Unlike what Doubtfully says, here is the truth of the matter. Countries like Sudan and Russia also persecute Baptists and other minority religions as much as they do the JWs. Check out Forum18 and Amnesty International, JWs are just one of many many other groups and individuals that are targeted for their beliefs. For years China "persecuted" anybody with a Bible. JWs like to say that the persecution against them identifies them as the only true religion - what they fail to mention though is that rarely is their persecution isolated to just them as a group.
In S. Korea, for example, JWs love to tout how they are persecuted for conscientious objection - when there are just as many, if not more, non-JWs that take that stand as well. Some do it individually, others do it as part of a group. Remember Gandhi succeeded far beyond the JWs in getting people to take a stand of pacifism.
Legally sometimes JWs lead in defending the matters, & occassionaly, if they succeed, it benefits all the groups. Other times it is another group that files suit, and the JWs along with others benefit as well. For example, when the Oral Roberts tax thing went down the JWs filed some kind of 'similar interest' support and basically alligned themselves with a member of Christendom - hoping to be able to sell books and magazines without being taxed. Roberts lost and the JWs stopped charging for the books and went to donations only.
But the point is - JWs are rarely alone in their legal matters, much less their persecution. JWs like Doubtfully, and possibly some of us former JWs, may notice when JWs make the news for being persecuted and think - 'wow they really are being persecuted'. But it's simply selective awareness. Kind of like when you get a new car, and afterwards you see that a lot of others have that same car, whereas before you didn't notice so much.
Take for example, the director of the documentary Knocking. That movie could only be made by somebody who was raised a JW. Nobody else would have his selective awareness - nobody from the outside would ever see the JW world as he did, because it just ignores too many other individuals and groups and religions that have been through similar legal issues. He might as well have made a documentary on the ACLU and Dr. Kevorkian - both would have addressed basically the same points he made. Or he could have made similar points with Quakers, Amish, Orthodox Jews, SDAs, etc. But he didn't because that was not his background. Our background on this forum is one that is related to JWs and thus that's why we have this selective awareness. Most of us want to have a more open awareness in trying to move forward. Someone like Doubtfully though will never see her beloved religion as just a drop in the bucket - which is all it is, like many many other organizations and religions, even when it comes to persecution.
Also - the one thing JWs love to do now is make the media aware anytime somebody spits in their direction. I may be wrong, but I know of no other religion that has a dedicated "Media" website that pretty much screams bloody murder at every country that takes a stand against them or their tactics. Whatever, happened to not letting your left hand know what your right is doing? Isn't there also a scripture where Jesus condemns those that are making a fuss over how much pain and sacrifice they go through to serve god - and doing it in public?
Anyway - to Doubtfully, I'm glad you still feel it's ok to disobey the religion you love so much by coming here and spending your time with disfellowshipped apostates. It must be weird to pretend that you're a true believing JW while at the same time giving them the finger by coming here. For that we thank you.