Opinion ID: 717519
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ms. Catuse.

Text: 21 Substantial evidence on the record as a whole supported the denial of Ms. Catuse's application. The basis of her asylum claim was fear of persecution on account of her religion, but the record contained substantial evidence from which the BIA could conclude that she lacked a well founded fear of persecution. 22 The primary harm Ms. Catuse had suffered was being forced into national service where she would have to wear a uniform and carry a gun. Wearing a uniform and carrying a gun was contrary to her conscience because of her religion. However, so far as her testimony indicated, the requirement of uniformed and armed national service was imposed on all young people, not particularly on Jehovah's Witnesses. A general requirement of conscription does not amount to persecution. Castillo v. INS, 951 F.2d 1117, 1122 (9th Cir.1991). 23 The IJ found that Ms. Catuse did not try to ascertain whether she could perform the national service without complying with the uniform and gun requirement, so there was no evidence to determine whether or not the Sandinistas would accommodate religious conscientious objectors. Because of this finding, we need not determine whether the law of this circuit currently treats failure to accommodate conscientious objectors as a basis for a refugee status. See Canas-Segovia v. INS, 902 F.2d 717, 726 (9th Cir.1990), vacated, 502 U.S. 1086, 112 S.Ct. 1152, 117 L.Ed.2d 401 (1992), on remand, 970 F.2d 599 (9th Cir.1992). 24 The remaining evidence must be considered to determine whether a reasonable factfinder would have to conclude that the requisite fear of persecution existed. INS v. Elias Zacarias, 502 U.S. at 481, 112 S.Ct. at 815. We are bound by our established definition of persecution as involving the infliction of suffering or harm: 25 In interpreting the Act, the Board is bound by our earlier decisions, which define persecution generally as the infliction of suffering or harm upon those who differ (in race, religion, or political opinion) in a way regarded as offensive. Persecution is an extreme concept, which ordinarily does not include [d]iscrimination on the basis of race or religion, as morally reprehensible as it may be. 26 Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 961 (9th Cir.1996) (en banc) (citations omitted). As this definition suggests, we are trying to get at some distinction between mild and severe burdens imposed on those with disfavored religious beliefs. 27 The record is ambiguous on whether Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted by the Sandinista government of Nicaragua because of their religion. Evidence of persecution included shutting down the Kingdom Hall, Sandinista Party personnel around the house where Jehovah's Witnesses met telling people the meetings were CIA meetings, and the arrests of male members of the congregation. But there was no evidence that the church would have been allowed to meet together and use the hall but for its religious doctrine, or that the males were arrested because of their religion as opposed to the universal military conscription. The record could be read to establish that the Sandinistas had a particular animus toward Jehovah's Witnesses. But the record could also allow for the inference that the Sandinistas regarded all religion as a bourgeois prejudice, the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 20, 33 (International Publishers 1948), or denied permits and facilities to all groups, religious or not, if they were not instruments of the Sandinista Party. There was no evidence that the permit was denied because of the Jehovah's Witnesses' faith. Also, Ms. Catuse did not feel it necessary to leave until her house was taken, long after the impositions imposed on her church. 28 The BIA could conclude from substantial evidence on the record as a whole that Ms. Catuse did not have a well-founded fear of persecution because of her religion. She had no record to support fear of persecution because of political opinion or any other statutory ground. Because Ms. Catuse has failed to establish a well-founded fear for asylum purposes, she has necessarily failed to establish that it is more likely than not that her life or freedom will be threatened for purposes of § 1253(h). De Valle v. INS, 901 F.2d 787, 793 (9th Cir.1990). 29