Democracy is a word frequently used by politicians around the world. People are constantly told
A democracy is a government by people; it is rule of the majority. Tolerance is one of the features of a democracy. Tolerance is the capacity for, or the practice of, recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others. But, is anyone who chants slogans of democracy,a democrat?
The June 23 gathering of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization was allegedly called a “pro-democracy” event. The organizer of the rally said it was held “for democratic change in Iran”!
As the organizers of the event, national Council of Resistance of Iran is the propaganda arm of the MKO. Self assigned president of the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi is now running the group – which is widely known as a cult- in the absence of his disappeared husband Massoud Rajavi. Massoud went in to hiding in 2003 after the US invasion to Iraq and the fall of Iraqi dictator and also following the arrest of Maryam by French Police in June 2003. As Elizabeth Rubin of the NYTimes asserts the MKO "is something more like a husband-and wife-led cult ".[1]
On July13, 2003, Rubin published a comprehensive article on the cult-like devotion of members to the group leaders. Interviewing both advocates and opponents of the group she concludes, "It seems dangerously myopic that the US is even considering resurrecting the Rajavis and their army of Stepford wives." She writes of Iranians view on the MKO, ”those who knew and remembered the group laughed at the notion of it spearheading a democracy movement.”[2]
To clarify the type of democracy the MKO speaks of an example of their so-called pro- democracy acts should be noticed: Prior to the June23 gathering, several former members of the group staged a rally in Saint-Mitchell square in the southern suburb of Paris on Friday, June22 to voice their resentment at the terrorist activities of the MKO ,reported PressTV. The defectors rally was confronted by a number of MKO members wielding knives, snap-off blade cutters, chains and baseball bats. [3]
This undemocratic act of intolerance by MKO members was not unexpected. On June17, 2007, over 50 MKO members attacked a public meeting in Paris at which several people were injured. PressTV reported that it was later revealed that the assault had been orchestrated by top MKO leaders. [4]
This is the democracy the MKO leaders believe in. Neither respect, nor tolerance is included in their “type of democracy”.
Those Western politicians who were invited and paid by “the Organizing Committee for Convention for Democracy in Iran”(!), should watch their behavior. They badly risk their reputation by advocating for an officially terrorist designated group- under the name of democracy!
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Rubin,Elizabeth, the Cult of Rajavi, New York Times, July13,2003
[2]ibid
[3] PressTV, French security forces arrest 16 MKO terrorists, June24, 2012
[4]ibid