Mujahedin Khalq as a Destructive Cult

The inside and outside members of the Mujahedin Cult

Cult of Mojahedin, the inside and outside members

Cults generally tend to function in isolation and are usually remote from the society and keep away to have direct contact with people. However, for some purposes cults need to make contact with the outside world, that is, recruiting new members, fundraising and more. Sending the members to live among the free society is even more crucial when the cult comes to be a hypocritically political one that needs the society as the wheels to push the cult forth.

Although cults cut members off from easy and tete-a-tete contact with outsiders, there are a number of members in certain cults that live out of the cult among the ordinary people to fulfill the mentioned purposes. It does not mean that these outside members can escape tense, thought reform processes executed within the cult. These members seemingly living separate from the cult are also under the severe cult control and undergo the same mechanisms that are used against the insiders to changing their behavior. Explaining the mechanism in her book entitled Cults in Our Midst, Thaler Singer states that:

In most live-in cults, every detail of life comes under group scrutiny. For example, there are dress codes, food restrictions, and enforced marriages or relationships. In such cults, the members generally live together at the headquarters or at specified locations around the country or over, seas and work for cult-owned enterprises. However, there are also cults whose devotees appear to remain active in quite a few major aspects of the outside world, earning a living outside the cult. But for all practical purposes these individuals also live under rules governing such crucial features of their personal life as the people with whom they associate, what happens to their money, whether they raise their own children, and where they live. (p. 11)

At the present, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI), or Mojahedin Cult as it is notoriously referred to, may be the sole political cult of personality that avails big number of live-in and live-out members. The group’s main bastion being located in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, its headquarters are situated in Auvers-Sur-Oise in Paris with countless aliases aiding the cult in fundraising activities, recruitment, propaganda blitz, organizing rallies and so forth. Thus, it is of great importance to know:

– Under what aliases the cult is running its illegal activities

– How the members and sympathizers in these affiliated groups are controlled and receive cult instructions

– How essential are these cult relations to the cult

– What is the difference between the mechanisms applied against the Camp Ashraf live-ins and those living in the Western countries

– How crucial is the role of Camp Ashraf to establish contact with the outside world and the live-out members

As released by the State Department Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism on April 30, 2007 MKO is active under a variety of pseudonyms known as MKO; Mujahedin-e Khalq; Muslim Iranian Students’ Society; National Council of Resistance; National Council of Resistance (NCR); Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran; The National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA); The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI); National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI); Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran.

However, these are not all aliases but those officially announced. To the list can be added numerous political, social, charity, art and much more groups and societies wherein hardly you can trace them back to the mother group. They all function according to the taste and culture of the societies among whom they live and mostly propagate under democratic standards. For instance, the women and girls officially active as MKO insiders are forced to wear outfits covering all their body parts and the head. Even Maryam Rajavi herself in spite of dressing in colorful non-transparent outfit never shows in the public bareheaded. But there are many occasions in which women sympathizers and activists assemble in extravagant western fashions in favor of MKO.

It has to be also mentioned that many of these sympathizers are unaware of the real nature of MKO and work as propaganda tools to beguile the Westerners. As soon as they are recruited as the formal members, they have to consent to cult principles that includes the clothing as well. And Camp Ashraf is the very same remote bastion of the cult housing the live-in members and where the cult standards are outlined and demarcated for the active outsiders in the West.

August 30, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The Concept of Change in Cults

What is of great significance in most cults, especially if they are political cults, is to design programs to and develop techniques to induce radical changes in facets of a person’s world view and subsequently to generate great conformity to organizationally specified prescriptions for behavior. Generally, as Thaler Singer suggests, “Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in lifestyle”. Many cults put great pressure on new members to leave their families, friends, and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. This isolation tactic is one of the cults’ most common mechanisms of control and enforced dependency.

No doubt, any group of specific political, philosophical and social nature somehow tries to induce its members and followers to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. However, cults follow the same line with the exception that their employed techniques are in absolute contradiction with legitimate social purpose. The change cults focus on and tempt the members to undergo violates human and social standards and is imposed on them against their will. The process is also dominating in some political parties and organizations whose focal point is certain ideologies as in some active leftist and social parties.

In many political groups, regardless of the members’ religious and ideological commitment as well as social class and life-style, the members engage in activities outlined according to the group’s doctrine and protocol to accomplish the group’s legitimate goals. It can be said that they reach a broad consensus on struggling for the accomplishment of certain social interest while preserving their own personal penchants and faiths. Unlike them, cults’ main focus is on followers’ self-renunciation and surrender; members are required to give up all personal attachments and regular life-style and accept and submit to whatever they are called for or compelled to do. A cult’s extremity of shalt and shalt not principles depend on its sphere of activity and ideological as well as, if any, political preaching and instructions.

Drawing a difference between cults (referring to them as mass movements owith a variety of origins) and practical organizations, Hoffer explicates that:

THERE IS A FUNDAMENTAL difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The practical organization offers opportunities for self-advancement, and its appeal is mainly to self-interest. On the other hand, a mass movement, particularly in its active, revivalist phase, appeals not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self. A mass movement attracts and holds a follower not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation. 1

Thus, it appears that cults insist to induce change more to advance their own ends which lead to further personal decline of the members. The process of the change begins with a gradual ideological diversion and proceeds with a complete behavioral change and ends at the point where the cult dictates the smallest private affairs:

Cults are known to dictate what members wear and eat and when and where they work, sleep, and bathe as well as what they should believe, think, and say. On most matters, cults promote what we usually call black-and-white thinking, an all-or-nothing point of view. 2

The process is fulfilled most appropriately if the members are cut off from the social atmosphere and family. Life in isolation is what most cults try to encourage believers to adopt since the rationality of the outside world ceases to discourage the accomplishment of the process:

Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in lifestyle. Many cults put great pressure on new members to leave their families, mends, and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. This isolation tactic is one of the cults’ most common mechanisms of control and enforced dependency. 3

It will be much absurd if a cult stays passive in generating change in the members. Cults are totalistic in nature and nobody accents to be under their control unless they have been totally dominated through the process of change:

Cults tend to be totalistic, or all-encompassing, in controlling their members’ behavior and also ideologically totalistic, exhibiting zealotry and extremism in their worldview. Eventually, and usually sooner rather than later, most cults expect members to devote increasing time, energy, and money or other resources to the professed goals of the group, stating or implying that a total commitment is required to reach some state such as "enlightenment." 4

In general, a totalistic cult necessarily entails emphasis on an absolute boundary between the followers and the exterior social environment so they feel fundamentally separate from the outside world. As a result, a sense of relationship is attained by forming intense identifications with the cult and moral and ideological principles are internalized as absolutes. Impulses, fantasies, behaviors and opinions not fully approved by the cult are denied and dissociated.

References:

1. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 21.

2. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, p. 10.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

August 11, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Implication of Change in MKO

As stated, a cult to form a totalitarian society needs to bring about a profound change in members for achieving oneness with cult. Depending on the cult’s sphere of activity, the change is programmed under a variety of identified values to create receptivity to a new ideology.

There are countless ways and different avenues, and usually no single motivation, that drives people with different predispositions into cults. Many go to cults through their heads and some other go through their heart and emotions. However, what is of worth notification is that when a person melts in a cult, his/her whole strategy of attribution undergoes a total change and comes to believe that the new adopted ideology is the truest one in the world. There are also those who pretend to be followers because of the fearsome atmosphere of the cult and the employed measures of castigation. As Hoffer describes the converts of a cult:

Both they who convert and they who are converted by coercion need the fervent conviction that the faith they impose or are forced to adopt is the only true one. With- Jut this conviction, the proselytizing terrorist, if he is not vicious to begin with, is likely to feel a criminal, and the coerced convert see himself as a coward who prostituted his soul to live. 1

It can well be argued that as the recruits are involved in a group over a longer period of time, through the structure of the group, through new disciplines, through new behaviors and so forth, they shape a new personhood. So, it has a lot to do with when they are evaluated, and how far they’ve come from where they were before. It is the value system of the cults that attracts people to choose the gate opening to the most desired and optimal option; being it an avenue to salvation or terrestrial utopia.

Being recognized a cult of personality after its recognition as a terrorist group, Mojahedin Khalq Organization, MKO/MEK/PMOI, has developed its own terminology of cult values to entrap new recruits and to subjugate the already activists. It borrows the characteristics of a leftist cult proselytizing under a variety of catchy mottos like revolution, social change, freedom, emancipation of women and much more. To achieve the goals, first the members have to undergo a change themselves and the change is enforced through a number of processes if they show signs of reluctance; only the leaders and high ranking cadres seem to have already been acclimated to the changes and the whole body of the rank and file had to suffer the crushing pressure of the changing processes.

Some may question that why MKO insists on compelling the members to adapt themselves to the required changes? It has to be pointed out that MKO’s theoreticians of the group’s internal ideological revolution believe that any system of value has to be tested in a miniature model of society, the organization itself, before being generalized for the actual, real society and overpowering the ruling political power. But the first organizational objectives can be numerated as:

1- To destabilize members’ power of thinking in the face of critical circumstances

2- To prepare for change in the exterior milieu

3- To block members’ contact with the outside world

4- To prevent internal antagonistic moves against the made decisions

5- To get members ready for committing whatever command

6- To grow in members the illusion of being on the right path

7- To detect suspected infiltrators

8- To enforce unquestionable submission and total devotion to the leadership

9- To detach members from all personal attachments

10- To instill into members that they are safe until they are consistent with collective organizational identity

The organization strongly believes that the authority of change is beyond questioning and it is the most urgent task to be accomplished because:

1. It is essential for any ideological alteration

2. It is to legitimize organizational identity

3. It is the criterion to determine ideological disobedience

4. Being passive against it equals to becoming passive and slanting to enemy

5. Any reluctance to undergo it means being overpowered by anti-revolutionary, bourgeois attributes

6. vAnd finally, submission to change means an everlasting attraction towards the pole of the ideological leadership

Once Massoud Rajavi said “the effect indicates the cause”. He meant to say that change sets up the base for the continuation and legitimacy of the organization and it has to be ascertained within the organization through a change in ideological principles and teachings. It eventually crystallized into a cult. The ideological revolution set the door open for the change and Rajavi insisted it was a rebirth that all members necessarily had to go through it:

All have to experience this rebirth. All the sins you have committed comes to an end. Either you leave or accent to change. Make sure nobody remains but revolutionized among the real Mojahedin. Except those who may have not be informed. 2

Rajavi would compare the ideological revolution to a forge wherein the members had to be melted and reshaped as he desired them:

This [ideological revolution] is to test you; we need iron men. We seek new versions of power and capacity. Those Mojahedin who pass through this forge will be more rough and resistant. 3

As stated earlier, it was not a change only intended for the organization but aimed to encompass a grater milieu out of the organization:

Because of the fundamental role of this value system [ideological revolution] in ideology in general, the extent of the consequent changes within it included all the reactions and the individual- organization relations with the widespread scene of social and political sphere. 4

Thus, the ideological revolution turns into a standard to measure the members’ fidelity and commitment to the organization and leadership:

It is the ideological gauge that decides how good you are, and you are bad to the extent of the criticism you receive, and your power of dynamism depends on the change you undergo. 5

The ideological revolution before being considered an extraordinary way of initiating change in Mojaheidn Organization can well be defined as an internal coup d’état to accomplish Rajavi’s own ambitions and promoting him to the highest and unbeatable status of a hegemonic leader and even above that. Explained by Anne Singleton:

It [ideological revolution] is now operating around a pseudo-religious ideology for which Rajavi is the deity. Was the change necessary? Did they have to change in order to survive? It is possible to argue that any organisation has a degree of organic and dynamic change built into it. Also, that it must be flexible enough to make pragmatic alterations to the way it operates as a consequence of both the world it exists in and the demands of the situation it is in direct relation to. But the Mojahedin has done almost the opposite of what could have been expected. Rather than change in response to external demands, the organisation has wilfully ignored these and instead, obeying its own internal dynamic, rendered itself more and more distant from any constituency it might possibly have previously had recourse to for support. This internal dynamic is controlled directly by Rajavi himself and it demands that the organisation, down to every last member, must be kept totally and unquestioningly obedient to him. 6

References:

1. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 99.

2. Massoud Rajavi’s speech in Paris, 1985.

3. Ibid.

4. Niyabati, Bijan; A different look at the internal ideological revolution within MKO, Khavaran publication.

5. Mahdi Abrishamchi’s speech on ideological revolution, 1985.

6. Anne Singleton; Saddam’s Private Army, Iran-Interlink, 2003.

August 11, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Mojahedin Khalq Coercive Cult Techniques

Mojahedin Khalq Coercive Cult Techniques for Manipulation of Insiders Finding out members certain personal potentialities and capacities Any organization when recruiting new members tries to discover certain MEK coercive cult techniques potentialities and capacities in them for a better professional classification. As a result, the new recruits are appointed to the same jobs that suit their abilities and qualify them physically and psychologically for the responsibilities. They are usually required to fill out questionnaires and to write a resume of their past responsibilities and professional proficiencies that may nominate them for a position that best fulfill the interests and goals of the organization.

The same process is followed in many cults in spite of their being unsocial. Since the initial desire of the cults is to benefit from the individuals certain abilities to manipulate them in anti-social missions that may even threaten the social security or the insiders’ own life, the recruits have to undergo an initial process of writing down or talking of their past biography that digs up untold truths. It happens that a recruit may not be fully aware of his own abilities that best suit him for a cult activity. An analysis of a recruit’s life history by the cult best nominates him/her for an aggressive activity which he/she may have never dreamed of in life but proves to be capable of accomplishing most appropriately.

In the same way that a cult’s ideology works to set the spiritual or political route of the leaders ambitions, recognition of members’ abilities works as the practical means without which no goal is ever expected to be fulfilled. Thus, recruits with inappropriate abilities and inclinations are rejected from the very beginning since they will be much troublesome elements that fail to be or become as they should. They are the ones that jeopardize the safety of the cults and make them vulnerable to irreparable coups. Singer calls them "bad actors":

And most cults weed out "bad actors" at the point of recruitment: the disobedient, the unruly, the delinquent, the hard to handle and difficult to influence are turned away. They take too much time and thus are not cost effective to change, and they break up the atmosphere the leader wants to keep in place, the ambience that by fitting in things will go better. 1

However, as the life of cults depend on the multiplicity of members and continuation of recruiting new members, they have to let unqualified members in as well. But in political cults, and in MKO in particular, the suspicious members are recognized to be purged or forced to adapt themselves to principles through a especially contrived process. In MKO it is done through going over the life history of the members to find out their weak-points to be utilized against them if they ever showed signs of antagonism against the organization and the leaders. In fact, the personal and private information that has to be kept confidential are used against the providers. The critic and dissident members have no other choice but to submit to organizational demands to safeguard the privacy which is the organization’s strongest winning card. As a defector explains:

Members afraid of their secrets being unveiled accented to anything. A never ceasing stress of secrets revelation would disturb and traumatize members and deprived them of the necessary self-confidence and the free-will. 2

That is sheer blackmail and heavily practiced by illegal and underground organizations. No legal and authorized party and organization forces its members into cooperation; the adopted process by MKO verifies illegitimacy of the organization as a political organization and best lists it as a cult of personality. Thus, the process becomes known as a technique of persuasion.

In Mojahedin organization, they employ a variety of techniques to change a member’s personality. It is common that a free man has a pile of different point of views and personal tastes and experience of his own career. But thoughtfulness and having the power of reasoning and understanding is in contradiction with the dominant hegemonic leadership within the organization. A unanimous thinking route is believed to decrease any objection, disagreement and criticism and makes all liable to obedience. Thus, any member had to pass a long process of personality change. 3

It has to be pointed out that such a process of cutinizing members’ life-history is most common in political cults that live on the founded ideologies of certain magnitude. All the members have to be dispossessed of whatever antagonistic ideologies that have spoiled them in their past social and political career to adapt themselves to the cult ideology. It is a hard examination to pass since all those they would be closely associated in the past are viewed as foes unless they fall in with the cult’s ideology:

In some political cults, members repeatedly had to go over their backgrounds as part of examining their "class history." Each person’s life was orally inspected and reviled. Members were told their thinking was totally determined by the bad class they had been reared in. Even working-class members had their thinking pulled apart and attacked as still reflecting "the training and education that is controlled by the ruling [bourgeois] class." Some leftist groups rebuke their members with Chairman Mao’s words that "every kind of thinking is stamped with the brand of class." In some rightist groups, members have to "purify" their personal histories by not mentioning relatives, friends, or "connections" who are not of the right political persuasion in their outlook or who are, for example, of color or foreign born. 4

Obtaining even the least information about a member’s conflicting social class and status, MKO value it as working tool to reproach a member when it becomes conscious of any form of objection. For instance, a member might be heavily attacked and criticized for having strong inclination to bourgeoisie while the objection and disobedience has nothing to do with the class at all. An excerpt from Massoud Banisadr’s memoirs sheds much light on the issue:

Then she asked me to leave everything and think about my bourgeois tendencies and write about them. In this meeting any time she wanted to call me unlike before and despite everybody else, she was using my both name, first and family name, reminding me of my family tendencies and my relation tendency toward ‘Banisadr, the president.’ Soon it became her custom to name me by my first name and family name at the same time and in no time I could see every body else is naming me in the same manner. So from then on even I had to suffer from my own name not only from my own masouls but from any body else including people under my own responsibility. As I was told to see my self as a bourgeois and see all my behaviour, including my ‘kindness’, ‘understanding’, ‘caring’ and ‘helping’ toward others as a ‘bourgeois tricks ‘for “fooling people and keeping them within chains of its own trap.” I was trying very hard not to show any affection toward any body and even more, create some dislike and hate toward myself. 5

Similar to other cults, the Cult of Mojahedin, tolerating no disobedience on the part of members, masterminds coercive techniques so cleverly that members feel to be in the organization’s debt rather than its antagonist.

References:

1. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, p.168.

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

3. Ibid.

4. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, 166.

5. Masoud Banisadr; Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel.

July 28, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Camp Ashraf, the Micro Model of Future Iran!

Although you may be familiar with MKO’s rhetoric and its dual face when addressing the world outside versus its strongly closed internal fort, you could be possibly taken by surprise to hear its leaders once more reiterating brazenly what they dreamed for the future Iran with not in the least belief to what they publicize. Of course, majority of the gathering hired crowed in the Paris-Nord Exhibition Hall on June 28 hardly knew what Maryam Rajavi was saying in her speech because neither had they any basic information about the organization nor were they to be under any further aegis of MKO as its supporters.

The gathering was claimed to be incorporated representatives from the Iranian exile community residing in various countries in Europe, the United States and Canada but none from Camp Ashraf whose members the organization propagate as the backbone of the Iranian Resistance against Iranian regime. Camp Ashraf Camp Ashraf,the micro model of future Iran is also known to be the ideological preserver of the organization and a micro society upon which it intends to build the future Iranian society. Thus, whatever the organization suggests for Iran has to have been already tested within its miniature model of promised utopia, Camp Ashraf.

Here is what Maryam Rajavi puts forward in her speech: ‘The future Iran we are fighting for will be a society in which all Iranian citizens enjoy freedom of speech, belief, religion, clothing, and free access to information. Everyone will be equal before the law.’

Ashraf residents In his first organizational gathering after the initiation of the ideological revolution, Massoud Rajavi in depiction of the process to arrive at the intended utopia said: “All the discoveries are first made in a laboratory before being generalized. I hope we bring this wave to the surface of the society in the near future”. Of course, he meant his novel, unprecedented discoveries through an unconventional internal revolution that totally discarded traditional social values.

Honestly speaking, are Ashraf residents, locked up within high walls of a closely watched camp to represent an Iranian micro-society, enjoying ‘freedom of speech, belief, religion, clothing, and free access to information’? I think Maryam Rajvi knew well she was joking when she was saying these words. And I do hope the organization is removed from terror lists at least because the captured souls of Camp Ashraf will be granted the opportunity of attaining physical freedom out of a dangerous cult whose leader looks upon them as scapegoats for the accomplishment of his/her cult ambitions.

Sattar Orangi, Mojahedin.ws, June 30, 2008

http://www.mojahedin.ws/news/text_news_en.php?id=1727

July 1, 2008 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi The cult of Rajavi

Rajavi, the absolute cult authority

No cult begins unless lead by a charismatic religious or political entrepreneur and hardly a cult can survive following the death of its charismatic founder unless succeeded by another charismatic successor. A charismatic leader does not appear in a vacuum and is in part the product of a larger social or political trend. To build a hierarchical authority with him atop, a charismatic leader claims divinity or special knowledge and demands unquestioning obedience and devotion from the followers. Doubting or questioning the leader’s authority is not at all tolerated and the leader may be aided by one or more core of leaders.

The guru in a cult plays the key role to lead and influence the followers. In fact, the process of brainwashing in a cult can be carried out within a structure of an absolute charismatic authority. Besides, in facing the outsiders, the built courage within the insiders originates out of the charismatic impact of the guru before whom they cringe and bow. Thus, first the recruits have to be convinced to put all trust in the leader before anything else and as Singer analyses:

Legend has it that all cult leaders are charismatic. In reality, charisma is less important than skills of persuasion and the ability to manipulate others. In order to start a group, a leader has to have ways of convincing others to follow him or her, and such leaders tend not to relinquish their control. Cult leadership can be a heady role when the leader comes to see the amount of control he or she holds and how easily he or she can influence followers. 1

Unquestionably, the spirit of self-sacrifice within a cult is fostered by devotion and absolute faith in a leader. As a result, the first step following the entry of a new recruit is to build in him/her a sense of devotion to a specific and exceptional sanctity or exemplary character by whose authority instructions or orders are revealed or ordained:

Day one is usually devoted to demonstrating the leader’s absolute authority. The leader, often called a facilitator or trainer, immediately takes control of the setting with a demeanor that suggests he is a powerful, in-charge person and no one is to challenge what he says.”This program works,”the trainer proclaims.”It’s all up to you to obey and get the maximum benefits.”He remains totally in charge, acts knowledgeable, and is practiced in verbal skills, so that he never loses an encounter. Anyone who challenges the trainer will be humiliated and verbally mashed. 2

The idea is strongly infused into the members and, going through the totalitarian authority of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization or the cult of Mojahedin’s leadership, one can easily notice the cult-like leadership in its most excessive practice in the group. The complexity of leadership relations within MKO requires a study of its own which comes in the category of a variety of phases. There are also differences in the hegemonic styles in each phase as the members’ impression of the leader changed continually as each phase came to engage the organization in a different enterprise according to circumstances. In any case, it was the hegemonic authority of the leadership that compelled the members to take on ventures that were doomed to failure from the very beginning and no logic advocate them. Explaining the authoritative relationship between the leader and the followers in a cult Hoffer states:

It is somewhat terrifying to realize that the totalitarian leaders of our day, in recognizing this source of desperate courage, made use of it not only to steel the spirit of their followers but also to break the spirit of their opponents. In his purges of the old Bolshevik leaders, Stalin succeeded in turning proud and brave men into cringing cowards by depriving them of any possibility of identification with the party they had served all their lives and with the Russian masses. 3

Notwithstanding the deception and cult manipulation within MKO, Rajavi’s authoritative leadership has played a totally influential role in the nature of converting a political group into a destructive cult of personality. Rajavi’s hegemonic leadership can be discussed in two aspects; a) employing leadership absolutism to subjugate high-ranking members and b) to deploy the relationship between the charismatic authority and followers to establish an organizational leadership hegemony entailing absolute devotion.

References:

1- Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, introduction..

2- Ibid, 193.

3. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 62.

Research Bureau – Mojahedin.ws – May 24, 2008

May 24, 2008 0 comments

USA

The Cult of Mojahedin; Fit to Be an Alternative?

The anatomy of the contemporary political build indicates that the U.S has been always using oppositions as an internal tool in order to maintain its presence in other countries. Following a new doctrine named neocolonialism as a modern colonization, this policy has even encouraged some expansionist countries to use the oppositions as the tool in some cases. Adopting this policy mostly contributes to the abolition of various systems such as direct interference, military revolts, conducting campaigns based on true or false pretexts, and changes in military and political equilibriums and relations. In contrast to the past when the U.S replaced Alende and the Chile’s legitimate government with Pinochet using direct military coup d’etat, today they replace seemingly democratic alternatives with governments and dictators under the pretext of the development of democracy or by using similar tools that are likely to be even more appealing to the public. Considering whether the U.S is in all honesty and what is lying behind, is not the subject of this article, but is to consider the various aspects of how much the U.S can count on the oppositions such as Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) in order to subvert the Islamic Republic.

There are many instances of the US’s neo-colonialism meddling the last of which is the Iraq’s crisis; it would not be wrong to say that the existing crises in Iraq rocketed as a result of Ahmad Chalabi’s providing the US with disinformation. Not taking this case into consideration, yet there are discords within the U.S administration disputing whether to use the oppositions as a tool. In the present article it has been tried to evaluate the contingencies and hypotheses about the subject based upon the opposition’s current conditions and the U.S strategic aims in the region. Before any further discussion, it has to be pointed out that there are some factors and criterions that each opposition group should met to be appraised as an instrumental opposition by the US in the accomplishment of the objectives.

Now it has to be investigated that does MKO meet these standards to become a liable alternative to aid the US achieve its aims concerning Iran? These factors and criteria can be enumerated as the follow:

1. Having a sense of affinity with American political idealism

2. Holding a minimum of internal legitimacy

3. Being a reliable and trustful group

4. Having records of preceding collaboration with the US

5. Benefiting an international legitimacy

6. A minimum obligation of respecting the principles of human rights

7. Holding democratic capacity

8. Taking unambiguous position toward the left and Marxism

9. Standing by moral and ethical obligations

It is certain that these factors are contemplated outwardly whereas there are probably some other factors and unwritten parameters lying behind. For the present we just want to see to what degree MKO meet each of the mentioned criteria.

Having a sense of affinity with American political idealism

Considering the prolongation of the U.S interests as the first proviso of choosing an alternative, the most important proviso for the U.S or any other state is its affinity with that alternative in both politics and thoughts. In the past (dividing camps into Eastern and Western or capitalism and communism), The US was always seeking the choices which were inclined to be perceptible close in politics and thoughts with capitalism. This attitude was being adopted as opposed to leftist and radical tendencies regarding capitalism. It is worth mentioning that MKO from the very beginning recognized the US as the symbol of the capitalist camp and an imperialist. Besides, MKO ideologically considered imperialism opposing to its eclectic ideology and believed imperialism was historically doomed to annihilation.

In their early pamphlet and leader’s speeches Mojahein-e Khalq strongly denounced imperialism and capitalism. Being tried in Pahlavi’s court after his arrest, Massoud Rajavi in his testimonies stated that:

… most of the world’s problems had been created by imperialism; that the developing countries were exploited by Western banks and multinational corporations; and that the United States was propping up reactionary regimes in Vietnam, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. He continued by arguing that US imperialism was undoubtedly the main enemy of Iran, in part because it had overthrown Mosaddeq, and in part because it had armed the bloodthirsty regime that had perpetrated the crimes of June 1963. ‘Thus’, Rajavi insisted, ‘the main goal now is to free Iran of US imperialism.’ [1]

The state department of the U.S. in its first report on The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in 1994 openly discussed the group’s ideology:

The MKO’s embrace of armed struggle flows from the group’s ideology. Its conceptual framework was painstakingly developed through years of study and discourse and aggressively disseminated throughout Tehran. A renowned scholar of the Mojahedin defines the group’s ideology as:”a combination of Muslim themes: Shi’a notions of martyrdom: classical Marxist theories of class struggle and historical determinism: and neo-Marxist concepts of armed struggle, guerrilla warfare and revolutionary heroism.”8 The adoption of Marxist tenets distinguished the Mojahedin from other Iranian opposition movements: the Mojahedin argued that the struggle against the Shah was part of a larger struggle against imperialism led by the,”world-devouring”United States. [2]

In fact, both the U.S. and Mojahedin are well aware of each other’s political and ideological orientation, that is, Imperialism and anti-Imperialism respectively. Therefore, it is self-evident that the U.S. never submits to the selection of its antithesis as an alternative and MKO hardly meets the first criterion.

Holding a minimum of internal legitimacy

In today’s international political relations, no legitimate alternative can lead on unless winning a minimum of public support. That is just the case with Iraq’s today situation. Therefore the U.S has to rely on an opposition that is in a relatively good position among the public. In addition it would be much more appreciated if the opposition is having a good position among intelligentsias and the educated class. In Iran, for sure, MKO is not the least supported by people in spite of falsely made claims. Based on the U.S. State Department’s report of 30 April,2007, Mojahedin suffer the loss of social support among Iranian people as well as other political opposition parties in Iran and abroad:

Following its participation in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the group rapidly fell out of favor with the Iranian people. The new Iranian government under Supreme Leader Khomeini systematically arrested and targeted many MEK members, causing most MEK leadership to flee to Europe. [3]

In addition, Yan Richard, an Islamic scholar in I.F.R.I centre of France, expounds on the position of Mojahedin in Iran and writes:

Very much a fringe movement on the Iranian political scene, the People’s Mojahedin of Iran have always demonstrated their incapacity to take power by classical democratic means (votes, electoral campaigns, etc,). In their political logic, there is no other way to achieve their goal but by revolution, just as Mao foresaw. [4]

Exactly under the eyes of many westerners, MKO started a bloody chapter in Iran’s contemporary history following declaration of an armed struggle since it could not tolerate a widespread public rejection. It is still under illusion to gain what has long lost:

In their frenzied rejection of what they were politically and of the things they did in the context of their fight, the Mojahedin are trying to recreate a long lost virginity. They want to appear to public opinion as acceptable and legitimate. It is precisely this legitimacy that they lack in Iran. So they do everything to find it, especially in Europe. Yet they still have to jettison a heavy past. It betrays them in the present and echoes down the future. [5]

A variety of Investigations have been done on the position of MKO among Iranian intelligentsias and technocrats; there is a consensus that for sure would not be the alternative. A casual glance at the opposition-run media outside the country reveals that in case there would be any change in Iran, the Iranian demands would be far above the capacity of MKO to fulfil. Besides, there is a general belief that the life of ideological regimes like that of MKO has ended in Iran forever As a result, it is evident that the US will never turn to such an illegitimate and cultist opposition as a capable alternative.

References:

1. ERVAND ABRAHAMIAN; The Iranian Mojahedin, Yale University Press New Haven and London, p. 134.

2. The US State Department Report on The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, by Kenneth Katzman. Washington, Nov 1992. 6 p.

(Doc. call no.: M-U 42953-1 no.92-824F)

3. The U.S. state department report on 30 April.

4. Gessler, Antoine; the autopsy of an ideological drift, p. 116.

5. Ibid, p. 62.

Research Bureau – Mojahedin.ws – May 3, 2008

May 3, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Continuous monitoring of the individuals active in cults

Legal Measures to Combat Cult Violence: Continuous monitoring of the individuals active in cults Since the cults spread their threat among the societies throughout the world and nations experienced a great cult scare, the need to establish agencies and regulating laws to monitor the activities of suspicious groups and cults seemed to be an inevitable preventive measure. From the Manson family to the Moonies, the Waco sect to the Jonestown massacre, the activities of cults prompt great public concern and many NGOs and government-run agencies have devoted their resources to monitoring the activities of deviant groups. In the US alone the media continually warn of the dangers of cultic brainwashing strategies and the FBI continues to monitor closely religious groups they perceive to be potential dangers. Despite the great public and governmental attention afforded to detect destructive cults and sects, however, still a great number escape unnoticed.

The role of government to establish effective procedures besides constant monitoring of the individuals that are known to be active in certain cults is of great importance. Moreover, to ascertain the social security and build a protective wall against the threat of the cults, the government might maintain a militant protection which thereby obligates it to monitor and, if necessary, take action against destructive cults operating in a country. Indeed, it is not in any way against the practice of democracy to determine which cult or organizations or associated members have to come under the scope of a cult-monitoring activity since the society may suffer irreparable damages after unwarned, psychopathic attack or operation of a cult. In fact, it is people’s right to know and be informed of possible threats of cults and as Singer states:

Without the citizenry being aware of the power and control certain cults are wielding, democracy and freedom can be curbed one step at a time. 1

It has to be noted that because of unsettling presence of cults more people are susceptible to the threats of cults and in the same way it requires strenuous task to monitor the activists and activities. Moreover, in some occasions cults take advantage of existing flaws in the law to evade prosecution. For instance, Japan’s Aum Supreme Truth cult, responsible for a Tokyo subway gas attack which killed 12 people and injured thousands, escaped outlaw under Japan’s anti-subversion laws in January 1997 because a legal panel ruled there was no reason to believe it could still be a threat to society. Although Japan’s Public Security Investigation Agency later in 1999 conducted further investigations and began close monitoring of the cult activities with a view to re-apply for anti-subversion laws, there was no guarantee that the cult would not engage in further destructive and menacing operations.

In Iran, because of hypocritical nature of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK), the organization managed to escape security scrutiny of the newly established government. The result was irremediable for the government and the nation. It cost Iran at least two tragic explosions in the prime minister’s office and the main office of the Islamic Republic Party killing the late president Rajaee and his prime minister and more than seventy key Iranian figures. Expelled from Iran, MKO continued its clandestine activities in other countries. In Germany, for example, it was after a two-year close monitoring of the government that the group’s illegal fundraising activities were discovered:

In Germany, the government uncovered the Mojahedin’s financial activities. After a two year investigation, the German High Court on 21st December 2001 closed the Mojahedin ‘shop’ – twenty-five houses and bases – after evidence was found of misuse of Social Security and fraud. 2

Then, it becomes evident that fundraising activities of the cults, although seemingly harmless at the first look, helps equipping the cult, if it is a terrorist cult like MKO, with sophisticated, destructive arms for military operations. The devoted members of cults are motivated to engage in fundraising activities with remarkable results. As Anne Singleton, a Briton ex-member of MKO, explains:

When Maryam came to Europe in 1993, she brought with her a totally dedicated force who undertook any task required. They set about taking over from the supporters’ role of fundraising. With their bullying tactics, their productivity far exceeded anything seen before. Some were able to return up to 1500 pounds sterling, per day. But even before this, in one year alone, Iran Aid charity in the UK had a declared income of 5 million pounds. Its undeclared income has been estimated at over twice this, making a total of over 15 million pounds in one year. If this amount is multiplied for just ten countries: UK, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, then an annual amount of 150 million pounds can be estimated to have made its way to the Mojahedin organisation. If this is multiplied over ten years, then the figure of 1.5 billion pounds gives a rough estimate of the resources which Massoud Rajavi has amassed through the efforts of his devoted followers only in the streets of the West. 3

In France too, it cost the government a high price before discovering the threatening, cult nature of MKO residing there in Paris. Suspecting that MKO’s headquarters acted as the cells of plotting terrorist and cult-like activities, the French police raided its headquarters in the vicinity of Paris and arrested its leader, Maryam Rajavi, and a number of her accomplices. Reported by the Figaro after the police’s raid:

The PMOI has carried out a number of activities on French soil that are clandestine, sectarian, delinquent, and even seriously criminal. In France, tile organisation has two or three hundred militants and sympathisers. Its ‘hard nucleus’ is made up of a few dozen militants. 4

The following shocking activities by the members of MKO proved that the police had acted on the basis of confidential reports; more than twenty members set themselves on fire in the streets of Paris and other European cities with two consequent deaths. The danger of cultism isn’t always restricted to be suspicious of a cult but activities and its members whose monitoring can sound the alarm before it is too late.

Self Immolation self Immolation of The Cult of Rajavi

References:

1. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, introduction, XXVIII.

2. Anne Singleton; Saddam’s Private Army, Iran-Interlink, 2003.

3. ibid.

4. Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, Translated by Thomas R. Forstenzer, 2004, p. 95.

April 25, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Taking advantage of security-information measures against the cults’ ploys

Legal Measures to Combat Cult Violence: Taking advantage of security-information measures against the cults’ ploys It remains a matter of controversy to what extent security-information systems and measures can be productive against the cults’ threats and ploys. But, no doubt, it calls upon any country’s security apparatus to be alert to cults’ menacing activities and, in the government’s words, to smash them rigorously. It is only in these cases of destructive groups engaging in threatening social and national security that does the state security forces might have the permission to intervene. As not all the established cults are destructive and some are peacefully religious cults with regular religious rituals, the security apparatus can be advised to adopt measures against cults that might pose any harm under a peaceful guise. In the US, for example, the FBI agents trained to negotiate in hostage and armed standoff confrontations have rethought their tactics following the 1993 debacle at the Branch Davidian cult’s compound near Waco, Texas. The tragedy, a 51-day siege of followers of David Koresh, ended in the deaths of more than 80 people after cult members set fire to their fortress-like structure when federal agents tried to storm the building. Although freedom of religion is guaranteed in France by the constitutional rights set forth in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, however, in recent years, some legislation and government actions were taken against some groups and cults considered to be dangerous or criminal. Officials and associations fighting excesses of such groups justified these measures by the need to have appropriate legal tools and the need to fight criminal organizations masquerading as legitimate religious groups. With a little modification, it has been the same with active political groups particularly those with a history of violence and practice of terrorism. Taking refuge in France, the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization has shown its cult potentiality and to mobilize people for multiple protest demonstrations. In the course of Iran-US football match in Lyon in 1998, for example, and the visits of Iranian key officials to France, notably that of President Khatami in 1999 and Iranian members of parliament in February, 2001, the organization demonstrated the degree of its mass mobilizing threats that alarmed France. Reported by Associated Press, 21 June 1998, quoting some French authorities talking about some taken security measures before Iran-US football match, we read: Several Iranian opponents were not permitted to cross the Franco-Belgium border and prevented from entering French territory when the Iran-United States match was about to played Sunday night in Lyon, Interior Ministry sources stated. These Iranians, coming from Germany and the Netherlands, whose number was not given, are linked to the opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin, according to the same sources. They went on to point out that most of them had no tickets to the match and ‘did not meet the requirements for visiting France’. They were refused entry, because they represented a ‘threat to public order’. 1 The raid on MKO’s headquarters in Paris was also the result of intelligence and security preventive measures: The raid, carried out under a search warrant issued by the Paris-based anti-terrorism investigative magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, mobilised more than 1200 officials, including 80 members of the elite GIGN: France’s SWAT team. It was carried out by the Directorate for National Internal Security (DST or French counter-intelligence) with the support of the Central Command of the Judiciary Police and under the technical direction of the RAID (France’s specialised unit for hostage and terrorist incidents). Thirteen targets were surrounded in the Val d’Oise and Yvelines departments, with a particular focus on the Auvers-sur-Oise camp which was suspected to be a refuge for many active PMOI members. 2 Not only MKO in France were engaged in activities that disrupted the environment and injured public sentiments, but also severely confronted the critics and opponents as well as carrying out operations against Iranian objectives in Europe, that is to say, embassies, consulates and etc. They even considered the physical elimination of former members of movements working with Iranian intelligence (Vevak). 3 Similar preventive measures were taken in Germany in the course of the World-Cup 2006 and the German security system warned Mojahedin about any troublesome activity before the plays started. In another case, the German police raided and arrested a number of suspect MKO members: The police stated that they detained 50 persons for criminal enquiries and searched dozens of homes belonging to opposition members. The border guards prevented Iranians resident in other countries from entering Germany. Thirty Swiss members of the opposition had tried to enter Germany, according to the press release of the NCIR". 4 Long known as a globally blacklisted terrorist group, MKO is transformed into a destructive cult and a cult of personality as proscribed by the US state Department report in May 2007. In many cases, MKO is referred to as second to al-Qaeda for its globally threatening features and, in spite of being expelled from Iraq, majority of Western countries’ security apparatus are cautious about the entry of its members since they know they would have a hard task to deal with the organization if settled: In any case, there is no sanctuary for the PMOI and governments who do open their borders to them will have to exert a constant vigilance. If not, their national territory could become bases for action in violation of host countries. 5 The killing of a Brazilian man by armed plainclothes Metropolitan police who chased him into London’s Underground and killed him with shots to the head because they thought he might be a suicide bomber was only a preventive measure against further possible violent operations of al-Qaeda cult in England. It has to be taken into consideration that MKO is not an exception and security systems have to be necessarily more watchful of the organization since terrorism and cultism are interrelated features of the organization. Although its activities banned in Western countries, MKO has proved to carry destructive cult potentialities that ignore decrees of law and principles as it did in Self-immolation episodes. Unremitting surveillance of MKO as a destructive cult will be the best preventive measure to minimize its threats that jeopardizes the Western societies among whom it resides and plots cult-like activities. References: 1- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Des opposants iraniens empéchés de pénétrer en France”, Associated Press, 21 June 1998. 2- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Pierre de Bousquet: les Moudjahidin ont bascule dans une derive sectaire” interviewed by Le Figaro, 20 june 2003. 3- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Debut en Allemagne de Ia visite de Khatarni sous haute surveillance”, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, 10 July 2000 239.- Delphine Minoui, op. cit. 4- ibid. 5- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, p. 179. Research Bureau – Mojahedin.ws – April 24, 2008

April 24, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

What is a Destructive Cults?

There are many different types of destructive cults, and the diversity of cult beliefs and practices sometimes makes it hard for family members and friends to decide whether their loved one is in trouble or not. Although there are still groups whose followers cut their hair short and wear identical clothing, like the member of Heaven’s Gate, this is by no mean the case with most modern-day cults group. Today, for example, many cults require their members to wear business suits so that they blend in with their environment. All cult members may not look alike, but I have found that destructive cults follow specific behavior patterns that set them apart from other groups. By learning to identify the these patterns you will be better qualified to determine if someone you care about is actually involved with a cult. A group should not be considered a “cult” merely because of its unorthodox belief or practices. Instead, destructive cults are distinguished by their use of deception and mind control techniques to determine a person’s free will and make him dependent on the group’s leader. Authoritarian Leadership In essence a destructive cult is an authoritarian group that is headed by a person or group of people that has near-complete control. Charismatic cult leaders often make extreme claims of divine or “otherworldly” power to exercise influence over their members. Many legitimate religions have had powerful figures who have inspired enormous dedication in people. Being a powerful leader is not inherently wrong , though it carries a high potential for abuse. A group becomes destructive when its leader actively uses such power to deceive members and to rob them of their individuality and free will. For example, I was told to surrender my free will (viewed as Satanic) to God’s representative, Moon, and his subleaders. Marshall Applewhite told followers that an alien entity was speaking through him, and used his message to justify his absolute control over their lives. Deception Destructive cults also use deception to recruit new members. When I was first approached by Moonie recruiters, they told me they were part f the “One World Crusade,” which I later learned was one of many front groups for the Unification Church . They claimed to be students who were involved with a small community of young people struggling to overcome cultural barriers. It was not until much later that I found what its members really believed, and what would be expected of me. What makes this all so insidious is that members often speak and act with the greatest sincerity because they have been subjected to the same mind control techniques that they used to recruit others. Destructive Cult Destructive Mind Control Finally, destructive cults use mind control techniques to keep members dependent and obedient. You will learn the specific criteria that define mind control in later but, generally, speaking, cult mind control can be understood as a system of influence that is designed to disrupt a person’s authentic identity and replace it with a new identity. By immersing people in a tightly controlled, high pressure social environment, destructive cults gain control of their members’ behavior, thoughts, emotions and access to information. They take over their mind.

April 13, 2008 0 comments

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