Music and Persecution

Psalm 96:1-6, Luke 21:7-1

Neglected Duty: Providing Comprehensive Reparations to the Indonesian "1965 Victims" of State Persecution

As part of the International Centre for Transitional Justice's work in Indonesia, this monograph provides a contextual review of national and international instruments providing comprehensive reparations to victims of state persecution in Indonesia. This paper provides a background to the state persecution of alleged Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members, sympathsiers and their families, legal instruments and practices used to legitimate persecution, civil society initiatives seeking justice for the victims, actions taken by successive governments since the fall of president Soeharto and critique of the truth commission legislation. The paper also includes a set of recommendations

The detection of intentional contingencies in simple animations in patients with delusions of persecution

Background. It has been proposed that delusions of persecution are caused by the tendency to over-attribute malevolent intentions to other people's actions. One aspect of intention attribution is detecting contingencies between an agent's actions and intentions. Here, we used simplified stimuli to test the hypothesis that patients with persecutory delusions over-attribute contingency to agents' movements. Method. Short animations were presented to three groups of subjects: (1) schizophrenic patients; (2) patients with affective disorders; and (3) normal control subjects. Patients were divided on the basis of the presence or absence of delusions of persecution. Participants watched four types of film featuring two shapes. In half the films one shape's movement was contingent on the other shape. Contingency was either ‘intentional’: one shape moved when it ‘saw’ another shape; or ‘mechanical’: one shape was launched by the other shape. Subjects were asked to rate the strength of the relationship between the movement of the shapes. Results. Normal control subjects and patients without delusions of persecution rated the relationship between the movement of the shapes as stronger in both mechanical and intentional contingent conditions than in non-contingent conditions. In contrast, there was no significant difference between the ratings of patients with delusions of persecution for the conditions in which movement was animate. Patients with delusions of persecution perceived contingency when there was none in the animate non-contingent condition. Conclusions. The results suggest that delusions of persecution may be associated with the over-attribution of contingency to the actions of agents

Long Shadows of History: Persecution in Central Europe and Its Labor Market Consequences

We analyze the extent and effects of job-related persecution under communist regimes in the Czech Republic and Poland using a representative sample of individuals aged 50+ from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Retrospective information collected in the SHARELIFE interview offers a unique chance to relate past and current labor market outcomes to experiences of persecution reflecting the historical developments in Central Europe in the 20th century. Individual level data with details on labor market histories is matched with information on the experiences of state oppression. On-the-job persecution is found to have significant effect on job quality assessment and is strongly related to reporting of distinct periods of stress in both countries. Consequences of on-the-job persecution seem to have been much more severe and longer lasting in the Czech Republic, with significant financial effects of job loss or discrimination. This is explained by the greater degree of state control over the labour market in the former Czechoslovakia compared to Poland and different characteristics of the dissident groups in both countries.labor discrimination, persecution, job satisfaction, life histories, history of Central Europe

You must all be Interned : Identity Among Internees in Great Britain during World War II

Between 1933 and 1940, the United States, Great Britain and most other developed nations saw an influx of German refugees entering their borders attempting to be free of the tyranny of Hitler’s National Socialism. Many of those fleeing from Germany were intellectuals: authors, teachers, artists, or thinkers who faced persecution in their homeland. For the men, women, and children who chose the British Isles as their new home, Great Britain symbolized hope for a life free from persecution. By 1941, however, many refugees from Germany found themselves arrested and put into camps, not by the Nazis, but by their protectors, the British

[Review of] Ronald D. Dennis. The Call of Zion: The Story of the First Welsh Mormon Emigration

Like so many accounts of immigration, this has both a dark side and a light side. The latter is primarily a story of courage and determination and final success. The former is one of persecution and of propaganda, both pro- and anti-Mormon

Toward a Political Philosophy of Race

Toward a Political Philosophy of Race, by Falguni Sheth, SUNY Press, 2009. Events involving the persecution of African‑Americans and other racial groups are normally thought to involve a pre-existing minority being singled out out for persecution. In Toward a Political Philosophy of Race, Falguni Sheth argues that this understanding gets the causal story backwards. In reality, a group that is perceived to pose a political threat has a racial identity imposed upon it by the state during episodes of oppression. On Sheth's account, racial identity is the product of anxiety and panic on the part of the wider society. As she puts it, 'I distinguish between racial markers - skin type, phenotype, physical differences, and signifiers such as 'unruly' behaviors.' The former, in my argument, are not the ground of race, but the marks ascribed to a group that has already become (or is in on the way to becoming) outcasted." This review critically assesses Sheth's argument for her position and her accompanying critique of liberalism

Asylum Claims Based on Persecution on Account of Religion: Women Persecuted Under Shari\u27ah Law

Asylum has been denied to Muslim women fleeing persecution under shari\\u27ah law in some countries because they failed to link the persecution to one of the enumerated grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. These women often face extreme persecution including strict proscriptions on dress, behavior, work and educational opportunities and ability to marry and divorce. Trying to fit into the rigid refugee definition, many female asylum seekers have sought to fit their claim within the membership in a social group or political opinion category. This has been met with limited success. Muslim women fleeing persecution under Shari\\u27ah law, however, may also seek asylum based upon persecution on account of religion. This paper will explore how women suffering persecution under Shari\\u27ah law may use the religious persecution category to assert a claim for asylum. Section II will start by looking at modern U.S. refugee law and the legal obstacles that applicants must overcome in order the receive asylum. Section III will focus on religious persecution and previous claims to asylum brought by Muslim women. In section IV I will examine the development of Shari\\u27ah law and explain how a claim of religious persecution can be asserted for actions conducted under certain codified laws. Finally, in section V, I will focus on specific examples of Shari\\u27ah-based persecution in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan and discuss how a claim of asylum may be asserted in those circumstances