Throughout history, humankind has consistently divided people groups into majority (power) groups and minority (powerless) groups. Groups aren’t always divided up based on numbers or size, but rather by each group’s ability to utilize political, physical, and social power.

Minority groups are typically oppressed and persecuted either systematically (such as through slavery and segregation) or circumstantially (such as through underrepresentation in government or community) by power groups. Minorities may be targeted for their race, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity, national heritage, ability, or religion.

While the most violent form of minority suppression historically has been in the form of racism through slavery or ethnic cleansing, the most violent form of minority oppression in the world today is against religious minorities – particularly against Christian minorities at the hands of Muslim, Hindu, and Communist majorities.

Other religious minorities such as the Falun Gong in China are targeted by the Communist government with kidnappings, imprisonment, beatings, murder, and even organ harvesting. A recent report estimated that 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted each year in Chinese hospitals, mostly coming from political and religious prisoners.

The worst kind of minority persecution arises when groups are systematically targeted by a power group, such as blacks enslaved by white Europeans, the Jews being massacred in the Holocaust by Nazis, or Christians targeted by Sharia Law throughout the Muslim world.