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Rajavis and Cult Leadership

The cult of Rajavi

The Cult of Rajavi keep members as “Non Person”

Morgan-Davies, daughter of the cult leader, said she wanted to escape from being the “non-person”. She was under her father who “was just obsessed about control”. Morgan was the “slave” daughter of the Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan who jailed her for 23 years for her imprisonment and repeated sex attacks on two followers, according to the Guardian.[1]

Every day, the world comes across revelations about abusive cults that indicate how much the world is exposed to the threat of cults. The most crucial characteristic of a destructive cult is its power to isolate people from the free world. In the isolated atmosphere of the cult, leaders have the opportunity to commit the most horrific abuses against their victims.

The No Exit report of the Human Rights Watch on the human rights abuses committed in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, published in 2005, presents various examples of violation of human rights under a strict cult-like control. 2[]

Prior to the HRW’s report, Elizabeth Rubin visited the group’s then headquarters in Iraq Camp Ashraf in 2003. Eventually, she wrote a detailed report for the New York Times under the specific title “The Cult of Rajavi”. She described the camp as “a fictional world of female worker bees” and “a factory in Maoist China”. [3]

The above mentioned reports and many other reports and evidences on the life inside the MKO point out common features of cult leaders that aid them abuse their victims. As Morgan Davis told reporters about her father,   “The people he looked up to were people like Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein.” [4]

One of the victims of years of sexual abuse by Balakrishnan, also said she was “traumatized, shocked and horrified at what he habituated me to and against which I had no defense. I will live with this torment for the rest of my life.” [5]

The other rape victim described Balakrishnan as “such an evil force” and said she suffered fear and nightmares. “He wreaked havoc on every part of my life before and after I left,” she said. “He literally shattered my life.” She said she had never managed to fully rebuild her family relationships. [6]

This is the very characteristic of the leader of the MKO too. Although Massoud Rajavi tries to cover the abusive nature of his cult under the mask of a pro-democracy political organization, he is usually symbolized by dictators including Polpot and Saddam Hussein. Professor Paul Sheldon Foote from California State University writes: “the During the American hostage crisis, the MEK participated and called for the executions of the Americans. Rajavi is anti-American, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist. His aim is to become the Pol Pot of Iran, even if the MEK must become a tool of the American government to achieve his aim.” [7]

Massoud Rajavi’s similarities with other dictators originates from his cultic attitude towards his followers. Thus, his character can also be compared with that of Aravindan Balakrishnan and other cult leaders like Ziona who is another example of such cult leaders whose greed for women is endless. He rules a polygamous cult in India.

Ziona, 70, is the head of a local Christian religious sect”Chana”, which allows polygamy and was founded by his father Chana on June 12, 1942. The sect believes it will soon be ruling the world with Christ and has a membership of around 400 families. Ziona has 39 wives, 94 children, 33 grandchildren and 14 daughters-in-law. Ziona is feared and worshiped by all in the village. What’s even more strange is that Ziona’s followers firmly believe that he will one day rule the earth with Jesus.  [8]

Now, let’s get back to Massoud Rajavi. He runs a polygamous cult, according to the testimonies of former female members of the MKO. Batoul Soltani is one of the female victims of Massoud Rajavi whose revelations about abuses committed in the cult has become a credited source for cult experts. . This is Wikipedia’s account about this victim of the Cult of Rajavi:

“Batul Soltani (born in 1965) is an Iranian politician who is former member of the leadership council of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI. Soltani is a political activist and critic and a former twenty-year member of the Mujahedin leadership council. In December 2006, she escaped from the Camp Ashraf. In interviews regarding the Rajavi cult as an example of cultic behavior and mind manipulation. she has spoken about the sexual exploitation of the women in this cult after the her escape. She continued by pointing to numerous cases of Rajavi’s exploitation of the women of this cult and said: “Massoud Rajavi was using many of the divorced women in this cult, who had been forced to separate from their husbands to satisfy his sexual desires.” [9]

Batoul’s shocking revelations about what is going on inside the MKO camps is available on Nejatngo website in details. Her bitter experience of living in the Cult of Rajavi is confirmed by other female defectors of the group including Zahra Mirbagheri and Nasrin Ebrahimi who also left the group in the past decade.[10]

Isolated from the outside world, Massoud Rajavi tries to keep his victims as non-persons whose rights and even whose existence are ignored.  The news of violation of human rights, sex abuse, child abuse, manipulative control and etc. in cults, as recent as 2016, is a warning for the world community that the threat of cults is not over. More than three decades after the tragic ending of the cults in Jonestown, Guyana and the Waco, Texas   the authorities of countries should still beware of such a menace. They should be even more cautious than before because these cult members who have been under severe mental abuse have the potential to simply turn into extremist terrorists like Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Booth, Robert, Maoist cult leader jailed for 23 years as ‘slave’ daughter goes public, The Guardian, 29 January 2016

[2] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/79

[3] Rubin, Elizabeth, The Cult of rajavi, the New York Times Magazine, July 13, 2003

[4] Booth, Robert, Maoist cult leader jailed for 23 years as ‘slave’ daughter goes public, The Guardian, 29 January 2016

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] Sheldon Foote, Paul, American Demons, paulsheldonfoote.blogspot.com, November 13, 2011

[8] ZeddMonsang, Strange polygamous Christian Cult, The More the Merrier!, The Zephyr Diaries

September 29, 2012

[9] Wikipedia

[10]https://www.nejatngo.org/en/tag/womens-rights-abuse-by-mujahel

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Massoud Rajavi

Many faces of Masoud Rajavi and his supporters

Lack of ideological consistency in certain politic men causes smacks of corruption. This is one of the main reasons to describe the Mujahedin Khalq Organization as hypocrites who have changed many faces since the establishment of the group. Supporters of such a group seem to own the same factor –hypocrisy—in their carrier.

As an anti-Shah anti-imperialist group the MKO supported the Islamic Revolution in Iran embracing the revolution leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The leader of the group, Massoud Rajavi turned against the newly-established government of Iran and sided with the enemy fighting his country, Saddam Hussein. After a decade of serving Saddam Hossein to suppress the uprising of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, the collapse of the land lord in 2003 made Massoud Rajavi to sell his cult-like group to American military. Since then, the MKO –that was once an anti-America armed group—has shifted to a pro-American cult that lobbies in the US government paying large sums to US politicians in order to run its regime change agenda.

It is not surprising that those well-paid politicians who embrace the MKO have at least one characteristic in common with the group: they both change many faces just to run their goals. For them, the ends justifies the means. Howard Dean sounds to be one example of these politic men whose “ends” include the money he receives from different lobbies.

According to a report by Lee Fang on the Intercept, Dean who has been a longtime supporter of a single-payer health care plan has changed tune. Lee Fang states, “This evolution of Dean, known within many circles for his spirited critique of the Iraq War during the 2004 Democratic primary, comes as he has settled into a corporate lobbying career.” [1]

 “ In his new career, he has helped drug companies maintain monopoly power, reversed his old positions on Medicare prices, and worked to undermine a critical component of the Affordable Care Act,” The Intercept’s correspondent describes Howard Dean’s shifting ideas. “ Though known for his anti-war rhetoric in 2004, Dean has accepted money from Mojahedin-e Khalq, an extremist group seeking regime change in Iran and has criticized President Obama’s negotiations with Iran.”

As an alleged democrat figure who opposes military action, he was an MKO agent in the US Congress to obstruct negotiations with Iran. Lee Fang introduces Dean by this subtitle “Paid by Iranian extremist group, bashing Iran negotiations”. He states Dean’s greed to receive the MKO’s money. ”In 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dean was receiving speaking fees from the group,” He writes. “Around that time, Dean began vociferously arguing on behalf of the MEK, even though he conceded that he had known little about the group before joining its cause.”

Fang describes the MKO’s violent substance in this paragraph to reveal the extent the group supporters are misled:

“The Mojahedin-e Khalq, an exiled Iranian group that has attempted for years to overthrow the government of Iran, paid Dean to help in its campaign to be delisted as a U.S.-recognized terrorist group. That year, Dean traveled along with other paid MEK supporters, including Rudy Giuliani, to appear in Berlin with the group and demand that Western nations recognize the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi as the president of Iran. In addition to carrying out a campaign of terrorism against Iran, the MEK helped Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War crush rebellions in Iraq’s Shiite and Kurdish communities. “Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” Rajavi once said.”

Brainwashed and/or bribed by the MKO, “Dean came out against President Obama’s policy of engagement with Iran, declaring that the U.S. negotiations failed to account for the interests of the MEK”. Last year, he criticized Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama “far, far too eager for a deal with Iran.”

But, It seems that Howard Dean is “far, far too eager” for money, just like his contributor Massoud Rajavi. Logic, morality and even politics are of no value for these people. What pushes them forward is their ambitions to reach their goals. No matter how immoral and inhumane are their goals. 

By Mazda Parsi

Source:

Fang, Lee, Howard Dean Says He’s Not a Lobbyist But He Sure Acts Like One, the Intercept,

Jan. 21 2016

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Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi strangled by his own red line

There was a time when Ebrahim Mohammad Rahimi and others like him were willing to fight and die for the MEK and its leader Massoud Rajavi. Not any more. What was once a mass movement of over half a million Iranians has been reduced to a group of old and sick former combatants sitting it out in a closed camp in Iraq with no hope for the future. Neither struggle nor normal life are open to them now. In many ways, Ebrahim has been among the lucky ones. After the 2003 invasion he decided to leave Iraq and, after spending four years in the Temporary Internment and Protection Facility (TIPF) run by the American army, was able to join family members in England. In 2010, he was reunited with his fifteen-year-old son who had been left with his grandparents in Iran as a baby when both his parents – former political prisoners – joined other MEK combatants in Iraq in the 1980s. Ebrahim continued to support the MEK in England as an activist. He encouraged his son to be involved too. But what should have been the beginning of a new and happy future for father and son has been sadly cut short. Ebrahim is dying of brain cancer in a London hospital. His son, Sepher, and other family members and friends attend him in his last days.

Ebrahim’s only dying wish is to speak a few words with his estranged wife who is still trapped in Camp Liberty in Iraq. Sepher, who is now twenty, would also like to renew a relationship with his mother. Since 2010 he has only been able to speak by phone to his mother three times, and each time, he says, the call was controlled by MEK minders. In August 2015, after Ebrahim’s devastating diagnosis, they wrote to Maryam Rajavi in Paris asking her to allow this contact. They had no answer. They tried through the MEK in London, with the paperwork needed to bring her to London prepared by their lawyer through the UNHCR in Iraq. Still they received no help.

Instead the MEK began a vicious defamation campaign against the father and son. The MEK’s efshahgah website and others accused Ebrahim of being a long standing “agent of the Iranian regime’. Although this is the standard response of the MEK to its enemies, nobody could have been more surprised than Ebrahim himself that he is now being accused of this faux crime. Ebrahim remains a loyal supporter of the MEK. His son also. Even worse, the MEK began writing on behalf of his former wife; this time saying that Ebrahim had forced their son Sepher to work for the Intelligence agency of the “Khomeini regime”. Of course, for anyone familiar with the MEK this label is not new, nor does it carry any weight. It is not based on fact but is in fact the name given to the ‘red line’ used by Massoud Rajavi to define who he thinks his enemies are. MEK members and supporters at all levels are inculcated with fear of these enemies. It is a cultic control mechanism.

Rajavi first began delineating this red line in order to take control of the MEK after he and others left Iran in the early 1980s. The first victims of this red line were members of the newly formed National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) of which the MEK was only one member among several. Rajavi systematically began to draw his red line closer and closer to the needs and demands of his Mojahedin Khalq organisation. Those who disagreed with him were forced to leave the NCRI. Rajavi labelled them traitors and enemies of the Iranian people, addicted to the regime as agents of the Intelligence Ministry of Iran. This red line tactic suited him well. With hundreds of thousands of members and supporters in Iran and in the west, Rajavi intensified his aim to be recognised as the ‘sole leader of the Iranian resistance movement against the regime’. In 1985 he used his controversial marriage to Maryam Azodanloo to re-position this red line. Anyone who did not agree with his leadership was ousted from the MEK. Many left – including some who could have rivalled Rajavi for leadership of the organisation. Over the intervening years Rajavi used this strategy many times. Each time he announced a new ideological demand the red line would fall between those who accepted his leadership and those who didn’t. After each round of purges Rajavi would set about trying to recruit new members with the changed ideological framework. It didn’t work.

Little by little the MEK has shrunk as he labelled more and more people as his enemies. Alongside this strategy Rajavi tried to frighten his followers into staying with him by labelling anyone who spoke out against the organisation as ‘agents of the Iranian regime’. What outsiders may not be aware of is that Rajavi deems this ‘crime’ as punishable by death and that the reason such enemies are still alive are lack of opportunity and because of prioritising the overthrow of the ‘Iranian regime in its entirety’ before dealing with such critics. All well and good when these enemies really are against you. One such former member was Hadi Shams Haeri who rejected membership of the MEK following Rajavi’s forced divorces. Shams Haeri came to live in Holland where he began to campaign alongside other former MEK members to get his children back with him. Unfortunately, he succumbed to cancer in June 2012 without ever being reunited with his grown-up children. Shams Haeri’s actions attracted vitriolic attacks from the MEK. His demand to see his family fell outside Rajavi’s red line that separated families and banned all relationships except with him. Shams Haeri rejected Rajavi and paid the price.

Now with the situation of the Mohammad Rahimi father and son, it appears the red line is drawn even tighter. Ebrahim came from the heart of the MEK to help them in London. He and his son remain loyal to Rajavi and his aims but find themselves outside the red line simply because they want to have contact with a family member. Rajavi cannot tolerate any such contact. He wants to ban every relationship which doesn’t centre on him. Perhaps as a result of this unbearable, impossible demand, ten names have come to light over the past year of men and women inside the MEK base in Paris – from high ranking members right up to the top cult lieutenants (those just below second-in-command Maryam Rajavi) – who are on the brink of committing suicide or running away from the MEK. This will happen. It is inevitable.

As Rajavi’s red line grows ever tighter there will soon be no more room for anyone. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Mehdi Abrishamchi himself – Rajavi’s most trusted lieutenant – is soon found outside the red line. The only real task of everyone’s existence at this point is about how they can squeeze themselves inside the red line and not attract Rajavi’s wrath. Surely they are suffocating. The wonder is that these people appear unaware of their predicament. Someone who is on the brink, don’t they see that they will be next to be expelled from the MEK and subjected to character assassination on the Efshahgar website?

What is amazing is that the people remaining in the MEK do not appear to see that it is not the excluded who have changed but that Rajavi’s red line is drawn tighter and tighter around him to exclude thousands of former members and supporters. Normally, cult leaders grow their cults, attracting and recruiting new members, or as a minimum, maintaining what numbers they have. But since Rajavi stole the half-a-million-strong movement in the 1980s he has shrunk the MEK to fewer than two thousand people, most of whom are sick and old and trapped in the base in Iraq waiting to be moved to safety. This can only lead us to conclude that Massoud Rajavi is not a very effective cult leader. Not only has he failed to attract any new members for many years, but he cannot even tolerate the few followers he has left. If his red line gets any tighter only he and Maryam will be left. After he rejects her will he be unable to tolerate even his own company? Suicide then will be his only option; he can use his red line to hang himself.

Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com

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Albania

What’s going on in the MKO camp in Albania?

Following the relocation of hundreds of the MKO members from Iraq to Albania, defecting from the group has increased. A defector of the group is publishing reports on the situation of the group’s base in Albania; the reports are published under the pseudonym “Mehdi Tofiqi”. According to his reports, leaders of the cult of Rajavi awfully panic the decline of their establishment. Therefore, supervision and control over members have become stricter. Here’s an extract of Tofiqi’s account of what is going on in the MKO base in Tirana, Albania:

The leadership of the MKO tries to change the list that is prepared by the UNHCR. They make efforts to list the names of those who should be relocated under their own control and supervision.

They want the relocation process to be gradual and under their control. Their meticulously prepared list includes fifteen people who should be supervised by a Rajavi’s henchman. Besides, the leadership has sent thugs like Javad Khorasan and Farzaneh Meidanshahi to Albania to control the collapsing structure of the group, here.

The main camp in Tirana is located near a highway. The building‘s façade is made of glass. It is called “Camp 49”. The group’s officials have made an eating place in the building which opens to a Police Station – the Albanian police controls our arrival and exit. The Albanian government have also placed a guarding team in front of the camp because they do not trust the group authorities. The cult-like organizational meetings are held in this building too.

Despite Rajavi’s insistence on concentration of the group forces in a single base like camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, here in Tirana, he has taken a new policy; he prevents the accumulation of members. Particularly, recently relocated ones are kept in small rooms. The windows of the building are covered by newspapers because they want to prevent members from seeing the outside world…

Teams of female commandants come to Tirana from Auver sur d’Oise, Paris to hold brainwashing sessions regularly. The dispatched teams of Maryam Rajavi have two main goals. First, to hold meetings where films of the so-called ideological revolution and speeches of Massoud Rajavi are shown repeatedly in order to stop the deep depression of members and the increasing process of defection.

The second goal of the authorities in Albania is to send their spies to penetrate among defected members. The spies provide daily reports on the conditions of the defectors’ lives in Albania. The reports are then sent to the authorities in order that they can plan new agenda to impose more pressure on defectors…

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The cult of Rajavi

How to end the Cult of Rajavi

Terrified people who are restricted in a cult-like system do not want to be free, they want to be protected. Cult leaders keep people in the state of terror so they cannot think of freedom, even they may give their freedom to the cult leaders willingly. They won’t realize the necessity of freedom unless they are aided from the outside world.

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/the Cult of Rajavi) is a destructive cult according to the criteria suggested by the prominent cult expert, Margaret Thaler Singer.

The first criterion comes from the group’s use of a specific set of mind control tactics. The MKO leaders use various tactics to brainwash their rank and file. Members are forced to report their thoughts and their dreams. They have to attend daily self-criticism meetings where they are under severe peer pressure. They are totally barred from family and friends.

A destructive cult is an authoritarian in its power structure. Although the Rajavis chant slogans of democracy and freedom, they keep their followers under a restrict totalitarian hierarchy. Everyone in the cult of Rajavi supervised by his superior comrades. Celibacy is obligatory. Forced labor is scheduled for all members. Protesting against the system or the leaders results in solitary confinement, torture or even death.

However, the charismatic, determined, and dominating portrait that the leaders show keeps the focus of love, devotion and allegiance on them. That’s why after the arrest of Rajavi by the French Police in June 2003, several members of the cult set themselves on fire.

Thus, it is absolutely vital to help and facilitate the release of the members who are still taken as hostages in the Cult of Rajavi. Most of the group members will eventually walk away from the totalitarian system, but this may take place after decades of exploitation and personality destruction. So-, it is vitally important to stop the cult-like dominance of the Rajavis.

Today, families of the MKO members try their best to help their children leave the cult system. They travel to Baghdad, Iraq to urge the authorities of Camp Liberty to have contact with their loved ones. They write letters to international human rights bodies. They visit certain officials who are in charge of the group’s relocation from Iraq. However, the authorities of the Cult of Rajavi obstruct all efforts made by the families who want to express their unconditional love to their loved ones in the cult. The authorities of the UNHCR should work to make the least rupture in the tall walls of the Rajavi- made castle. They should cooperate with the families to help their children liberate themselves from the bars of Rajavi’s prison, otherwise there is no end for the tragedy of lost lives of abused individuals.

By Mazda Parsi

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Former members of the MEK

MKO former member: Rajavi is a loser

Sirous Ghazanfari is a defector of Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult. In 2004 he separated the group and repatriated to his homeland. Now Sirous has his own business. He is married and has two children.

In an interview with Nejat Society Mr. Ghazanfari talks about his experiences within the MKO Cult and his life after separation from the cult:

“In 1998, I was prisoner of Iran- Iraq War. A year later due to the unbearable pressure of the prison along with the intense propaganda of the MKO elements within the Iraqi prisons I forced to join the group.

After joining the group, I spent the military, political and cultic phases within the cult.

After the US attack on Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s downfall in 2003, I had the opportunity to defect the group, though endured severe sufferings. ..”

“When I first entered Iran I had to face some difficulties to find a job and making a life due to my age. However I gradually overcame the difficulties….  Now I have my own business. .. I am married and have two children; Kowsar and Taha. …

Mr. Ghazanfari recommends his ex- comrades and friends who are still caught behind the bars of the cult to liberate themselves from the mental barriers of the cult.He says:

my dear friends!

The Organization [MKO] instills the members that separation from the group and starting a new independent life is impossible and those who detach the MKO will not have a good fate. But fortunately the good experiences of those who have already separated the group proved otherwise. …. You should decide your own fate. Be decided and take the first step…. “  

Referring to the recent activities of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Mr. Ghazanfari says: ”I have abandoned all organizational relations. However I follow their activities through media- print,broadcast,internet. So as, I am aware of what is happening within the organization. I know that Rajavi has enslaved some helpless people in Iraq’s deserts and unfortunately caused the killing of 24 of them recently…Rajavi’s obstacles on the way of the member’s relocation caused their death…  The current government of Iraq wants Rajavi to move his followers from Iraqi territory…Yet Rajavi denies the Iraqis’ demand and even interferes in the internal affairs of Iraq… He hinders the members’ relocation process because he want to make more martyrs…

Rajavi is losing Camp Liberty as its Cult ideological base. The MKO’s support for rebels in Iraq and Syria brought nothing good for the group. The Saudi Arabia has not the potential to take in MKO members….

Rajavi is a loser and all his efforts is to maintain the group’s position in Ouver Sur d’Oise, France. He is fantasizing for some international incidents to take place to fish in troubled water.

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The cult of Rajavi

True Threat of Terrorism: Human Beings who turned into “acolytes” of Rajavi

Over the past decades, much of the attention of the world have been focused on the radical extremist groups such as AlQaeda and ISIS. But the true threat actually comes from the cult-like structure of these groups. Cult-like controlling system and the indoctrination methodology of these groups finally results in the most horrible acts of violence.

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK) is characterized as one of these destructive cults that threat the world’s security. Elizabeth Rubin the prominent journalist of the New York Times, was first to call the MKO, “the Cult of Rajavi”. The phrase was based on her first-hand experience of visiting the group’s base in Iraq, Camp Ashraf.  About the world she witnessed in the MKO camp, she wrote:

 “When I arrived at Camp Ashraf, the base of the group’s operations, in April 2003, I thought I’d entered a fictional world of female worker bees. Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in khaki uniforms and mud-colored head scarves, driving back and forth in white pickup trucks, staring ahead in a daze as if they were working at a factory in Maoist China. I met dozens of young women buried in the mouths of tanks, busily tinkering with the engines. One by one, the girls bounded up to me and my two minders to recite their transformations from human beings to acolytes of Ms. Rajavi. “[1]

As Rubin asserts, members of the Cult of Rajavi transformed from “human beings to acolytes of Rajavi “. But what the leaders of the cult want to show off is entirely different from what they really are. Jeremiah Goulka is one of the authors of the RAND Corporation report on the Mujahedin Khalq. He criticizes the US high profiles who support the group and finally removed it from the list of terrorist organization. ”Accidentally or not, though, the speakers were helping to raise the profile and legitimize the aims of a cult group that will not bring democracy to Iran and has no popular support in the country,” he warned. [2]

The group will not bring democracy because it has not practiced democracy in its four-decade history. “After my visit, I met and spoke to men and women who had escaped from the group’s clutches,” Rubin writes. “Many had to be deprogrammed. They recounted how people were locked up if they disagreed with the leadership or tried to escape; some were even killed.” [3]

“Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden. From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts.” [4]

Rubin also refers to RAND report, “ A 2009 RAND Corporation study found that up to 70 percent of the group’s members there might have been held against their will. “ [5]

Regarding the cult-like terrorist substance of the MKO, its leaders’ efforts to pretend the group as a democratic alternative to the Islamic republic is ridiculous. The so-called president elect of the group starts her fabrications in an article raising the issue of the “radical factions” who shake “the world with their ability to convince ordinary people to commit unspeakable atrocities.”

 As leaders of a cult, Massoud Rajavi and his wife definitely know how “to convince ordinary people to commit unspeakable atrocities”. The “acolytes” of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, committed numerous acts of violence including military operations, mortar attacks, suicide attacks and assassinations. One significant example of the MKO’s “unspeakable atrocities” was the suppression of Kurdish uprising in Iraq. Read Rubin’s account of the story: “In 1991, when Mr. Hussein crushed a Shiite uprising in the south and attempted to carry out a genocide against the Kurds in the north, the Rajavis and their army joined his forces in mowing down fleeing Kurds.

“Ms. Rajavi told her disciples, “Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” Many followers escaped in disgust.” [6]

Today, with the increasing growth of defection from the MKO and the decline of the group following the relocation of its rank and file from Iraq to Europe, the group leaders make efforts to hook their survival to the West. In their masquerades to boast a democratic portrait, Rajavi introduces her cult as “moderate Muslim” that is suppressed by the Islamic Republic. 

Presenting a solution to the trouble of the region, she tries to pass her cult off as “an interpretation of genuine Islam that is both democratic and tolerant” that should be accompanied with “military campaigns and intelligence operations in the region”.

Jeremiah Goulka correctly suggests that the MKO’s real aim is “to have the United States install the MEK as Iran’s new government”. He warns, “That would mean war. The MEK may deny wanting violent regime change, but the only conceivable way it could become the next government in Tehran would be at the head of a U.S. invasion force.”[7]

Goulka advises the American supporters of the MKO, “Aligning ourselves with the MEK would undermine any attempt at credibility among Iranians because it would make us look like dupes.” [8] He is absolutely right but looking like “dupes” is the least danger that a community in which the MKO followers are living is posed to.

Brainwashed members of the Cult of Rajavi have several times showed their ability to commit “unspeakable atrocities”. A dozen of them set themselves on fire to protest the arrest of their leader by the French Police, in June 2003. Two female members of the cult lost their life because of self-immolation.

The Rajavis are definitely professional on the most effective methods to turn ordinary people into devotees who commit appalling violence.

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] RUBIN, ELIZABETH, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, The New York Times, August 13, 2011

[2] Goulka, Jeremiah, The Cult of MEK, The American Prospect, July 18, 2012

[3] RUBIN, ELIZABETH, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, The New York Times, August 13, 2011

[4] ibid

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] Goulka, Jeremiah, The Cult of MEK, The American Prospect, July 18, 2012

[8]ibid

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The cult of Rajavi

Brainwashing? There should be a law against it

Shocking revelations about Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan and his female victims in a suburb of London shone a light on the normally hidden phenomenon of cultic abuse which pervades society. The danger now will be that this is treated as just another sensational story before being placed on a journalistic ‘bizarre incident’ list along with Jonestown, Wako and Heaven’s Gate, as a freak occurrence.

Sadly, practitioners in the field of cult awareness know of thousands of lonely families suffering the loss of loved ones to cultic abuse with little recourse to help or even acknowledgement.

As a former member of the political cult Mojahedin Khalq, I am intimately familiar with the methods which Balakrishnan used to control and exploit his victims. As this case has highlighted, for a person caught up in cultic abuse there is no exit, they are in fact modern slaves. Indeed, the 2005 report on the MEK by Human Rights Watch was named ‘No Exit’.

If the experience of the daughter and the other victims in the Balakrishnan case are to teach us anything, it is that this is more common than we’d like to believe and that such ghastly behaviour – much like child abuse – thrives on secrecy and collusion; that is, the unwillingness of successive governments to acknowledge this as a widespread problem. More than anything we need to explode the myth that cults are about religion. They are not. The illusion that ‘new religious movements’ are relatively harmless belongs thirty years in the past. But for years, families and former cult members have been dismissed, even denigrated, as hysterical, malicious or delusional or have been exploited for entertainment by the media. No wonder they are reluctant to speak out.

Even when families do bravely confront the cults which have enslaved their loved ones, they find themselves battling litigation, intimidation and disbelief.

Government failure to engage with this phenomenon has left the public unprotected. While civil law protects a designated group of vulnerable people from undue influence, cult experts argue that anyone can be susceptible to deceptive cult recruitment at some point in their lives; people are usually in a state of transitioning when they get involved in cults. This emphasis on susceptibility not vulnerability is an important distinction because it places culpability directly on the intention and activities of the perpetrator rather than looking for deficiencies in the victims. The Balakrishnan cult case is unusual because the leader was prosecuted, not just because the victims were rescued.

Interestingly, techniques for deceptive psychological manipulation are already acknowledged and understood in various modern contexts where coercive persuasion is used for cynical exploitation and enslavement. These include partner abuse, grooming for sex, spiritual abuse, abusive therapy, extremist violence and terrorism. All these are regarded as morally repugnant. But as yet we lack a law which covers the activity which underlies them all.

In the modern vernacular, the term brainwashing is used by ordinary people exactly to describe an unaccountable change of mind and/or personality in an otherwise normal person. Bewildered families of young people travelling to Syria say their children have been brainwashed. The government needs to catch up with scientific and social understanding of this phenomenon if we are to be protected. Are MPs aware, for example, not whether, but how many fully brainwashed cult members are working in sensitive national security roles? We know they exist because as cult counsellors we talk with their families. Yet the phenomenon is glossed over as almost immaterial.

Cultic abuse – known in the vernacular as brainwashing – has a very precise definition. It is not about ‘using advertising to brainwash us into buying things’ or ‘brainwashing us into becoming docile citizens under government dictates’. These are false and unhelpful myths. Neuropsychology explains that ‘changing your mind’ is a physical experience which can be scientifically identified. Brainwashing is not about doctrine, it is about the psychologically manipulative techniques used to literally ‘change’ our minds.

In more legalistic terms it is ‘the deliberate and systematic application of an array of recognised techniques for psychological manipulation without the knowledge or informed consent of the victim  in order to effect a breach of a person’s mental, emotional, intellectual and social integrity for the purposes of abuse, exploitation, slavery and/or pecuniary gain, and to so inhibit their critical faculties that they do not recognise their own predicament so that they may act in ways harmful to their best interests and the interests of society on instruction or by command or by neglect.

The advantage of criminalising cultic abuse in this way is that it is ideologically neutral and does not reflect any particular belief system but straightforwardly describes harmful behaviour. This would protect all our citizens and an obvious place would be an amendment to the new Modern Slavery Bill passed in March.

Prime Minister David Cameron has already uttered the word brainwashing in speeches about Radicalisation. There was no public outcry or panic. Ordinary people know what he means. What a law would do is to give a precise definition which would allow us to ‘join the dots’ between seemingly disparate events like the Balakrishnan cult, the Rotherham grooming for sex scandal and terrorist recruitment.

Indeed, public apprehension over the war on terrorism in Syria and the perceived threat of blowback, is the perfect opportunity for the government to introduce and explain the phenomenon of brainwashing in this narrowly defined sense as an element of the Prevent Strategy. The introduction of a criminal offence which allows the detection, prosecution and punishment of this abhorrent behaviour will aid public understanding and allay fears.

Anne Khodabandeh @AnneKhodabandeh

 Anne Khodabandeh, a leading authority on cultic abuse and terrorism, works as a consultant within the remit of the UK Prevent Duty. After twenty years in the MEK, a dangerous, destructive mind control cult, she helps families through Iran-Interlink.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Iranian.com,

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The cult of Rajavi

Family, Menacing Icon for the Cult of Rajavi

One sure sign of someone being involved in a cult is that there is a clear separation from family and friends. This sign is clearly observed in the Cult of Rajavi (The Mujahedin khalq Organization/ the MKO). There are numerous cases of families of the group members residing in Camp Liberty Iraq who have been striving to visit their loved ones in the camp but they are absolutely barred by the authorities to do so and they are labeled the group authorities who forbid any kind of family relationship, label the families as “agents of the regime’s intelligence Ministry under the cover of families of the residents”.  However, the efforts of the suffering families picketing in front of Camp Liberty resulted favorably by the Iraqi Parliament.

Following the meeting between Liberty residents’ families and certain Iraqi MPs, a parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the situation of the MKO members and their families’ request to visit their loved ones in the camp. They are hoping that the Iraqi administration will take proper actions to facilitate their visit. The parliament website reported that a member of the parliament’s leadership board, Dr. Humam Hamoudi had recommended the Human Rights Commission and Foreign Relations Commission to form a delegation to visit Camp Liberty in order to get first-hand information about the situation in the camp. This will help them to transfer the family’s wishes to their loved ones about their desires to visit them in the camp.

On the other side of the battle, the MKO’s propaganda does not remain silent. It publishes a so-called letter of families of liberty residents to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. In the alleged letter, the alleged “liberty residents’ families residing in Europe and the United States” are “gravely concerned” about the lives of their children!

The so-called letter is a failed tactic because of the numerous evidences on violation of the rights of family in the MKO camps. Regardless of the grieves of a large number of families from Iran who have been endeavoring to visit their beloveds in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, the truths on the family rights abuse inside the MKO is undeniable.

Despite the MKO propaganda calls for visa for families in Europe and the US, there are families who were granted visa to travel to Iraq but they were prevented from visiting their loved ones in the Camps. Mustafa and Mahboubeh Mohammadi, whose daughter Somayeh has been taken as hostage by the MKO leaders, went to Camp Ashraf Iraq several times. They were not allowed to visit their daughter and even they were beaten by the MKO agents. However, the Mohammadis did not stop their efforts to save their daughter from the cult bars of the MKO.

Mustafa Mohammadi together with his other daughter Hurieh even went to the MKO’s headquarters in Auver sur d’oise to urge the group leaders to release their long lost daughter. Once more, they were attacked by the group agents for seeking their most basic right, the right to have a free contact with their loved one. Mostafa and Hurrieh were accompanied by another heartbroken father, Ghorban Ali Hosseinnezhad. When Gorban Ali escaped Camp Ashraf his daughter was left behind in the camp.

According to his testimonies, when he was in the camp he was not allowed to visit his daughter regularly. “The leaders of the MKO cult did not allow me and my first daughter Zeinab, 34, to visit and talk to each other while we were both in the same camp,” said Hosseinnezhad. “We were just allowed to meet each other on the New Year’s celebration for an hour or two and under their direct control and supervision.”

In Hurriyeh Mohammadi’s report on their trip to Auver sur D’oise you can read: “The Mojahedin are threatened by a father and daughter that have put their lives on hold many times and have used the little resources they have to fly to Paris to ask for the safety of Somayeh. They call themselves an organization for the liberation of the people of Iran yet they cannot even provide freedom to the ones they call their own. We will not stop fighting for the safety of our children and this will not be over until these captives are freed.”

As usual, the MKO propaganda labels the two fathers as agents of the Iranian Intelligence but there are many more evidences on the cases of violation against families in the group. Forced divorces and separation of children from parents are two iconic examples of abuses took place in the MKO after the so-called ideological revolution of Massoud Rajavi. Human Rights Watch and the US Defence Department’s RAND report, both mentioned the fact.

In Persian references you can see testimonies of former members who reveal horrible evidences about child abuses committed in the MKO camps. Manijeh Habashi and Nadereh Afshari, Batoul Soltani and many others are female defectors of the Cult of Rajavi who recount horrific facts about distorted family relations in the MKO camps. Before the children were dispatched to Europe in 1991, mothers in Ashraf were not permitted to live with their children. They were just allowed to visit their children on certain days of the week or certain hours of the day.

The above mentioned cases of violation of family rights occur in the camps of the MKO where no visa is needed to travel to visit a family member and the distance between two family members is not more than a few kilometer.

In a letter to UNHCR, former members of the MKO including Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad ask the authorities to provide residents of Camp liberty with a situation so that they can decide for their future with their free will. “Many of us have been in this organization, before being able to find a way out of it, for decades”, they state.” We are fully aware of the brainwashing and intimidation activities that take place at every level with the single aim of isolating the members from the outside world and feeding them false information and targeted propaganda to turn them against their own families.”

The signatories of the letter believe that family connections –that the MKO members have been deprived of for many years—are a key to release them mentally and eventually physically. “Based on our personal experience, we assure you that if you facilitate the meeting of the members with their families in a protected and private space, without the presence of their superiors, they will find the courage to express their true desire that is to join their families and relocate from Iraq,” they write.

While the MKO propaganda claims that Iraqi government does not grant visas to families of liberty residents, this is the call of families who repeatedly went to Iraq, stand behind the gates of Ashraf and Liberty but they were not granted “visa” to visit their loves ones who are taken as hostages behind the bars of the camp:

“We will go to any lengths and are begging anyone who can hear our voices to help us. Please help free our kids from their evil clutches. Help their voices be heard. Help mothers take their children back into their arms. Help children see the advancement of the world and live the rest of their lives not in fear but tranquility and peace.

By Mazda Parsi

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UN High Commissioner for Refugees

MKO imprisoned us and didn’t let us meet our brothers

UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Baghdad

Dear Sir,

I, Mahmonir Iranpour, am writing to you about my brothers, Ahmadreza and Mohammadreza Iranpour, who left Iran aiming to reach Turkey and then Canada or one of the European countries in December 2002 hoping to create a better future there. Unfortunately, on their way to Europe, in Turkey, they were caught by People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MKO) and then were taken to Camp Ashraf. For a long time, we were totally unaware of them until we were informed about their condition through those who had managed to flee from Camp Ashraf. Finally, for the first time, in January 2004, we went to Iraq and Camp Ashraf and succeeded in meeting them. However, we were not allowed to visit them privately in such a way that about 20 MKO members accompanied us stopping us from contacting them personally and privately.  Also, they told us that we could stay there for some nights providing no other family members were with us. Afterwards, in March 2004, we revisited Camp Ashraf with three other families. This time, not only didn’t they let us meet our brothers, but they also imprisoned and investigated us. Although a number of children and elderly people were accompanying us, they deprived us of any food for a night and then in the morning they beat and expelled us from Camp Ashraf. Afterwards, we wrote to an American commander, who was there, and sued them for what they did to us. Also, after returning back to Iran, we wrote to Human Rights Watch and complained about what they had done. At the same time when Human Rights Watch was addressing our proceedings and they were condemned, we received an Email inviting us to Camp Ashraf in November 2004 saying that this time we would be allowed to meet them provided that we were alone and no family accompany us. Having been unaware of the situation that they had been investigated by Human Rights Watch for what they had done, we went to Camp Ashraf being incognizant of their conspiracy. We and my brothers, who were dressed up formally, stayed there and were filmed. After returning to Iran, we had a telephone contact with Human Rights Watch representative in London named Doroodi, who told us that we lay and that we both had met our brothers and had taken photographs with them in Camp Ashraf.  They deceived us by taking photos pretending that we had met our brothers using these photos against us in Human Rights Watch proceedings. Now, according to your sound judgment, are they liars and fraudulent or us??

Why were deprived of meeting with our dear ones while it is a basis right and one of the elements of human rights? Our brothers are kept in Camp Liberty which is a very small place surrounded by barbed wire and concrete walls. They are physically and mentally trapped by Rajavi sect. you know that you are sometimes attacked by these people. We fear that our brothers may get hurt and we are for a long time unaware of their condition.  I hereby should remind you of binding protocols approved in United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees committee as regards the fact that refugees are entitled to choose their destination, education, contact with their relatives. Here is the question, why we are deprived of these rights and why this commissioner, as protector of refugees’ and our rights, evade their duty and deprive us of our basic rights?

I have repetitively asked for visiting both through Email or telephone contact. But, every time what I receive says that MKO members don’t allow any chance of visiting our brothers. Here is the question, generally wherever a group of people are under control of a commissioner, they should abide by the commissioner orders. Your responses in this regard are not acceptable. Unfortunately, it seems that instead of employing international regulations as regards defending refugees’ and their families’ rights, the commissioner acts against  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees committee decisions which is detrimental to those imprisoned in Camp Liberty.  It is our right to meet our brothers and we expect you to defend this right, not to deprive us of it.

Finally, I suggest that you read protocols approved by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees committee. Also, since I see myself entitled to these rights, I ask you to provide me with an opportunity to be able to meet my brothers.

Truly yours,

Mahmonir Iranpour, sister of Ahmadreza and Mohammadreza Iranpour, who are kept in Camp Ashraf

 Desember5, 2015

Shiraz- Iran,Tel: 00989173035585

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