(Take this with a grain of salt please.) According to the dictionary, Persecution is being hostile and ill-treating someone because of a different race, religion or political stance. NOW with that in mind, a common way people gain power over one another is fear. Fear drives people into submission(Esp when the source of fear is the majority.) People submitting to you equals power in most cases. (Wrongly I might add.) Again, not sure if this is the answer you're looking for, but I tried my best haha.