It is Jehovah's Witnesses who have based their entire faith on attacking other beliefs. They love to go right to peoples doors and try to find a person with some religous faith that they have been trained to destroy.
Well yes, it is a matter of perspective. Look at the so-called prophets of old - psychotic cranks like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, among others, who publically criticized and denounced the wayward ways of the pagan and chosen ones alike. They often evoked lots of societal retaliation and boy were they persecuted. You don't change that fact by saying, "Ezekiel started it so he asked to be persecuted."
Fact is, the consequences of persecution need to also be considered. Everything else being equal, physical persecution is far easier to quantify in terms of harm than mental persecution. But in my opinion, "hurt" feelings because someone uses a word like "birthday" is unbelievably trivial. I have yet to meet a JW who would be offended because someone else used that word. As other posters have said, often non-JWs have a very poor and possibly idealized understanding of the JW mentality. I cringe when I hear people agonizing about not offending the religious sensibilities of others. I do have thoughts that do not bear expressing.
The loaded word persecution is often used in a modern 'we-must-not-hurt-people's-feelings' manner that makes me want to rebel .