Babayan

MEMORANDUM ***

Yeghisabet Babayan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s denial of her application for asylum. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition.

The BIA concluded that Babayan failed to establish either past persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(42) (defining a “refugee”); 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (b)(1) (granting the attorney general discretion to grant asylum to “refugees”). 1 We review the BIA’s decision for substantial evidence and will reverse only if the record compels a contrary conclusion. Prasad v. INS, 47 F.3d 336, 340 (9th Cir.1995).

Persecution is “an extreme concept that does not include every sort of treatment *980 our society regards as offensive.” Korablina v. INS, 158 F.3d 1038, 1044 (9th Cir.1998). The two instances where Armenian police allegedly interrupted Babayan’s religious gatherings, pushed and pulled attendees, screamed at them, and admonished them to discontinue their religious practices, while reprehensible, do not compel a finding of persecution. See Lanza v. Ashcroft, 389 F.3d 917, 934 (9th…