Reflecting Canada’s decisiveness in war on terrorism, the Canadian Cnews reported that the government considers MEK a terrorist organization in spite of protesting rallies orchestrated by the group.
According to the report, several hundred chanting, flag-waving demonstrators paraded on Parliament Hill on Thursday, urging the government to drop an Iranian opposition group from the formal list of banned, terrorist organizations.
The protesters, many of them Iranian emigres, said the PMOI, the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, offers secular opponents of the theocratic Iranian regime a political option for change.
The group is banned by the government as part of a larger terrorist organization called Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK which was placed on the list of banned groups in May 2005 and its status was reviewed last November.
The Public Safety Department describes the group as "an Iranian terrorist organization that was based in Iraq until recently. It subscribes to an eclectic ideology that combines its own interpretation of Shiite Islamism with Marxist principles. The group aspires to overthrow the current regime in Iran and to establish a democratic, socialist, Islamic republic."
The department also says MEK is believed to have had ties to Saddam Hussein, as well as a number of Palestinian factions and is suspected of working with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Cnews/Mojahedin.ws – 20/04/2007