Of course, we all know the role of religion in persecution of homosexuals in Uganda.
The recent upsurge in persecution of LGBTI people across the globe has sent the number of refugee applications rising sharply.
In fact, new bipartisan resolutions condemning the upsurge in persecution of Baha'is are ready to be passed by Congress (S.Res.75 introduced last week by Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin, and H.Res. 109 by Representatives Michael Grimm and Jan Schakowsky).
Recent reports by Amnesty International and UN watch groups have blasted Iran for the increase in persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, the cracking down on oppositional political figures, the mistreatment of political prisoners, arbitrary detention and unfair trials.
In the ensuing persecution, 183 English Catholics were put to death between 1577 and 1603; altogether, some 600 Catholics died in the persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries.
At the same time, the experience of martyrdom in the persecutions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation encouraged the development of a new saintly ideal in the radical Protestant sects.
Deeper questions include the loss of religious faith in Europe; the challenge from evangelical Protestantism in Latin America; persecution of Christians in the Middle East and clerical sex abuse.
Yet every year that I've been in Congress, persecution of anyone in China who believes in a higher authority has gotten much worse.
According to Ian Hutchison of Operation Meles, some of the increase in the persecution of badgers in particular is connected to their unpopularity with the farming community because of bovine TB in cattle.
The Day-Care Sex-Abuse hysteria of the 1980s and 90s in America resulted in the persecution of young male kindergarten teachers who were gay.
Christians in power engaged in orgies of persecution of one another, of non-believers, of witches and of Jews.
