Pew measures persecution by several factors, including government restrictions placed on a faith group.
Other factors used to measure persecution include social hostilities by individuals, organizations or groups in the society.
Nazi efforts to solve the "Jewish problem" were in fact products of a vicious anti-Semitism that propelled the Nazi regime toward increasingly extreme measures of persecution.
While desperate people sometimes take desperate measures to flee persecution, and while there is precedent in immigration jurisprudence for excusing certain types of fraud (such as using falsified travel documents), manipulation of the laws is wrong.
Appealing directly to the American public, the one audience above all whose support he must keep to succeed if war comes, Mr. Bush said that only by complying with a raft of United Nations resolutions on disarmament, terrorism, the persecution of civilians and other measures flowing from the 1991 truce in the Persian Gulf war can Iraq avoid a resumption of hostilities.
The video challenged the Myanmar government's claim that such persecution was just a safety measure.
It unfolds, he said, "with the fleeing of the holy family to escape violent persecution", and he added for good measure that the prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina in search of religious freedom.
Jews suffered systematic persecution and deportation to concentration camps, as measures were taken against potential political opposition.
If Sarkozy is allowed to get away with his deportations, other rightwing governments will understand that the persecution of the Roma is a vote-catching measure that costs them nothing.
While nobody is suggesting that the new measures are as brutal as Italy's persecution of the Jews, numerous commentators have warned that if not nipped in the bud this racist tendency could get alarmingly out of control.
"Where are the Muslim voices raised over the terrible injustice of incidents like these?" For good measure, Hirsi Ali also brings attention to Muslim persecution of Christian minorities.
