Xtra: Pornucopia – Going Down in the Valley", "Katie Morgan on Sex Toys", "Katie Morgan: Porn 101", and "Katie Morgan's Sex Tips: Questions, Anyone?", some of which, she would host completely naked except for a pair of high heels.


title: Katie Morgan

text: Morgan has been interviewed on several FM band and Sirius Satellite Radio shows, including "King Dude, The Mike Church Show" and on the "Opie & Anthony Show" on XM Satellite Radio. For several years, she co-hosted "The Wanker Show" on adult internet radio station KSEXradio.com.


title: Katie Morgan

text: In 2008, Morgan made a guest appearance on HBO's "Entourage" playing herself, and her first mainstream feature film appearance in Kevin Smith's comedy, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". From 2011 to 2013, she hosted "Having Sex, With Katie Morgan" on S.I.R! at Smodcast.com, and was a panelist on "That Sex Show" on the Logo cable television network in 2013. In 2016, she appeared in "Vixens from Venus".


title: Katie Morgan

text: Morgan was raised in Los Angeles, California in an extremely religious family. She married Jim Jackman, whom she met on the set of "Zack and Miri Make a Porno".


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald of Châtillon (; 11254 July 1187), also known as Reynald or Reginald, was a Crusader knight of French origin but also Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He was born the second son of a French noble family. After losing a part of his patrimony, he joined the Second Crusade in 1147. He settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and served in the royal army as a mercenary.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald married Constance, the reigning Princess of Antioch, in 1153, in spite of her subjects' opposition. He was always in need of funds. He captured and tortured Aimery of Limoges, Latin Patriarch of Antioch, because Aimery had refused to pay a subsidy to him. Raynald launched a plundering raid in Cyprus in 1156, causing great destruction. Four years later, the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, came to Antioch at the head of a large army, forcing Raynald to beg for his mercy. Raynald made a raid in the valley of the river Euphrates at Marash to seize booty from the local peasants in 1160 or 1161, but he was captured by the governor of Aleppo.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald was held in prison until 1176. After his release for a large ransom, he did not return to Antioch, because his wife had meanwhile died. He married Stephanie of Milly, the wealthy heiress of Oultrejordain. Since Baldwin IV of Jerusalem also granted Hebron to him, Raynald was one of the wealthiest barons of the realm. He controlled the caravan routes between Egypt and Syria. Baldwin, who suffered from leprosy, made him regent in 1177. Raynald led the crusader army that defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard. He was the only Christian leader to pursue an offensive policy against Saladin, making plundering raids against the caravans travelling near his domains. He built a fleet of five ships which plundered the coast of the Red Sea, threatening the route of the Muslim pilgrims towards Mecca in early 1183. Saladin pledged that he would never forgive Raynald.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald was a firm supporter of Baldwin IV's sister, Sybilla, and her husband, Guy of Lusignan, during conflicts regarding the succession of the king. Sibylla and Guy were able to seize the throne in 1186 due to Raynald's co-operation with her uncle, Joscelin III of Courtenay. Raynald attacked a caravan travelling from Egypt to Syria in late 1186 or early 1187, claiming that the truce between Saladin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not bind him. After Raynald refused to pay a compensation, Saladin invaded the kingdom and annihilated the crusader army in the Battle of Hattin. Raynald was captured in the battlefield. Saladin personally beheaded him after he refused to convert to Islam. Most historians have regarded Raynald as an irresponsible adventurer whose lust for booty caused the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On the other hand, Bernard Hamilton says that he was the only crusader leader who tried to prevent Saladin from unifying the nearby Muslim states.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald was the younger son of Hervé II, Lord of Donzy. In older historiography, Raynald was described as the son of Geoffrey, Count of Gien, but in 1989 Jean Richard demonstrated Raynald's kinship with the lords of Donzy. They were influential noblemen in the Duchy of Burgundy, claiming the Palladii (a family of Roman senators) as their ancestors.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald was born around 1123. He received Châtillon-sur-Loire, but a part of his patrimony was "violently and unjustly confiscated", according to one of his letters. He came to the Kingdom of Jerusalem before 1153 when he was mentioned as a mercenary fighting in the army of Baldwin III of Jerusalem. According to modern historians, he had joined the crusade of Louis VII of France. Louis departed from France in June 1147. The 12th-century historian William of Tyre, who was Raynald's opponent, claimed that Raynald was "almost a common soldier". LouisVII left the Holy Land for France in the summer of 1149, but Raynald stayed behind in Palestine.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raymond, Prince of Antioch, and thousands of his soldiers fell in the Battle of Inab on 28June 1148, leaving the principality almost undefended. BaldwinIII of Jerusalem (who was the cousin of Raymond's widow, Constance, the ruling Princess of Antioch) came to Antioch at the head of his army at least three times during the following years. To secure the defence of the principality, Baldwin tried to persuade her to remarry, but she did not accept his candidates. She also refused John Roger, whom the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, proposed for her husband.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald accompanied Baldwin to Antioch in 1151 and settled in the principality, according to Steven Runciman. It is certain that Raynald fought in Baldwin's army during the siege of Ascalon in early 1153. He may have already been engaged to Constance of Antioch (as Runciman suggests), or their betrothal took place during Raynald's visit to the principality before the end of the siege (as Malcolm Barber proposes). They kept their betrothal a secret until Baldwin gave his permission to their marriage.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: After Baldwin granted his consent, Constance married Raynald. He was installed prince in or shortly before May 1153. In that month, he confirmed the privileges of the Venetian merchants. William of Tyre recorded that his subjects were astonished that their "famous, powerful and well-born" princess condescended to "marry a kind of mercenary knight". The wealthy Latin Patriarch of Antioch, Aimery of Limoges, was Raynald's principal opponent. He even refused to pay a subsidy to him. In retaliation, Raynald captured and tortured Aimery, forcing him to sit naked and covered with honey in the sun, before imprisoning him. Aimery was only released on BaldwinIII's demand, but he soon left his see for Jerusalem.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Emperor Manuel sent his envoys to Antioch, proposing to recognize Raynald as the new prince if he launched a campaign against the Armenians of Cilicia, who had risen up against Byzantine rule. Manuel also promised that he would compensate Raynald for the expenses of the campaign. After Raynald defeated the Armenians at Alexandretta in 1155, the Knights Templar seized the region of the Syrian Gates that the Armenians had recently captured. Although the sources are unclear, Runciman and Barber agree that it was Raynald who granted the territory to them.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Always in need of funds, Raynald urged Manuel to send the promised subsidy to him, but Manuel failed to pay the money. Raynald made an alliance with Thoros II of Cilicia. They attacked Cyprus, subjecting the Byzantine island to a three-week orgy of violence in early 1156. They only left Cyprus on the rumour of an imperial fleet approaching the island, but only after they had forced all Cypriots to ransom themselves, with the exception of the wealthiest individuals (including Emperor Manuel's nephew, John Doukas Komnenos), whom they carried off to Antioch. Cyprus would never entirely recover from the devastation that Raynald's and Thoros's marauding raid caused.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Taking advantage of the presence of Thierry, Count of Flanders, and his army in the Holy Land and an earthquake that destroyed most towns of Northern Syria, BaldwinIII of Jerusalem invaded the Muslim territories in the valley of the Orontes River in the autumn of 1157. Raynald joined the royal army, and they laid siege to Shaizar. Shaizar was held by a band of Assassins, but it had been ruled by the Munqidhites who paid an annual tribute to Raynald. Before the capitulation of the garrison, Baldwin decided to grant the fortress to Thierry of Flanders, but Raynald demanded that the count should pay homage to him for the town. After Thierry sharply refused to swear fealty to an upstart, the crusaders abandoned the siege. They marched on Harenc (present-day Harem, Syria), which had been an Antiochene fortress before Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo, captured it in 1150. After the crusaders captured Harenc in February 1158, Raynald granted it to the Flemish Raynald of Saint-Valery.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Emperor Manuel unexpectedly invaded Cilicia, forcing ThorosII to seek refuge in the mountains in December 1158. Raynald hurried to Mamistra to voluntarily make his submission to the emperor. On Manuel's demand, he and his retainers walked barefoot and bareheaded through the streets of the town to the imperial tent where he prostrated himself, begging for mercy. William of Tyre stated that "the glory of the Latin world was put to shame" on this occasion, because envoys from the nearby Muslim and Christian rulers were also present at Raynald's humiliation. Manuel only forgave him after Raynald agreed to accept a Greek Patriarch in Antioch. Raynald also had to promise that he would allow a Byzantine garrison to stay in the citadel whenever it was required and would send a troop to fight in the Byzantine army. Before long, BaldwinIII of Jerusalem persuaded Manuel to consent to the return of the Latin patriarch, Aimery, to Antioch, instead of installing a Greek patriarch. When the emperor entered Antioch with much pomp and ceremony on 12April 1159, Raynald held the bridle of Manuel's horse. Manuel left the town eight days later.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Raynald made a plundering raid in the valley of the river Euphrates at Marash to seize cattle, horses and camels from the local peasants in November 1160 or 1161. Majd al-Din, governor of Aleppo, attacked Raynald and his retinue on the way back to Antioch. Raynald tried to fight, but the Muslim warriors unhorsed and captured him. He was sent to Aleppo where he was put in jail.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: Almost nothing is known about Raynald's life while he was kept in jail for fifteen years. He shared his prison with Joscelin III of Courtenay, who had been captured a couple of months before. In Raynald's absence, Constance wanted to rule alone, but BaldwinIII of Jerusalem made Patriarch Aimery regent for her fifteen-year-old son (Raynald's stepson), Bohemond III of Antioch. Constance died around 1163, shortly after her son reached the age of majority. Her death deprived Raynald of his claim to Antioch. However, he had become an important personality, with prominent family connections. His stepdaughter, Maria of Antioch, married ManuelI Komnenos in 1161. Raynald's own daughter, Agnes, became the wife of Béla III of Hungary.


title: Raynald of Châtillon

text: When Gümüshtekin, governor of Aleppo, one of the last independent Muslim rulers in Syria before Saladin, had conquered almost all neighboring states, he released Raynald, along with Joscelin of Courtenay and all other Christians prisoners in 1176. Raynald's ransom, fixed at 120,000 gold dinars, reflected his prestige. It was most probably paid by ManuelI Komnenos, according to Barber and Bernard Hamilton.