Noun
The act or practice of persecuting; especially, the infliction of loss, pain, or death for adherence to a particular creed or mode of worship.
The state or condition of being persecuted.
A carrying on; prosecution.
Source: Webster's dictionaryTolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others. John F. Kennedy
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution. George Eliot
In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution. Alexander Hamilton
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety. Edmund Burke
Christians well know that the much-decorated statue of the Church, as it now stands, is not of pure chiseled marble, but of clay, cemented together by blood and tears and hardened in the fires of hatred and persecution. Virchand Gandhi