1.
Anti-Catholicism
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Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy and adherents. In the Early modern period, in the face of rising powers in Europe. The fifth round of talks in the Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue notes, In calling the pope the antichrist, the early Lutherans stood in a tradition that reached back into the eleventh century. Not only dissidents and heretics but even saints had called the bishop of Rome the antichrist when they wished to castigate his abuse of power.6, and 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Article 26.4. In 1754, John Wesley published his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, in his notes on Revelation chapter 13, he commented, The whole succession of Popes from Gregory VII are undoubtedly antichrist. Protestants condemned the Catholic policy of celibacy for priests. Institutional anti-Catholicism in Britain and Ireland began with the English Reformation under Henry VIII, the Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared the English crown to be the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England in place of the pope. Any act of allegiance to the latter was considered treasonous because the papacy claimed both spiritual and political power over its followers and it was under this act that saints Thomas More and John Fisher were executed and became martyrs to the Catholic faith. Queen Mary, Henrys daughter, was a devout Catholic and as queen for five years tried to reverse the Reformation and she married the Catholic king of Spain and executed Protestant leaders. Protestants reviled her as Bloody Mary, the Recusancy Acts, making it a legal obligation to worship in the Anglican faith, date from Elizabeths reign. Assassination plots in which Catholics were prime movers fueled anti-Catholicism in England and these included the famous Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy Fawkes and other conspirators plotted to blow up the English Parliament while it was in session. The fictitious Popish Plot involving Titus Oates was a hoax that many Protestants believed to be true, the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 involved the overthrow of King James II, of the Stuart dynasty, who favoured the Catholics, and his replacement by a Dutch Protestant. For decades the Stuarts were supported by France in plots to invade and conquer Britain, finally after great political turmoil the Catholics were emancipated in the early 19th century—that is, freed from most of the penalties and restrictions they faced. Since World War II anti-Catholic feeling in England has abated somewhat, since then, dialogue has continued through envoys and standing conferences. Conflict and rivalry between Catholicism and Protestantism since the 1920, and especially since the 1960s, has centred in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Anti-Catholicism in Britain was long represented by the burning of an effigy of the Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes at widespread celebrations on Guy Fawkes Night every 5 November and this celebration has, however, largely lost any anti-Catholic connotation. Only faint remains of anti-Catholicism are found today, as punishment for the rebellion of 1641, almost all lands owned by Irish Catholics were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers. Catholic / Protestant strife has been blamed for much of The Troubles, the English Protestant rulers killed many thousands of Irish people who refused to acknowledge the government and sought an alliance with Catholic France, Englands great enemy
2.
Persecution of Christians
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Persecution of Christians can be traced historically based on the biblical account of Jesus from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Early in the century, the religion was legalized by the Edict of Milan. Christian missionaries as well as converts to Christianity have been the targets of persecution ever since the emergence of Christianity, schisms of the Middle Ages and especially the Protestant Reformation, provoked severe conflicts between Christian denominations persecuting each other. During World War II members of some Christian churches were persecuted in Nazi Germany for resisting Nazi ideology, in more recent times the persecution of Christians has increased in India according to International Christian Concern. The Christian missionary organization Open Doors estimates 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, the early Christians preached the second coming of a Messiah which did not conform to their religious teachings. However, feeling that their beliefs were supported by Jewish scripture, despite individual conversions, the vast majority of Judean Jews did not become Christians. Claudia Setzer asserts that, Jews did not see Christians as clearly separate from their own community until at least the middle of the second century. Thus, acts of Jewish persecution of Christians fall within the boundaries of synagogue discipline and were so perceived by Jews acting and thinking as the established community, the Christians, on the other hand, saw themselves as persecuted rather than disciplined. Inter-communal dissension began almost immediately with the teachings of Stephen at Jerusalem, According to the Acts of the Apostles, a year after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was stoned for his alleged transgression of the faith, with Saul looking on. Peter and other early Christians were also imprisoned, beaten and harassed, luke T. Walter Laqueur argues that hostility between Christians and Jews spans generations. By the 4th century, John Chrysostom was arguing that the Pharisees alone, the first documented case of imperially supervised persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire begins with Nero. In 64 AD, a fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city. Some people suspected that Nero himself was the arsonist, as Suetonius reported, claiming that he played the lyre, Suetonius however does not specify the reasons for the punishment, he just lists the fact together with other abuses put down by Nero. Contrary to popular misconception, the Church was not in a struggle for its existence during its first centuries, persecutions of Christians were sporadic and locally inspired, and almost never state-sanctioned. In the first two centuries Christianity was a small sect which was not a significant concern of the Emperor. The sole source for this event is early Christian historian Eusebius of Caesareas Church History, Tertullians Apologeticus of 197 was ostensibly written in defense of persecuted Christians and was addressed to Roman governors. The edict of Septimius Severus touted in the Augustan History is considered unreliable by historians, According to Eusebius, the Imperial household of Maximinus predecessor, Alexander, had contained many Christians. Eusebius states that, hating his predecessors household, Maximinius ordered that the leaders of the churches should be put to death
3.
Persecution of Christians in the modern era
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Anti-Christian sentiment is the hatred, prejudice, and bigotry against Christians. In many countries around the world, Christians are subject to restrictions on speech, arson attacks on churches have been seen in Norway and the United States. Some arson attacks are considered hate crimes perpetrated for racial reasons by people inspired by racial hate groups, headliners of the black metal genre have claimed responsibility for inspiring over fifty Norwegian church burnings from 1992 to 1996 alone. Among the most notable was Fantoft Stave Church, which the police believed was destroyed by the one-man band Burzum, Varg Vikernes, the burnt-out shell of the building is featured on the cover of his 1993 EP Aske. The vandalism or defacement of Christian property is one form of the expression of anti-Christian sentiment, the destruction of property held by churches and Christian individuals can be in violation of various criminal laws, and can violate hate speech laws if it is racially or religiously motivated. Former Lebanese president Amine Gemayel stated in 2011 that Christians had become the target of genocide after dozens of Christians were killed in attacks in Egypt. According to Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, in the years leading up to 2010 the Middle Easts Christian population dwindled from 20% to less than 5%. In Egypt, the government does not recognize religious conversions from Islam to Christianity, since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypts Coptic Christians have been the target of increasing opposition and discrimination. In 2011, anti-Christian activity in Egypt included church burnings, protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor in Qena, on television Islamists referred to Christians as heretics and said they should be made to pay the jizya tax. In October 2011 a draft resolution passed by the European Parliament accused Egypt of persecuting the countrys Christian population, by mid-201210,000 Christians had fled the country. The consolidation of power in the hands of Shiite Islamists in Iraq since the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime has been to the detriment of Iraqs Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities, friction between rival sects in Iraq has frequently resulted in violence being directed against Christians in the country. Consequently, there has been a flight of Christians from some areas to Europe, between 2003 and 2012 more than 70 churches were bombed. In 2007 Al Qaeda militants killed a young priest in Mosul, during the Syrian Civil War and the spillover into Iraq, Persecution of Christians by ISIL and other militant groups has been ongoing. The Fall of Mosul and the Asyrian town of Qaraqosh in the 2014 ISIL advance in Iraq lead to an estimated 100,000 Assyrian Christian civilians being displaced. After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded Assyrian Christians in the city to convert to Islam, pay tribute, ISIL begun marking homes of Christian residents with the letter nūn for Nassarah. Thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other, mostly Shia Muslims have abandoned their homes, the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL has included the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, revered in all Abrahamic faiths. In Jerusalem, there have been instances of Christian churches being vandalized with spray-painted offensive remarks against Christianity and these are believed to be price tag attacks by extremist settlers. In Tel Aviv in 2008, three teenagers burned hundreds of Christian Bibles, a number of Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi youth have reportedly spat at Christian clergymen
4.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
5.
Diocletianic Persecution
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The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Later edicts targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods, the persecution varied in intensity across the empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors at different times, but Constantine and it was not until the 250s, under the reigns of Decius and Valerian, that such laws were passed. Under this legislation, Christians were compelled to sacrifice to Roman gods or face imprisonment, when Gallienus acceded in 260, he issued the first imperial edict regarding tolerance toward Christians, leading to nearly 40 years of peaceful coexistence. Diocletians accession in 284 did not mark an immediate reversal of disregard to Christianity, in the first 15 years of his rule, Diocletian purged the army of Christians, condemned Manicheans to death, and surrounded himself with public opponents of Christianity. Diocletians preference for autocratic government, combined with his self-image as a restorer of past Roman glory, in the winter of 302, Galerius urged Diocletian to begin a general persecution of the Christians. Diocletian was wary, and asked the oracle of Apollo for guidance, the oracles reply was read as an endorsement of Galeriuss position, and a general persecution was called on February 24,303. Persecutory policies varied in intensity across the empire, where Galerius and Diocletian were avid persecutors, Constantius was unenthusiastic. Later persecutory edicts, including the calls for sacrifice, were not applied in his domain. His son, Constantine, on taking the office in 306, restored Christians to full legal equality. In Italy in 306, the usurper Maxentius ousted Maximians successor Severus, Galerius ended the persecution in the East in 311, but it was resumed in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor by his successor, Maximinus. Constantine and Licinius, Severuss successor, signed the Edict of Milan in 313, Licinius ousted Maximinus in 313, bringing an end to persecution in the East. The persecution failed to check the rise of the church, by 324, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored religion. Although the persecution resulted in death, torture, imprisonment, or dislocation for many Christians, the persecution did, however, cause many churches to split between those who had complied with imperial authority, and those who had remained pure. Certain schisms, like those of the Donatists in North Africa, the Donatists would not be reconciled to the Church until after 411. In the centuries that followed, some consider that Christians created a cult of the martyrs. These accounts were criticized during the Enlightenment and afterwards, most notably by Edward Gibbon, modern historians, such as G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, have attempted to determine whether Christian sources exaggerated the scope of the Diocletianic persecution, from its first appearance to its legalization under Constantine, for the first two centuries of its existence, Christianity and its practitioners were unpopular with the people at large
6.
Sasanian Empire
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
7.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
8.
Muslim world
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The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, comprising all those who adhere to the religion of Islam, or to societies where Islam is practiced. In a modern sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under influence or colonial domination of European powers. The nation states emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models. As of 2015, over 1.7 billion or about 23. 4% of the population are Muslims including the 4. 4% who live as minorities. Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion, the history of Islam began in Arabia with the Islamic prophet Muhammads first recitations of the Quran in the 7th century in the month of Ramadan. However, Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate grew rapidly, a century after the death of last Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empire extended from Spain in the west to Indus in the east. The Islamic Golden Age coincided with the Middle Ages in the Muslim world, starting with the rise of Islam and establishment of the first Islamic state in 622. The end of the age is given as 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus. The Abbasids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadiths, such as the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr, that stressed the value of knowledge. The major Islamic capital cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine. Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of glaze was prevalent in Islamic art. Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters, the first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another contribution was the development of fritware, originating from 9th century Iraq, other centers for innovative ceramic pottery in the Old world included Fustat, Damascus and Tabriz. The original concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype Hezār Afsān that relied on particular Indian elements and it reached its final form by the 14th century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales tend to be called Arabian Nights stories when translated into English, regardless of whether they appear in The Book of One Thousand and this work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Imitations were written, especially in France, various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. A famous example of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry on romance is Layla and Majnun and it is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun to an extent
9.
Early Muslim conquests
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The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
10.
Armenian Genocide
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Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a result of the genocide. Raphael Lemkin was explicitly moved by the Armenian annihilation to define systematic and premeditated exterminations within legal parameters, Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to them as genocide. To date,29 countries have recognized the mass killings as genocide, as have most genocide scholars. The western portion of historical Armenia, known as Western Armenia, had come under Ottoman rule following the Peace of Amasya, henceforth, the region was also alternatively referred to as Turkish Armenia or Ottoman Armenia. The Armenian community was made up of three denominations, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Protestant, and Armenian Apostolic, the religion of a vast majority of Armenians. Through the millet system, the Armenian community were allowed to rule themselves under their own system of governance with fairly little interference from the Ottoman government, Ottoman census figures clash with the statistics collected by the Armenian Patriarchate. According to the latter, there were almost three million Armenians living in the empire in 1878, in the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the dhimmi system implemented in Muslim countries, they, like all other Christians and also Jews, were accorded certain freedoms. The dhimmi system in the Ottoman Empire was largely based upon the Pact of Umar, while the Pact of Umar prohibited non-Muslims from building new places of worship, it was not enforced in all regions of the Ottoman Empire. Since there were no laws concerning religious ghettos, the prohibition of non-Muslims building new places of worship led to their clustering around existing ones and it did not mean religious persecution, it meant unutterable contempt. They were dogs and pigs, and their nature was to be Christians, to be spat upon, if their shadow darkened a Turk, to be outraged, in addition to other legal limitations, Christians were not considered equals to Muslims and several prohibitions were placed on them. They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride horses and camels. Their houses could not overlook those of Muslims, and their religious practices were severely circumscribed, from 1839 to the declaration of a constitution in 1876, the Ottoman government instituted the Tanzimat, a series of reforms designed to improve the status of minorities. Nevertheless, most of the reforms were never implemented because the empires Muslim population rejected the principle of equality for Christians. By the late 1870s, the Greeks, along several other Christian nations in the Balkans, frustrated with their conditions, had, often with the help of the great powers. The Armenians remained, by and large, passive during these years, in the mid-1860s and early 1870s this passivity gave way to new currents of thinking in Armenian society. The Ottoman government considered these grievances and promised to punish those responsible, under growing pressure, the government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II declared itself a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and entered into negotiations with the powers
11.
Assyrian genocide
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The Assyrian genocide took place in the same context as the Armenian and Greek genocides. Unlike the Armenians, there were no orders to deport Assyrians, the attacks against them were not of standardized nature and incorporated various methods of massacre, in some cities, all Assyrian men were slain and the others were forced to flee. These massacres were carried out upon the initiatives of local politicians and Kurdish tribes. Exposure, disease and starvation during the flight of Assyrians increased the death toll, estimates on the overall death toll have varied. Rudolph Rummel gives the number of Christian deaths in Assyrian-populated regions of Turkey as 102,000, the IAGS referred to the work of Gaunt and Travis in passing this resolution. The Assyrian name Qeṭlā ḏ-‘Amā Āṯûrāyā, which literally means killing of the Assyrian people, is used by groups to describe these events. The word Qṭolamo which means Genocide is also used in Assyrian diaspora media, the term used in Turkish media is Süryani Soykırımı. Nestorians, Syrians, Syriacs, and Chaldeans were names imposed by Western missionaries such as the Catholics, the Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire numbered about one million at the turn of the twentieth century and was largely concentrated in what is now Iran, Iraq and Turkey. However, researchers such as David Gaunt have noted that the Assyrian population was around 600,000 prior to World War I, there were also hundreds of thousands of Maronite Christians in Lebanon, with some Assyrian heritage but which are less often called Assyrians. There were significantly larger communities located in the regions near Lake Urmia in Persia, Lake Van and Mesopotamia, as well as the eastern Ottoman vilayets of Diyarbekir, Erzurum and Bitlis. Like other Christians residing in the empire, they were treated as second-class citizens, violence directed against them prior to the First World War was not new. The Hamidiye received assurances from the Ottoman Sultan that they could kill Assyrians and Armenians with impunity, in October 1914, the Ottoman Empire began deporting and massacring Assyrians and Armenians in Van. After attacking Russian cities and declaring war on Britain and France, the German Kaiser and the German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire directed and orchestrated the holy war, and financed the Ottomans war against the Russian Empire. The degree of the responsibility of the Ottoman government and whether the genocide had a systematic nature has been the subject of different scholarly opinions, when the Assyrians did not collaborate with Russians, any plans to deport them were cancelled. Kaiser wrote that the massacres of Assyrians were apparently not a part of the official Ottoman policy, dominik J. Massacres of Assyrians were often undertaken through the initiatives of local officials and groups. Nevertheless, they classified the campaign against Assyrians as having genocidal quality, tamcke wrote that documents such as these, along with oral traditions, are evidence of a systematic policy of extermination. According to historian David Gaunt, a primary characteristic was the targeting of the Assyrian population. The killing in rural regions was more extensive, while some survived the massacres in cities, the property, villages and animals of the villagers were destroyed totally to prevent their return
Catholicism portal
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Japanese Martyrs". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 
