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"ideological revolution"

The instrumental misuse of MKO history

Rajavi owes his leadership to a number of factors among which misusing and manipulating the history of the organization and its founders is of utmost significance paving the way for imposing Rajavi on the organization and expansion of his authoritarian leadership therein. The short-term relationship of Rajavi with the organization’s founders, and Mohammad Hanifnejad in particular, is an instrument in the hands of Rajavi and his fellows to manipulate the history of the organization in his favor.

A number of factors like the mass arrests of the early founders and high-rankings in 1971 and their execution as well as Rajavi’s escape from execution made the background for him to manipulate the history of the organization at avail himself of the critical conditions after the schism of the organization. Promotion of Rajavi to the membership of the central cadre after the assertion of Hanifnejad was the beginning of the later seizure of leadership. According to many eyewitnesses it was most accelerated due to Rajavi’s egocentricity and narcissism that prepared for Rajavi and his catalysts to make false interpretations of it. Step by step and especially after the initiation of the armed phase, this illusion turned to reality and many newcomers came to believe that Rajavi was the heir to the leadership after Hanifnejad. It would not be wrong to say that Rajavi’s had a key role in creating this illusion either in gaol or after their freedom in 1979.

There are evidences that the main part of this process has been taken place since 1985 when Rajavi used the ideological revolution as an instrument to stabilize his totalitarian and egocentric leadership in the organization and to legitimize the ideological revolution and its consequences. In the early days of the ideological revolution, some members like Davari, Abrishamchi, and Hayati were tasked with fabricating false memories of the interest of Hanifnejad in Rajavi and the complimentary statements made by Hanifnejad on the political, organizational, and ideological qualifications of Rajavi.

This process was externalized when the central office of the organization issued a declaration on the initiation of the ideological revolution and the ideological leadership of Masoud Rajavi. The declaration asserted that after the execution of the organization’s founders, and Hanifnejad in particular, Rajavi would be the leader of the organization, responsible for its survival and development. It focused on the point that Hanifnejad himself had appointed Rajavi as his successor and the next leader of MKO. Since Rajavi was well aware that his own fabrication of memories was of no effect, he ordered his fellows and catalysts including those arrested in 1971, to make false statements in the intra-organizational sessions of the ideological revolution. Here some of these fabrications will be reviewed. Abbas Davari, whose some instances of offensive behavior towards Rajavi was quoted by some MKO former members, in his article “The point of perfection” published in the organization’s official organ, Mojahed, writes:

Saeed Mohsen was very sensitive about the freedom of Masoud and when Masoud was offered a clemency and his execution was replaced by life imprisonment as a result of the efforts of Dr.Kazem Rajavi [his brother], Mohsen was too happy and asked me to convey his message to Masoud. He said: “Extend my greetings to Masoud and tell him that his responsibility is very heavy at the time being since he is the only remnant of the central cadre and the manifestation of our principles and experiences. He is endowed with a great responsibility in this phase. He will be beset with many problems and may suffer many disturbances. We will receive all praises since we enter the reign of martyrdom yet he will face all accusations since he will continue the struggle and would have a status much higher than ours. He will be martyred every day and every hour. Yes, he will be an alive martyr. 1

In another article, he has pointed out that:

The necessity of ensuring the continuity of this way and developing the revolutionary Islam was evident to the founders and the person who arrived at the very summits of honor. The organization founders accomplished their responsibility and before their martyrdom appointed Masoud as the next leader not to leave the organization without a head. 2

These statements are pre-determined reactions to the objections and accusations made against the ideological marriage of Masoud and Maryam and the issue of Rajavi’s fabricated Imamate. Mohammad Seyedi Kashani makes a statement in this regard, stating:

The most significant thing I remember from the martyr Asqar Badizadegan is the statements he made about Masoud and his seriousness and rigidity. He always said that Mohammad (Hanifnejad) was more interested in Masoud among all members of the central cadre and loved him more than others doing his best to train and teach him as a true Mojahed. Some years later when I got acquainted with Masoud, I found out the reason why the founders had appointed him preferably as the leader among all members of central cadre and those with a longer history in the organization. 3

References:

1. Davari, Abbas, Mojahed journal, no. 456

2. The book of Founders, MKO publications, 2002, p.91.

3. ibid, the statements of Mohammad Seyedi Kashani, p.111

December 21, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

A Call To Disclose Cult Abnormalities

More than two decades ago when Massoud Rajavi informed of the great change and ideological revolution within Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), still believing to be active as a political group, hardly anybody first came to assume that it was actually the beginning of a long path leading the organization into the abyss of internal and external challenges. Although Rajavi’s marriage with his comrade’s wife received appreciations of a novel move in the group’s internal relations, soon the magnitude of the marriage itself was faded in comparison with other significant consequences of the move that required time to be actualized. The intended personality change in the insiders could not take effect overnight ant it really consumed time to accomplish Rajavi’s plotted ideological principles. Even Rajavi himself anticipated prolongation of the process when he said: “If you fail to comprehend now, be patient. I do not know, maybe you come to understand in one, five or ten years”.

It was in no way an overstated assertion since he knew well what would come out of his initiated revolution. Still many aspects of his devised ideological ploy and its profound effects remain concealed and beyond the scope of the world. Only in the recent years, and following the disclosures made by many defected members, the outside world has been to some extent informed of the organization’s cultic aspects and internal human tragedies. Interestingly enough, the modern world was even shocked to a great degree to learn about horrible, deplorable stories related by the ex-members about what passes inside the organization.

Of the most outrageous, scandalous cult records recently revealed are hysterectomy operations and Rajavi’s sex scandal, his polygamous marriage with the female cadres of the Leadership Council. Being under the constant influence of cultic behaviors that show most abnormal to the outsiders, the insiders and even the separated members consider them as typically normal. As expounded by Thaler Singer “If you spend enough time in any environment, you will develop a personal history of experience and interaction in it. When that environment is constructed and managed in a certain way, then the experiences, interactions, and peer relations will be consistent with whatever public identity is fostered by the environment and will incorporate the values and opinions promulgated in that environment”. 1

It is of great importance to perceive to what extent the detached members of MKO have come to incorporate abnormal experiences and interactions of the group’s cultic environment now out of that milieu. Long being engaged in cooperative activities with other comrades in an environment that hardly could they realize its cultic structure under the cover of political campaign, these members fail to perceive that they had been coerced into many abnormalities. It has to be pointed out that it is a fact most cult members have experienced and as Singer explains “when you engage in cooperative activity with peers in an environment that you do not realize is artificially constructed, you do not perceive your interactions to be coerced. And when you are encouraged but not forced to make verbal claims to "truly under- standing the ideology and having been transformed," these inter. actions with your peers will tend to lead you to conclude that you hold beliefs consistent with your actions. In other words, you will think that you came upon the belief and behaviors yourself”. 2

So explicitly explained by cult experts, the insiders and newly defected members are unaware of the change in them while in the cult and which are regarded bizarre behaviors by the outside onlookers. The defectors should know that whatever they consider as the mist ordinary, normal and unimportant are much objectionable, bizarre and abnormal to the outside societies. Then, it is best recommended that the defected members of MKO be sensitive to whatever monotonous regularity they were putting up with in the cult and to disclose them to the world to judge for itself.

References:

1. Thaler Singer, Margaret, Cults in our midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; A Wiley Imprint, p.76.

2. Ibid.

November 19, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO and Batinis, two cults with identical projects of sterilization

The disclosing speech of Nasrin Ebrahimi in the European Parliament on the latest cult approach of MKO in making women infertile, as another phase of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin, gives a clear picture of cultic malevolent practices committed within the cult of Mojahedin. The fact that Ms. Ebrahimi has escaped from Camp Ashraf refusing to undergo the hysterectomy indicates that evidently there are many other female members forced to have the surgery; therefore, this case is to be pursued legally. Having another look at the numerous similarities found between the approaches adopted by MKO leaders and those of notorious historical cults may clarify the real cultic nature of MKO.

Sterilization is one of the strategies adopted by leaders of certain cults. It has taken two forms in cultic relations, i.e. mental and physical. Mental sterilization is accomplished through the very same brainwashing techniques and thought reform, a common practice in almost all cultic groups, and MKO in particular, as acknowledged by a great number all former members. In addition, there are evidences that physical sterilization by means of hysterectomy is a frequently used procedure in MKO, a technique analogous to that of the cult of Batinis, a historical and notorious Iranian cult. The process of convincing or forcing members to undergo this operation has its own mechanisms and features on which due investigation is to be carried out. Interestingly, MKO leaders resort to explanations for their inhuman deed that are similar to those of the leaders of the historical cult of Batinis. What follows are instances of excuses made by the leaders of Batinis to convince follower to give their assent emasculation.

In a discussion between Musa Neishaburi (a newcomer to Alamut castle) and Shirzad Fahestani (commander of Alamut castle), Fahestani made an attempt to justify the reason why members of Alamut castle had to be emasculated, stating:

Emasculation is a kind of test, an assessment to find out whether a disciple is ready to sacrifice everything for his faith and Batinist brothers as well. It is not so difficult to sacrifice one’s life since there are many who freely offer to die on the rise of emotions. But it is too difficult to have control over one’s lusts. It is a touchstone to test the extent of one’s sacrifice of his lusts for the cause and interests of the group. 1

The devoted followers were required to give up sexual urges and yearn to prove loyalty to the group and leadership. An idea prevailed that the disciples had to act like bees that thought of nothing but their own duty and who had to serve the leader, Hasan Sabbah, at the top of the hierarchy and whose advantages were beyond anybody’s reach and question. In the course of their controversy, Musa asked Shirzad why Hasan Sabbah was excluded from what others had no rights to. He said:

‘You told me yesterday that the Lord of Alamut is married. You meant why you cannot get married while he can. Have you read the Arabic books on bees in the school of Nezamieh?’ Musa answered, ‘Yes, I have’. Shirzad asked him, ‘what was written there about their breeding?’ Musa answered: ‘bumblebees are killed and the females remain alive.’ Shirzad stated, ‘it is so since after that bees engage in nothing but making honey. Likewise, absolute devotees have to make efforts just to do the duties appointed for them. Batinist devotees should not be considered inferior to that of bees. 2

Musa was not convinced and asked for more explanation calling sterilization a kind of heresy. Here Khorshid-kolah, another theoretician of the cult of Hasan Sabbah, referred to issues like the requirements of that particular period of time and the omniscience of their leader as two more grounds demanding the process of sterilization:

Our lord is an all-knowing vicegerent and thus he can issue orders not issued before. Each time has its own necessities and now is a time when followers have to be made without posterity to think of nothing but being sacrificed for their faith. 3

In addition to theoretical reasoning, cult leaders resort to other levers in order to convince initiates to stay with the cult, or in Batinists case, submit to be emasculated. Hardly a Batinist initiate wished to withdraw after experiencing the pleasures offered to him but doubt was unforgivable and could be deterred only by death. As observed in the dialogue between Musa and Fahestani:

Shirzad looked at young Musa and said, ‘have you changed your mind to be an absolute devotee?’ He answered, ‘not yet discouraged but in doubt.’ Shirzad said that doubt leads to withdrawal. Musa asked him what came if he refused to join the group and the commander answered, ‘Then, we will kill you.’ 4

Altogether, there were many more threats of retribution than promises of felicity and the general tone was uncompromising and tough. Candidates for initiation would have needed to be serious and determined and allegiance had to be unquestionably blind. The following argument of Fahestani on the fact that a follower was not allowed to have contention concerning the issued orders of the leaders is reminiscent of the reasons mentioned by Rajavi in his lecture on the ideological revolution of Mojahedin in 1980:

The discussion between Musa Neishaburi and Shirzad Fahestani, the commander of Tabas castle, on the philosophy of emasculation came to a point where Shirzad got angry and told Musa, “Are you contending?’ Musa answered, ‘Please forgive me, I wasn’t to contend but I wanted to learn something.’ The commander said, ‘Those who want to learn have no place here to become absolute devotees. You had to learn in the school of Nezamieh where you came from not here. This is a place where you have just to obey what is said.’ 5

The intellectual discrimination is another factor differentiating between leaders and followers. The acknowledged intellectual gifts of a cult leader frustrate any form of raised controversy by followers; he is the one whose wisdom rationalizes what might be irrational to others:

One of the members of the castle called Khorshid-kolah told Musa, ‘Do you think you understand more than others do and those who have consented to be emasculated do not understand? Sometimes only one among hundred thousands is intellectually gifted. This is the reason why only a handful of men in a generation become scientists. God grants not wisdom to all humans equally. 6

Then, why enforced emasculation in the cult of Batinis could not take the form of hysterectomy in the cult of Mojahedin? Mojahedin too have tried a variety of justification to convince those who underwent the operation. Added to the comments made by Nasrin Ebrahimi on the obligatory illegal action of sterilization practiced within MKO, the law enforces that no experiment have be performed without the consent of participants. Therefore, it is evident that Mojahedin are involved in another law-breaking activity opposed to international codes. According to Dr. Singer:

Professionals engaged in legitimate supervised medical and psychological research are held to certain standards that have been in place since the end of World War II and the establishment of the Nuremberg code of ethics, which states that in any setting where any type of human experimentation is done, the experiment cannot be performed without the informed consent of those who are to be participants. In getting this consent, the experimenters are to explain everything that will or may happen as a consequence of the person’s coming into the experimental program, and the person must be fully capable of understanding those consequences. 7

It seems that none of western legal enforcements can stop violation of human rights by the cult of Mojahedin. The negative consequences of a cultic group’s activity that challenges the social health fails to be a cost totally paid by the public; the responsibility of the governments are even greater since they act as their nations representative to protect them against whatever challenges them regardless of political interests.

References:

1. Amir, Paul. Hasan Sabbah: the Lord of Alamut.

2. ibid

3. ibid

4. ibid

5. ibid

6. ibid

7. Thaler Singer, Margaret, Cults in our midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; A Wiley Imprint, p.79.

November 1, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Organisational Divorces within PMOI

Margaret Thaler Singer in her book entitled “Cults among Us” states the following regarding the position of cults on the family issues:

“The cults, using extremist ideas based on their ideology to upraise their members against their families. This is both to separate members from their families and to train them on how to obey the irrational orders of the cult.”

The MKO’s leadership consists of the husband and wife team of Masoud and organizational divorces Maryam Rajavi. Their marriage in 1985 was hailed by the leadership of the organisation as the beginning of an “ideological revolution.” Before this marriage, Maryam was the wife of Mahdi Abrishamchi, deputy to Masoud Rajavi. Various phases of this “revolution” included: divorce by decree of married couples, regular writings of self-criticism reports, renunciation of sexuality, and absolute mental and physical dedication to the leadership.

In 2005, the international NGO Human Rights Watch released a report on the issue of human rights violations in MKO camps, where on the issue of ideological revolution, it stated:

“The leadership of MKO asked all its members to undertake their own “ideological revolution” by identifying their personal shortcomings in self-criticism sessions.”

Quoting from Mojahed:

“In order to carry out your organisational duties under the present circumstances there is an urgent need to strengthen and deepen this ideological revolution. You must pay the necessary price by allocating sufficient time and resources for absorbing related teachings…Be certain that your deep belief in the novel leadership of the new democratic revolution of the heroic Iranian people, meaning Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, ….you will be able to correct your work habits and be able to deal with and resolve personal, organisational, and military difficulties.”

The Social Division of MKO also issued a directive to the members initiating the self-criticism tradition within the organisation:

“To understand this great revolution…is to understand and gain a deep insight into the greatness of our new leadership, meaning the leadership of Masoud and Maryam. It is to believe in them as well as to show ideological and revolutionary obedience to them…”

Ideological revolution which was proclaimed by the leadership of the sect, Masoud and Maryam, did not end here. After the defeat of this group in its terrorist operations, including the operation dubbed as “Eternal Light” , the leadership in order to cover up its own weaknesses and failed strategy, declared that the reason for the weaknesses of MKO forces was the lack of devotion and in order to remove this deficiency, it declared a series of ideological revolutions and required from the members to cut themselves from all the physical and psychological attachments in order to increase their capabilities to combat the enemy. Masoud Banisadr reports how this process unfolded during an “ideological meeting for executive and high ranking members” following MKO’s defeat in Iran:

“The first thing I was required to do in Baghdad was to watch a videotape of an ideological meeting for executive and high-ranking members…there was a buffer between ourselves and him [Rajavi] … which prevented us from seeing him clearly. This “buffer” was our weakness. If we could recognize that, we would see why and how we had failed in Operation Forogh [Eternal Light] and elsewhere. Masoud and Maryam had no doubt that the buffer was in all our cases our existing spouse.”

“The organisation’s order for “mass divorce” caused much mental anguish and confusion. Even poor single people were required to divorce their buffers, having no idea whom that meant; apparently the answer was to divorce all women or men for whom they harboured any feelings of love. Only later did I realize the organisation demanded not only a legal divorce but also an emotional or “ideological” divorce. I would have to divorce Anna [My wife] in my heart. Indeed I would have to learn to hate her as the buffer standing between our leader and myself. Rajavi announced at the meeting that as our “ideological leader” he had ordered mass divorce from our spouses. He asked everyone to hand over our rings if we had not already done so. That meeting was the strangest and most repugnant I had ever attended.”

In the definition that is provided in the book “Cults among Us” it states:

“The cults, using extremist ideas based on their ideology up rise their members against their fam-ilies. This is both to separate members from their families and to train them how to obey the irra-tional orders of the leader of the cult. The sects that are active under the cover of religion, teach their members to consider those outside their sect, even their relatives as Satan and therefore they should avoid them to the extent possible”

In this connection we draw your attention to the response provided by a former member of the group named Hura Shalchi who was herself at a time at the service of this group and who sent the response in answer to her sisters who are still captives at the hands of this terrorist group:

“…Before anything else I should say how happy I am to see the picture of you three dear and lovely sisters after 5 years. While I was in MKO, under whatever pretexts, they did not allow us to meet each in private. We were able only to see each under with the presence of the com-manders and not exceeding more than one hour. I am also very much happy that this interview was a reason for you three dear sisters to sit together despite the opposition of MKO. I know very well that you can see each other to share your sisterly sentiments very rarely. Because, principally speaking, Rajavi is a great impediment to any manifestation of sentiments. I will never forget that he opened my letter addressed to my daughter at the age of less than 6 years and never allowed that to be posted to Iran. I know very well that whatever you say or have been told before all have been under pressure. For this reason I have not been and would not be upset from you at all. It is a trick played by MKO all the time to put the family members at odd towards one another. They want to turn the criticism towards them to family disputes so that they are not obliged to be answerable to real criticisms.”

According to BBC’s Newsnight programme, Abbas Sadeegi Najad a former MKO member talks about how he was manipulated by MKO about his family. He mentions that MKO lied about his family in order to cut his ties with his family, they said that his wife and newborn daughter died. Meantime his wife was also informed that he was killed by the Iranian government when he was escaping the country. In addition he gives account of detailed torture session that was performed against him by MKO members in the camps located in Iraq.

October 17, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Instillation of Hatred in the Cult of Mujahedin

Cultist groups put much energy to develop a collective identity. However, in cases of encountering the danger of split and signs of any schism, they may resort to a variety of measures that strictly negates the first preliminaries needed to keep a whole community united. In general, cult leaders unit members and gave them enemies to hate and comrades to love but love towards other members is replaced by hatred and disgust to prevent the formation of dissidence and objection within the cult. In other word, as members are instilled to hate themselves and follow the group, they are forced to hate other members in order not to be motivated to quit the organization. Eric Hoffer refers to such a paradoxical aspect in cultist relations and says:

The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by loosing one’s individual distinctness in a compact collective whole. Moreover, the estrangement from the self is usually accompanied by a train of diverse and seemingly unrelated attitudes and impulses which a closer probing reveals to be essential factors in the process of unification and of self-sacrifice. In other words, frustration not only gives rise to the desire f6r unity and the readiness for self-sacrifice but also creates a mechanism for their realization. Such diverse phenomena as a deprecation of the present, a facility for make-believe, a proneness to hate, a readiness to imitate, credulity, a readiness to attempt the impossible, and many others which crowd the minds of the intensely frustrated are, as we shall see, unifying agents and prompters of recklessness. (1)

The main cause of resorting to controlling procedures is the dissatisfaction on the part of members. For example, such mechanisms were developed within MKO after the initiation of the ideological revolution due to the fact that the shocking Many MKO ex-members point out that they had to express their hatred to their relatives, friends and even their parents in order to pass the phases of the ideological revolution event of the marriage between Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu, after her divorce from her high ranking member Mehdi Abrishamchi, which led to the discontentment of members, necessitated improvement of security considerations within the organization. The phase of compulsory divorces prepared much more ground for this approach. Although this procedure was justified pointing to the necessity of directing members’ emotions and feelings toward Rajavi, but in the long run it had challenging effects on the internal relations of the organization, detaching all the emotional and family attachments of members and even couples and paving the way for the application of more controlling procedures.

Under such a repressive atmosphere where the members themselves did the control job, the organization was made secure against possibility of any deviation from principles and policy. The phase of compulsory divorces was the outmost extend of enforcing cult-like process of resentment through which spouses began disparaging each other before other members only to accomplish organizational commands. The organization was well aware of the fact that hatred aroused hatred; members had to show detestation in their words, eyes, hearts and conducts.

Even beyond the milieu of the organization members were compelled to carry this revultion with them in their external relations with the world outside. And they were instructed to cover their hatred with smiles and eloquences. Many MKO ex-members point out that they had to express their hatred to their relatives, friends and even their parents in order to pass the phases of the ideological revolution. The more hatred they showed to outsiders, the more loyal they proved to be to the leader. Some members were even forced to terrify their own family members to increase needed qualification for organizational promotion. The ex-member Masoud Banisadr giving details on one of the ideological sessions writes:

The session was called ‘detachment from the past’. One man had to leave his much-loved black girl friend to become a full time supporter. He put his head on my shoulder and cried for a few minutes, telling me how much he loved her, but with her attitude toward the organization he could not marry her and work with the Mojahedin at the same time. Another had to leave his brother who was working in the Iranian embassy, and show his readiness to kill him if it became necessary. (2)

He also relates a case in which he was ordered to cut all his attachments to the past and burning his photos in order to prove his revolutionary competence and writes:

I wanted to say real good-bye this time once forever. I went home and saw Anna; she asked me what am I doing home. I explained to her, She didn’t say anything, as she knew it is not going to do any good. This time I attacked my old photographs from my own childhood till marriage and up to then, my parents photographs as I wanted to deny all of them, my father who was perhaps responsible for my bourgeois tendencies and my mother who was responsible of my own ‘mild’ and ‘gentle’ behavior known as liberal ones. Anna seeing me taking all those photographs and albums, with anger, was quietly crying, then when I attacked our marriage Album she start crying louder, and asked me to stop it. She said those are not just yours, . . . but I was not listening to her and took every thing and put them in a rubbish bag. And left for the base. Over there every body was worried where I am and thought perhaps I have left the organization or under the immense pressure which I was, in during past few weeks, have killed myself or something like that. I wrote a long report for Tahereh and with that report send that rubbish bag to her. She sent me back the rubbish bag and asked me to burn it all and welcomed me back to the organization. (3)

The applied controlling mechanisms within MKO are far beyond most known cults. Although hardly the term ‘hatred’ is mentioned in the cases where it is meant, the consequent antagonisms, resentment and hostility clearly indicate that members have been taken over willingly or unwillingly. The unbounded hatred in the members is a factor of encourage to antagonize whatever order that contradicts that of the organization’s.

References:

1. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 58.

2. Banisadr, Masoud, The memoirs of an Iranian rebel.

3. ibid

October 6, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Who cares about children in the cult of Rajavi?

On April 15th,2008, a report was published on Boston.com, according to which “ Texas officials took 416 children from a polygamist retreat into state custody …” These children were taken from the cult due to the risk of abuse. Marissa Conzales spokeswoman for the State children ‘s Protective Services agency said: ” it is not the normal practice to allow parents to accompany the child when an abuse allegation is made.” According to Jenniffer Donaber and Michael Graczyk, the Associated Press correspondents, the state is accusing the sect of physically and sexually abusing the youngsters and wants to strip their parents of custody. The parents are accused of being manipulated as it is normal in all Cults The parents in the sect are accused of being manipulated as it is normal in all sects such as MKO where after the Ideological Revolution the spouses were indoctrinated manipulated and eventually forced to divorce and in 1990 during the first Gulf War, they were forced to leave their children under the care of the organization. But there is no protective service agency to care for MEK members’ children who were transferred to Europe where they live in group houses in a very poor condition, and every morning they should hail to Uncle Masud and Aunt Maryam ( since they do not have any idea of Mother, Father and Family) As Elizabeth Rubin quoted from Nadereh Afshari MKO’s former member in her article ‘’ the Cult of Rajavi’’: ”Every morning and night, the kids, beginning as young as 1 and 2, had to stand before a poster of Massoud and Maryam, salute them and shout praises to them… They saw these kids as the next generation’s soldiers. They wanted to brainwash them and control them.” Where are the judges, juries, attorneys and lawyers to defend the case of MKO members’ children whose parents have no idea of where they live. The children are forced to participate in fund raising propaganda of the organization soliciting European citizens with their poor appearance. Is it a normal practice to see children living a difficult life in the modern European cities. The democratic cover of MKO activities have hidden their anti – human behavior towards their members especially children who are considered as the future militia by MKO. So what is called children’s rights abuse? Isn’t it the abuse of a child’s life to prevent him from living a normal life within his family, enjoying education in a free school of a free country? Batul Soltani is a mother whose children were taken of her in the organization. Now that she has left MKO, she is looking for her beloved children whose photos were hidden in her clothes during the dark years of living behind the bars of Rajavi’s cult. She will hopefully find her children someday but who can return those grieving years of missing her children? The years when she was not even allowed to think about them.

September 9, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

A Cult Technique to Crush Antagonism

There always exist among the members of a cult or political group ones that display high level of antagonism and threaten the life of the cult or occurrence of schism. Unless cults and groups take countermeasures, the schism is inevitable. Being a cult of personality and susceptible to schism especially after the coupe d’état-like internal ideological revolution, MKO, facing increasing internal challenges, concocted excuses mainly to confront dissidents that could possibly nurture schism.

Massoud Rajavi’s marriage with his commander’s wife, Maryam Azodanloo, was considered by many to be a scandal and surfaced perversion. Being an undeniable truth, the organization developed a scenario to remodel the shaped mentality. The organization came up with the plan of organizing forced sessions of analyzing members’ political, moral and personal viewpoints about Rajavi. So complicated was the scenario that soon all antagonistic attitudes towards Rajavi floated up and the members tried to outmatch each other in demonizing and disparaging Rajavi and strongly condemned him of his eccentric deed.

Unknowingly, members were condemning themselves rather than Rajavi. The sessions meant to strongly condemn members of the guilt they had done in their past life and the way they tried to justify the vices. Explaining the process, Massoud Banisadr has stated:

This time as it was told by Masoud, we had to take him to negative infinity and accuse him of any thing which we could think of, and then judge him, if we reached to the verdict that he is not guilty, then we had to make him as mirror and this time judging ourselves. Meant accusing ourselves for the same crimes, which we accused him of. Following that we had to find our class tendencies. And our true nature, hidden under nice and gentle behaviour of ours. 1

Oddly enough, the process soon turned into a criterion to decide about qualified members for organizational promotions. The technique of eliciting confessions was practiced in collective gatherings and the members were forced to admit to their antagonistic and contradictory outlook not only about the leadership but also about other organizational issues; they had to ‘vomit their thoughts’ as the organization called it.

The sessions were somehow as if the members were on trial. The members’ confessions were enough to accuse them to demand Rajavi’s forgiveness. Feeling ashamed of accusing Rajavi, they would compose piles of recantation letters and urging Rajavi to forgive them. Ludicrous as it may seem, in many of these letters, members confessed to have been ignorant of Rajavi’s infallibility all the time. But the outcome of these trial-like sessions was critically serious:

In these hearing sessions the defendants had no advocate and besides, it was not so appropriate an atmosphere to provoke any protest; they held heads down and others spat at them. But what requires further consideration is that so the Falangist element and cult characteristics had bulged in the course of these years that a sister volunteered to kill her sister. 2

The interesting point is that such a process came to be justified under the philosophy of the ideological revolution. The dissenters and whoever repulsed the revolution had to pay a price. It was even much unbearable for a high ranking member:

High ranking members who couldn’t have the revolution, were not allowed to leave the organisation so in some cases they had no alternative except killing themselves. While they were living among us, they were forbidden to do anything, even helping in the kitchen was denied to them. 3

And some committed suicide because they could not tolerate the so-called revolution that ended to disgrace for all the organization:

Nasser, one of our army commanders, has killed himself with a blade given to him for shaving. … Later in another meeting, I heard from Rajavi that Eshagh, who was working with me in New York, has gone to hunger strike because his revolution has not been accepted. Few years later, after I left the organisation, I heard he hanged himself about the same time, but we were not told then, so I presume there were some more suicides which we didn’t hear about them. 4

Thus, a technique mainly developed to trace dissidents and disloyal to revolution turned into a lasting achievement with a multi-purpose function. Mojahedin’s irreparable loss after the military operation Eternal Light needed scapegoats to justify Rajavi’s insanity of masterminding such a mass suicide. Again the members were forced to confess that lack of total trust in Rajavi and their attachments to worldly attractions was a reason not to stand by their commitment to him. They had to devote themselves only to Rajavi and nothing else had to enter their hearts but his love. As Mohsen Rezai, a ranking cadre is quoted saying:

To follow him [Rajavi] ideologically, and not only politically, you have to see him and accept him not only in your mind, but in your heart. And you cannot do it unless you first open your heart to him. You should have no secret from him, no boundary should separate you from him. He should be the one and only, the closest person to you. To reach this close relationship, you have to work hard, beginning with the expression of all your contradictions and secrets, especially those concerning him. 5

So, a process formulated to detect and hamper attempts for schism and to accomplish a throughout internal purge becomes an integral part of a cult that practices deceptions, lies and exhibits murder in its heart under the disguise of a pro-democratic organization.

References:

1. Masoud Banisadr; Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel.

2. Shams-e Haeri, Hadi; The swamp, vol. II.

3. Masoud Banisadr; Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

August 11, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The Cultic Change Enforced Through Letters

As discussed, the initiated change within MKO following the internal ideological revolution in 1985 aimed mainly on securing Rajavi’s permanent leadership and transforming the members into his absolute devotees and, in general, crystallizing the whole organization into a cult of personality. Of course, it was not so easy a task to compel members to surrender to the Rajavi’s selfish ambitious on their own will and to dissolve in a leader whom many believed to be inadequate to assume the status.

Since MKO is heavily built on a hierarchical structure, the members are controlled and organized under the command of higher ranks who in turn receive orders from higher command echelon. It made it much easier for the The Cultic change enforced through letters organization to impose the change on the members through such a forced stratum either through persuasion or designed processes of penalization. As the members would be provoked by persuasive heroic deeds of the responsible ranks, the statements of submission had to be first made by them.

In this way, the rational thinking power of the rank and file would be paralyzed under the impact of the impressive expressions of emotional parodies. Consequently, in a systematic fashion of letter writing, they began to write open letters of congratulation to the newly wed Rajavis, and Massoud Rajavi himself in particular, for the heroic move and the initiated new phase in MKO.

A look at the countless volume of these letters, known as the letters of ideological revolution, with identical themes of expressing total devotion to the leadership and his novel ideological revolution well indicates the organization’s resort to crafts to subjugate its own insiders regardless of its hypocritical wearing in the political scene. Let’s go through a number of these letters all published in the organization’s official gazette Mojahed soon after the unconventional marriage of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Azodanloo. Writing of her unconditional dedication to ideological revolution, Mina Khyabani, Mahdi Abrishamchi’s second wife and sister of Musa Khyabani, in her letter addressed to Rajavi stated:

I hope to be close behind you now attaching to your emancipating revolution with my soul. To be liable to follow the path, I need to be cleaned of whatever evil and element of filth. I bow to you to the extreme of my comprehension of your high status, and appreciate your miraculous move of self-sacrifice, that is far above the martyrdom of many thousands, that has guaranteed a history. Now I believe to be all blameworthy before this revolution. I hope this revolution will act as a motivation to reinforce iota of values within me to make me capable of being under your command as once I was. *

Mohammad Seyyedi Kashani is one of the oldest, experienced veterans whose organizational activities even exceed that of Rajavi. He, too, addressing Rajavi has stated:

Dear Massoud, Iwill call you brother no more. You are my sage. Dear to my heart. You are my teacher…. many things have undergone a change in the organization and the world within us. I am sure that the last rusted layers of the old world would be eliminated from within the forces and sympathizers. Obviously, in our most favourite organization the real Mojahed is the one who is more unselfish and capable and also most cherished before God.

In another letter from Mohammad Hayati, another member of MKO, we read:

I congratulate the blessed marriage of my ideological leader Massoud and Maryam. Definitely and knowingly I recant for failing to understand the grandeur of this leadership.

In the letter of Hussein Abrishamchi, Mahdi Abrishamchi’s junior brother and a commander in chief of the organization, addressed to the Rajavis it is stated:

I wish I could kneel before you [Maryam] and Massoud as the forerunners of this great revolution and take my oath of allegiance.

Mohsen Rezai a member of central cadre in his testament of allegiance to Rajavi earnestly supplicated salvation from him:

Great men have marvellous power of draw and repulsion. Now I see it in you and you can influence all. Anybody endowed with an iota of humanism and nobility falls in your love and you repel whoever walks in the wrong path. I am sure that you will be among those closest to God in the Day of Judgment and I am also sure that you will take my hand for my salvation.

Mahdi Abrishamchi, playing his own influential role in the ideological revolution, was one of the most enthusiastic espouses of the move started by his ex-wife and Rajavi:

This ideological move shed light on all of us. We were purged of our filth and dirt by passing through the kiln Rajavi indicated. Now our ideology is shining and we are not the ones we were in the past. We have the honour of surpassing all those that ceased to follow the path. Now I dare say, after this revolution, that we are true members of Mojahedin, aren’t we? We pride ourselves on being his [Rajavi] followers and disciples; he is our instructor who has trained us and we hope he will do in future, and he will. We praise God for leading us to the right path through Massoud and Maryam, otherwise we would have gone astray.

As seen, in all these letters the ranking members insist to state that the crystallized ideological revolution has led to great changes within them and the structure of the organization as well. According to many assertions made by Rajavi, Mojahedin are engaged in a never-lasting change until all intended objectives of leadership have been accomplished.

*The quotes are all from Mojahed issues 241, 242, 247 published in 1985.

August 11, 2008 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

A delegation from the British Moslem community visited the Nejat Society in Tehran

On Monday 5 February 2008, a delegation consisting of representatives of different Moslem organisations and societies in Britain, who were busy visiting Iran, paid a visit to the Nejat (rescue) Society in Tehran. They met with Ms. Hura Shalchi, Ms. Marjan Malek, Mr. Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Mr. Jamil Bassam while some representatives from the British Embassy in Tehran as well as families of the MKO members in Ashraf Camp were present.

The seven members of the delegation each represented a British Moslem establishment which totally covers a good deal of Moslem community in Britain. After the members of delegation heard the report of the MKO activities they emphasised that they are aware of the ideas and actions of the MKO and their so-called "Ideological Revolution" and find them contrary to the Islamic teachings. A lady lawyer from the delegation pointed out that the way the MKO treats the issue of family values is exactly the same way as deviated cults in the west do which has nothing to do with Islamic teachings.

The families present at the meeting described their accounts and that of their children and explained how it is for many years that they are unaware of the situation of their beloved ones and have no contact with them. The members of the delegation were overcome by emotions when they heard of the families’ stories so that some of them practically started crying. The members of the delegation admired the humanitarian activities of Nejat Society and wished endurance and success for the suffering families of the MKO members in Ashraf Camp. They pointed out that the MKO like all other terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda have no place amongst the British Moslem community and are designated as a diverted cult which is a threat for the security of the society and the family structure. Nejat Society

February 13, 2008 0 comments

The Ideology of the MEK

Dwindling of MKO’s Social Prestige

Preceding articles investigated two major factors leading to the development of internal ideological revolution of Mojahedin and the role they played therein. The encountered crises following declaration of armed struggle as well as the failed strategy of overthrow were grave challenges threatening the organization. Rajavi’s hurried and unreasoning resort to armed phase followed by an illogically drawn timetable of short-term toppling of Iranian regime heavily affected the internal and external relations of Mojahedin. The third factor that forced the organization to cling to the alternate of the ideological revolution was the gradual dwindling of its social prestige and legitimacy. Besides, feelings of distrust began to arise among the cadres as a result of observing ever increasing anti-democratic relations within the organization.

Gradual dwindling of MKO’s social prestige

An optimistic analysis of MKO’s failure in the accomplishment of its short-term promise of overthrowing Iranian regime well indicate that Rajavi had an incorrect and subjective evaluation of the public element, namely, masses. His alliance with Bani-Sadr and confidence in the supposed potentiality of sympathizers and members gave him the illusion that Mojahedin was highly supported. He was under the false impression that the march of a number of members and sympathizers might lead to the elimination of any public fear that prevented masses from entering onto the scene in support of the group. The failed rally on 27 September 1991 made it clear to Mojahedin that masses walked in an opposite track which totally disappointed them of relying on social support as their last winning card from the very beginning months of the armed phase. However, the overall failure of this event was a severe put-down to the false illusion of Rajavi. Niyabati, in his review of this phase of armed struggle, points to the fact that it had no gain for Mojahedin but disappointment. He also believes that the September rally made Rajavi reconsider about having any faith in masses’ support. In fact, it was a test that convinced Mojahedin not only people accounted them no political-ideological legitimacy but also would engage in battle against them if needed:

After the wide-range military offences of Mojahedin in the summer 1981, the organization withdrew to take a defensive position; it was decided to test the social element once more. As such, Mojahedin started masterminding armed rallies in late summer 1981 in order to prompt people onto the scene. At the peak of these rallies, the test of the social element was ascertained to be negative. (1)

The confession well approves the strategic miscalculation on the part of Rajavi and Mojahedin. Although Niyabati tries to hide the lack of social support under the banner of the controlling strategies used by the regime, he acknowledges the fact that Mojahedin came to realize that they could in no way rely on the masses to bring about regime’s downfall:

The fact was that Mojahedin were still facing the problem of mobilizing masses for armed struggle that was known to be a locked strategic bolt and the three-year-long plan to overthrow the regime proved to a an absolute failure.(2)

The test being failed, Mojahedin turned to target the ‘social elements’, besides top official figures, to retaliate the defeats. His hopes totally frustrated, Rajavi this time termed the ‘social element’ as tip-fingers of the regime to intensify challenging ordinary people. He states that against his expectation, the masses had played a different role against Mojahedin. Elaborating on Mojahedin’s shift of attitudes in terrorist actions Niyabati has said:

The failure of Mojahedin in bringing the social element onto the scene, so as to unite them with the vanguard forces, through organizing rallies sheltered by Mojahedin’s military units results in the continuation of resistance by cutting the tip-fingers of the regime. (3)

Hadi Shams-Haeri, an MKO ex-member, analyses the 27 September rally as follows:

The organization’s analysis was that people supported the rally in heart but did not dare to participate since they were not armed. So we had to assure them that we would support them in case of firing from the side of [regime’s] guards to encourage them. Therefore, the 27 September rally was organized but again the masses refused to come and the strategy failed. The organization had predicted that 27 September was the regime’s last day and it would assume the power in the evening, but nothing happened. (4)

It is self-evident that the leadership’s miscalculations not only failed to work up support but also took away the little prestige it had already gained. Besides, the organization had to deal with the consequent challenges faced from within. Although it took some time to get internal tensions externalized, their invisible internal impacts cannot to be ignored. To curb internal reactions of any form, a number of decisive decisions had to be made.

The increase of distrust in the leadership

The first serious and critical consequences were the rapid grow of distrust in Rajavi’s leadership. Rajavi’s egocentric decision makings all resulting in strategic failures put the blame on him and made many doubtful about Rajavi’s ideological and political qualification. In spite of the fact that his inefficiency came to be even more palpable after the ideological revolution, according to Mehdi Abrishamchi, in any circumstance Rajavi was the one who said the last word:

Even prior to the internal ideological revolution, it was evident to all of us that Massoud was the key answer to all the ideological necessities of revolution in this historical phase. (5)

As such, it goes without saying that the leader was the one mostly met by crises and the consequent result would be escalation of distrust. As Niyabati openly points out:

The failure of Mojahedin in the short-term overthrowing of the regime as well as the failure of NCRI, considered as the sole democratic alternative, in recruiting all the anti-Shah and anti-sheikh political forces made Mojahedin subject to intolerable pressure both from inside and outside of NCRI. Evidently, the main target of all pressures in the first place was Massoud Rajavi. (6)

The rapid swelling of distrust within the organization put no other solution before the leadership but to resort to preventive measures to meet internal challenges.

The increase of anti-democratic relations in MKO

The only solution to the internally threatening critical conditions was to put an end to the question of leadership and his criticism forever. Cultivation of anti-democratic relations in MKO and NCRI was Rajavi’s short-term solution. However, a fundamental change in the organization’s internal and ideological structure deemed necessary. Still, before the initiation of the ideological revolution, the encountered serious backlashes were severely repressed in a variety of forms. Going into details about organizational reactions, Norooz-Ali Rezvani has said:

In 1984, MKO imprisoned more than 700 members out of whom 73 members, including me, had criticized the organization’s ideological, strategic flaws like accuracy of armed warfare and lack of any democratic internal relations and violation of the members’ democratic rights. I spent 10 days in gaol and 47 days in solitary confinement in the cities of Kahrizeh and Soleymanieh [in Iraq]. Finally, we cut our ideological connection with the organization and announced we were ideologically detached. (7)

The dispersion of organization’s forces

Rajavi called upon all members of the resistance cells and sympathizers inside Iran to leave the country. It led to the dispersion of members who now completely desolate, had to submit to Rajavi’s hegemony. Therefore, the reformation and revival of organizational relations and exercise of hegemony on members demanded a new mechanism to bring and control all the members under a single leadership:

It seemed something much unattainable at the end of 1984 if the past [organizational] framework had to be maintained. Therefore, to safeguard the new revolution and prevent another failure of Iranian people in struggle against repression and colonialism, the integrity and strategic stability of the leading organization had to be preserved. (8)

References:

1. Niyabati, Bijan; A Different Look at Mojahedin’s Ideological Revolution, Khavaran Publication, p.14.

2. ibid, p.16

3. ibid, p.54

4. Shams-Haeri, H. (1996). The Swamp, vol 2. Khavaran publication, p.90

5. The lecture delivered by Mehdi Abrishamchi on the ideological revolution.

6. Niyabati, Bijan; A Different Look at Mojahedin’s Ideological Revolution, Khavaran Publication, p.15.

7. Rezvani, n. (1996). Neo-Scholasticism in Rajavi’s cult, p.8.

8. Niyabati, Bijan; A Different Look at Mojahedin’s Ideological Revolution, Khavaran Publication, p.18.

Bahar Irani,Mojahedin.ws,December 14, 2007

December 14, 2007 0 comments

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