Rajavis and Cult Leadership

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Disgusting show on the MKO television

As you may well know a large number of families of seized members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO – Rajavi cult) in Ashraf garrison, the base of MKO in Iraq, are picketing in front of the main gate of the garrison for over six months and demanding the visit of their loved ones. But the leaders of the cult refuse to fulfill this demand for unjustified excuses.

Alarge number of families of seized members of the mko in Ashraf garrison, the base of MKO in Iraq, are picketing in front of the main gate of the garrison

Today (Friday 6 Aug 2010) at 1400 Baghdad time, the satellite television of the Rajavi cult showed two of its victims called Barat-Ali Rigi and Sa’id Sohrabi-Nezhad forced to insult their own families in front of the camera. These two shattered victims under severe psychological and physical pressures imposed by the Rajavi cult were made to call their own families “vile clown” and name the action of their suffering families as “circus of animal”.

What the two mentioned seized victims have been dictated to say and they of course had rehearsed it several times was totally irrelevant to the case of the families. They said that since the resistance (alias for the Rajavi cult) is gaining victories every day and the Iranian regime is badly terrified, then they have forced the families to go to Iraq and try to see their relatives and sit in front of the gate of Ahsraf garrison for six months in intolerable conditions. The Rajavi cult has claimed through these two victims that the protests inside Iran and the sanctions imposed on the country has put the Iranian regime in the corner and hence they have put their pressure on the Ashraf garrison and have arranged the conspiracy of the families.

These allegations have been raised many times by the leaders and the elements of the cult and their excuse for not letting the members go out of Ashraf for a few hours to meet their relatives is that, as they say, the families who have come from far away round the world are agents of the Iranian ministry of intelligence. While the truth is that the MKO is in a very tight situation in Iraq and is so afraid of the mind manipulated members visiting their relatives since they see it equivalent to their emotions being roused and the effects of brainwashing fade away and consequently they leave the cult. This is what the Rajavi cult is terrified of and the rest is excuses and playing games.

But if one can assume that the cult is honest we come with a suggestion to counter the conspiracy of the families who, as said by these two members, have been sitting in front of Ashraf garrison in depressing conditions for six months. The best way is that these two who have been chosen for the television show and others who are all supposedly more intellectual and more intelligent comparing to their families spend a few hours and step outside Ashraf garrison and brief their families and persuade them to join the cult. Or even better make a trip to Baghdad and talk in front of Iraqi and foreign reporters and repeat the same words and answer their questions. But no doubt the leaders of the cult would never allow such things to happen and the reason is known to everyone.

But Massoud Rajavi must know that these disgusting television shows and forcing individuals to insult and accuse their own families would never solve any problem for him. When the families see these filthy tricks they become more certain that their relatives are victims of a cult and they become more assured that their loved ones must be saved. The truth is that the Rajavi cult in Iraq is stuck in a deadly trouble and this is why the leaders are afraid of even old parents of their followers and of course this is the auto-dynamic answer of history to those who wrongly think that end could justify means.

August 10, 2010 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi wants to be worshiped as …..!!!!!!

I would like to begin my article with my highest admiration and gratitude for Mrs Batool Soltani, the former member of Rajavi’s Leadership Council – the highest organizational rank in PMOI – because of her bravery and honesty for revealing the horrifying and shocking facts which are

Massoud Rajavi had tried his best and used whatever he could use to become a god or at least a prophet in his organization.

proving justly that this organization has been changed to a very robust notorious cult, and I can declare without any doubt in my mind that no one in the PMOI had this ability to deform the revolutionary organization to such a dangerous cult except Massoud Rajavi himself.

The facts are shocking and terrifying, and Massoud Rajavi is the source and founder of this notorious and horrifying cult.

He is the one who hollowed out the organization of any revolutionary content and replaced it with harsh cultish rules and politics.

I spent twenty years in this organization and I have seen and heard many facts that prove Massoud Rajavi had tried his best and used whatever he could use to become a god or at least a prophet in his organization. I believe the Leadership Council was his tool for reaching to that point.

Every member of the Leadership Council is a high commander and they have many subordinates (rank and file) who are under their command. The Leadership Council are all women. Their duty as they have said and mentioned on many occasions was to indoctrinate and brainwash members that Massoud is attached to God and every night he has conversation and communication with God and God’s prophet.

I remember that one of the Leadership Council, Mrs Soosan Taleghani, told us that Massoud Rajavi is Imam Hussein and Maryam is Hazrateh Zeynab. In this organization Massoud’s character was as a man without any sin and guilt and he was an innocent and sinless leader and all mistakes and sins and guilt pertained to everyone except him and his wife.

Once, Mehdi Abrichamchi (Maryam Rajavi’s first husband) said in one particular organizational gathering that, “Massoud is not responsible to anyone except God for his actions and no one is allowed to make any criticism against Massoud“. In the PMOI, no one was allowed to criticize Massoud and Maryam Rajavi and the Leadership Council. We were told all the time that whatever Massoud was saying we should accept as concrete facts and truths and we should accept his thoughts even if we did not believe in it. We did not dare to open our mouth and voice our ambiguities and doubts about his thoughts because we were afraid of its consequences. We were not allowed to reject his thoughts or even doubt them and worse of all we had to substantiate and prove that he and his thoughts were right.

The years which I spent in that organization have become my nightmares and even after 6 years in which I have separated from them, I still have nightmares while I sleep. I thought that if I joined them I will be helping the Iranian people to gain their freedom and democracy back. But now I realize that joining the PMOI was the biggest mistake that I made in my life and I cannot compensate for the loss which I suffered in my personal life any more.

According to Mrs Soltani’s recent interview about Massoud Rajavi’s strange desires and passion to become a praiseworthy and charismatic leader and his behavior and attitude toward women in his organization and nude dancing of the Leadership Council’s members in front of him and Maryam Rajavi, which makes any one sick, all show that Massoud Rajavi has made a cult inside his organization, a cult which for decades has enslaved the souls of all those men and women through indoctrination and brainwashing methods.

In this cult Massoud is the God, the prophet, the holy man, the guru, and his wife Maryam Rajavi is his first devotee and admirer who is ready to sacrifice anything for him and the Leadership Council is his tool to brainwash all those men and women in that cult to worship him as god and as a prophet.

But I want to tell Massoud Rajavi wherever he is hiding that the season for demagoguery has reached its end. The Iranian people are very informed, educated and experienced people and believe me, you and your cult and your devotee, Maryam Rajavi do not have any place among Iranian people.

The Iranian people want changes in Iran’s politics and in their life and for that reason they are protesting and showing their complaints in the best way possible. But no one in Iran looks to you and your cult as an opposition. On the contrary, they see you and your notorious cult as criminal, traitors, mercenaries and imposters. So in my opinion the best place for you is your hideout; stay there and let the Iranian people choose what is best for them. I am sure that the Iranian people are better off without you and your cult and your first lady, Maryam Rajavi, in their struggle to retrieve democracy and freedom. You and your cult just worsen their struggle and endeavors and makes it harder for them to make progress. You (Massoud Rajavi) must understand that Iranian people have their own real God and prophets to worship. You should accept the fact that you and your cult are sinful and have committed many crimes against humanity and that you should be put on trial like any criminal because every crime has its natural consequence.

At the end, I convey my best wishes to Mrs. Soltani and all the separated members who are struggling to reveal the unknown and unheard facts about this cult and its leaders.

August 1, 2010 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Cultic identity formation in Mojahedin Khalq

To stripe somebody of his individual identity to replace it with a new identity has been a common process in majority of all contemporary cults. This cult identity is created by sophisticated mind control techniques and it does not represent the whole individual. Steven Hassan stresses that “[cult] members are taught to suppress negative personal thoughts and emotions. They are trained to speak only positively of their involvement. When the cult member says he is "happy," it is usually the cult identity who is talking. The cult self is doing what it has been instructed to do”. 1

As cults have developed their own principles and rules, their reactions to the outside world are based on some certain criteria different from that of other political and social organizations that have to exercise the discipline of their own in order to achieve certain objectives; however, rarely they make use of any process to forge identities. At the present, cults are largely in need of obedient and submissive members whose mentality can be shaped through a change of identity and our aim here is to take a brief look at the concepts of individual identity, cult identity and investigate the process of setting up new identity in MKO similar to that of other cults.

We may consider the individual identity as the sum of mental and ideological beliefs of a person and the extent to which he is affected by the environment out of the cult. On the contrary, the detachment of the person from such beliefs and values by means of a system controlling his behavioral, mental and psychological aspects constitute one of the major goals of cults. Such a replacement of values leading to a new cult personality makes the person struggling with many contradictions to adapt his potentiality in line with cult objectives. In other words, cult identity neutralizes the individual identity of the members. In fact all the cultist instructions depend on such a mechanism for actualization.

As such, cults make their best to recruit members with unstable identity and ready to acquire cult identity due to their political, emotional and familial discouragements in order to play the major role in the quantitative growth of cults. Under the impact of a new identity, members easily submit to cultic domination and whatever sacrifices for the cult causes. Eric Hoffer evaluates the factor of devotion based on the cult identity. He believes that the relation between these concepts may clarify the nature of members’ full obedience to cultist instructions:

To RIPEN A PERSON for self-sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctness. He must cease to be George, Hans, van, or Tadao- a human atom with an existence bounded by birth and death. 2

Reviewing the historical cults may reveal the role of such a factor. The earliest religious cults such as Isma’ilis (Hasan Sabbah) tried hard to instill a kind of cult identity into members. They declared openly that members had to do something more than self-sacrifice for leaders and consider the extent of obedience as the main measure for a new cult identity. Therefore, they asked their members to put the principle of absolute obedience into action rather than pretending by merely saying it. What the leaders asked members was to have absolute faith in the cult’s commands:

We don’t ask Fedayeen [self-sacrificers] for passion but for a sound belief. We are to be sure that in case of issuing any order for any of our Fedayeen, there is nothing to prevent it. 3
Cultist relations of Mojahedin, as the most typical political leftist cult, are the same as that of Hasan Sabbah’s cult. The term "spiritual journey" refers to the negation of individual personality and development of a cultist one instead. The theoreticians of Mojahedin resort to mystical concepts in order to justify their procedures and approaches saying:

In spiritual journey, no question is allowed. The wayfarer has to put his faith in Sheikh wholeheartedly and must regard him as the most perfect person to conduct him in spiritual training, guidance and education, be his interlocutor and obey Sheikh far from any inward or outward objection. 4

Then a quotation from Maulavi, the Persian mystic poet, is resorted to:

A wayfarer has no responsibility and should be submissive like a piece of wood in the hands of carpenter. 5
An intellectual outlook does not bear such a procedure and also may denounce it. Mojahedin are against any spiritual identity but have to pretend to its reception. They analyze the

mechanism of such a new identity as follows:

It is evident that such a process does not follow a logical trend. Its dominant factor is not reason nor logic but love and emotion. Its means is not discussion nor justification but blind obedience. Herein Masoud asks for Mojahedin’s hearts. 6

Contemporary cults resort to such techniques in order to establish subordinate identities in which their members have to replace their external ties with internal ones. A new identity is regarded as the origin of cults’ power. Therefore, external bonds are the main barriers in the way of a new identity replaced by cultist models. Hofer refers to such a process saying:
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding ‘a new identity blurring and camouflaging their individual distinct- and both these ends are reached by imitation. 7
From a cultist viewpoint, a new identity works as a new faith to which a member has to be attached. It may tie an individual to an ideological group, band, political party or any ritual concept. In this regard, Hoffer writes:

Faith here is primarily a process of identification; the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal. Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one’s religion, ation, race, party or family -what is it but the visualization of that eternal some- tiling to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated? 8
The relationship between cults and producing of new identities is a complex one and varies widely from cult to cult. But what is common is that the main goal of producing a new identity in cults is to make insiders dependant on the cult and to be obedient. The mechanisms the cults exploit to achieve the goal are interrelated but each can be discussed separately since they are all prerequisites for insiders’ persuasion and control and the final transformation of the recruits into real cultists. It will not be wrong to say that whatever the cults do is to cut the members off from the outside world to produce a new identity and belief totally different from what the members previously held as right and dear. The process finished, the insiders will adopt a new and reborn personality as Singer states:

As part of the intense influence and change process in many cults, people take on a new social identity, which may or may not be obvious to an outsider. When groups refer to this new identity, they speak of members who are transformed, reborn, enlightened, empowered, rebirthed, or cleared. The group’ approved behavior is reinforced and reinterpreted as demonstrating the emergence of "the new person." Members are expected to display this new identity. 9
The new personality totally split from the outside world is manipulated for a variety of group tasks based on the objectives of the group and cult that consider the outsiders as the enemies who have to be confronted:

The conflicts a mass movement seek and incites serve not only to down its enemies but also to strip its followers of their distinct individuality and render them more soluble in the collective medium. 10

As Hoffer asserts, a cultist personality is formed to be submissive to the inner-cultic relations that have priority to outwardly demonstrated ambitions and goals. The members undergoing overall identity change easily consent to any means of changing behaviour and conduct. Thus, cults can successfully accomplish their goal of binding new members to the group. Considering the stages people will go through as their attitudes are changed by the group environment and the thought reform processes, Singer points to psychologist Edgar Schein’s second stages of three:

During this second stage, you sense that the solutions offered by the group provide a path to follow. You feel that anxiety, uncertainty, and self-doubt can be reduced by adopting the concepts put forth by the group or leader. Additionally, you observe the behavior of the longer, term members, and you begin to emulate their ways. As social psychology experiments and observations have found for decades, once a person makes an open commitment before others to an idea, his or her subsequent behavior generally supports and reinforces the stated commitment. That is, if you say in front of others that you are making a commitment to be "pure," then you will feel pressured to follow what others define as the path of purity. 11

There are also the eight psychological themes that psychiatrist Robert Lifton has identified as central to totalistic environments and cults invoke these themes for the purpose of promoting behavioural and attitudinal changes in the members. The third theme, demand for purity, depicts two opposite world of black and white; the cult being an absolutely white and clean world versus the black and evil world of outside. Of course, the members with a new personality have no other choice but to think and act according to cult’s ideology and drawn strategy:

An us-versus-them orientation is promoted by the all-or-nothing belief system of the group: we are right; they (outsiders, nonmembers) are wrong, evil, unenlightened, and so forth. Each idea or act is good or bad, pure or evil. Recruits gradually take in, or internalize, the critical, shaming essence of the cult environment, which builds up lots of guilt and shame. Most groups put forth that there is only one way to think, respond, or act in any given situation. There is no in between, and members are expected to judge themselves and others by this all-or-nothing standard. 12

The process of producing identity within MKO follows the same mechanism as practiced in other cults and its orientation began with the start of the internal ideological revolution. All the members undergoing the revolution process have admitted, unveiled by the ex-members, their identity change, and the result was development of a long distance between their organizational and personal identities. It was instilled into them that their identity would be prompted based on the extent of adherence to the ideological system of the group and denial of any personal identity. In a written testimony by a member of MKO, he is somehow proud of his new identity that believes has granted him a new insight into his within and without:

Personality, egocentrism, self-reliance and individualism are all souvenirs of the bourgeoisie’s worthless humanism that distanced me from the organization as far as its degree of its impact on me. I was unworthy and this barred me to drink the pure, life-giving instructions of the organization and was leaving me alone in a desolate waste-land with no way out. I was enslaved by dominant ambiguities within me. When I failed to overcome the ongoing struggle inside me, I was even more vulnerable to the outside misfortunes and could not even face them. 13

The member’s confession well depicts his identity destabilization and what psychologists call an identity crisis. He looks back at his own world and values to find out that he has been wrong in the past. This process makes him uncertain about what is right, what to do, and which choices to make and of course, as he admits, only the cult-like instructions of the organization can lead him to what is inspired to be the right path. Consequently, he takes on a new organizational identity which he considers a change for the better. In the process, he, as the member of a cult, detaches from his most dear ideas and attachments which he discovers to have been nothing beyond a barren waste-land for the identity reborn, a utopia in the horizon he fails to dismiss easily. Masoud Banisadr, another separated member of MKO, in his memoir relates of the time when sat tearing whatever attached him to the past under the commands of the organization:

This time I attacked my old photographs from my own childhood till marriage and up to then, my parents photographs as I wanted to deny all of them, my father who was perhaps responsible for my bourgeois tendencies and my mother who was responsible of my own ‘mild’ and ‘gentle’ behaviour known as liberal ones. Anna seeing me taking all those photographs and albums, with anger, was quietly crying, then when I attacked our marriage Album she start crying louder, and asked me to stop it. She said those are not just yours . . . but I was not listening to her and took everything and put them in a rubbish bag. 14

Quoting Lifton’s forth theme, through a cult’s instructions, members are told whatever connects them to their former lives is wrong and has to be avoided, a fact well affirmed by MKO’s ex-members:

Through the confession process and by instruction in the group’s teachings, members learn that everything about their former lives, including friends, family, and non-members, is wrong and to be avoided. Outsiders will put you at risk of not attaining the purported goal: they will lessen your psychological awareness, hinder the group’s political advancement, obstruct your path toward ultimate knowledge, or allow you to become stuck in your past life and incorrect thinking. 15

That is why MKO refer to members’ solubility in the organizational identity as a “reborn” or “identity salvation”. The organization, being transformed into a cult, pursues the same cult mechanism of altering the members’ personal identity to produce a new identity.

References:
1. Steven Hassan’s Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. FOM Press, 2000.2. Eric Hoffer; The true believer, Harper &. Row, Publishers, New York, 1966, p.60.
3. Paul Amir; The Lord of Alamout, p.45.
4. Niyabati, B. A different look at the ideological revolution within MKO, p.32
5. ibid, p.40
6. ibid, p.15
7. Eric Hoffer; The true believer, Harper &. Row, Publishers, New York, 1966, p.94.
8. ibid, p. 62.
9. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 78.
10. Eric Hoffer; The true believer, Harper &. Row, Publishers, New York, 1966, p. 112.
11. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 76.
12. Ibid, 71.
13. Mojahed, no. 252; Abdol-ali Maasoumi’s letter to the ideological revolution.
14. Masoud Banisadr; Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel.
15. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 72.

July 18, 2010 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Rajavi, the God of Ashraf

In the Alborz Mountains of northern Iran there is an isolated area known as the Valley of the Assassins. It is here where Hassan Sabbah, a charismatic man who died in 1124, founded a In a strikingly similar fashion to Hassan Sabbah, in the early1980’s Massoud Rajavi, came to realize that notoriously violent radical Islamic sect referred to by historians as the Hashaashiyun (the Druggers). Interestingly, this word, hashaashiyun is the origin of the English word assassin, which means killer. In this valley, Hassan Sabbah created a small and very successful empire of dedicated followers from whom he demanded total devotion. Iranian literature and lore preserve the fascination and opinion that Hassan Sabbah systematically created one of the most effective terrorist groups in history. Sabbah’s magnetic personality and uniquely efficient leadership promoted such intense belief and devotion that members, with the pledge of martyrdom, were able to commit assassinations without hesitation. The zealous follower’s committed ferocious acts of killing, believing that there was a purpose to their heinous acts—and that they would be sent to paradise if they were killed while serving their leader. In effect, martyrdom was an essential element in Hassan Sabbah’s power scheme. Indubitably Hassan Sabbah and his followers in the infamous Valley of the Assassins helped lay the foundation for today’s continued fascination of—and for a few, total acceptance of—suicide .

Hassan Sabbah was an educated, well travelled, intelligent man who spent many years as a missionary. When he chose to gain power and control over the community in the Alborz Mountains, his plan worked because he was able to inspire commitment and action as well as kindle complete obedience from his followers—to the point that followers’ previous sense of right and wrong was phased out of their mindset. Hassan Sabbah knew how to wash a brain—to erase all notions of good and bad—to let fade right and wrong. He replaced followers’ thinking with distorted morals: the notion of “good” became obedience toward the leader, and the notion of “bad” became disobedience towards the leader. With this immense power, Hassan Sabbah’s wishes were the followers’ commands—if it was his wish for a follower to kill, the follower killed. If it was his wish that a follower die, the follower died. Thus became the association of the word killer with the word assassin.

Hassan Sabbah’s group was by today’s definition a cult. He had created a deliberate agenda in order to serve himself for the purpose of creating power for himself. The Hashaashiyun devotees martyred themselves believing that they would attain fulfillment only through servitude. In this way, they gradually earned degrees, which put them closer to their leader who they believed represented God.

The cult created by Hassan Sabbah was successful given that it lasted upward of three decades . Hassan Sabbah’s cult epitomized the idea of suicide killings, and had a significant impact on other subsequent cult leaders particularly the husband and wife team, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, a modern radical religio-political group (based in Paris) who bedevils Iran. Because there is an acceptance of this radical notion from a tiny minority in the Middle East, it is only natural that the MEK would take advantage of it, and then exercise such a “killing device” in their programme de formation. For the naïve MEK members, leaders implementing this contrivance would not be abnormal in the hearts and minds of the the Mujahidin Organization has all the main attributes of a cult truly dedicated; and committing suicide would not be out of the ordinary because culturally the idea is still present, although most Middle Eastern people and certainly most Iranians would not support such an outrageous “opportunity.”

In a strikingly similar fashion to Hassan Sabbah, in the early1980’s Massoud Rajavi, came to realize that in order to achieve organizational efficiency and maintain his own power, a system must be implemented for the MEK. Professor Ervand Abrahamian—one of the world’s foremost experts on the cult, whose 1989 extensively researched book, The Iranian Mojahedin is still being used to educate professors, politicians and policymakers all over the world—details the cult’s history and evolution. Although it is common knowledge among politically- minded Iranians, Abrahamian affirms that the group officially began in 1963, as a small university student-discussion group. Shortly thereafter, with a revolutionary ideology, they took up arms, and after almost twenty years of growth and some support from Iranians, membership began to dwindle due to the sociological factors which determined their function was not really useful for the Iranian public. Because of this, the group restructured itself into a religio-political sect, and in the mid-1980’s, the Mujahidin, from an outsider’s perspective, had qualified itself as a cult. After renaming itself the “National Council of Resistance of Iran,” the group declared that it was actually founded in 1981. [1]

Abrahamian confirms that “by mid-1987, the Mujahidin Organization has all the main attributes of a cult […] the organization had granted unlimited power to its charismatic leader, [Massoud Rajavi].” He furthers, “Immediately the group had created a rigid hierarchy in which instructions flowed from above and the primary responsibility of the rank and file was to obey without asking too many questions. It has produced its own handbooks, censorship index, world outlook, historical interpretations and, of course distinct ideology—an ideology which, despite the organizations denials, tried to synthesize the religious message of Shiism with the social science of Marxism. It had its own slogans, insignia, icons, relics, ceremonies, rituals and liturgy. It had formulated its own esoteric terminology injecting new meaning into old Islamic words and sometimes coining entirely new terms. It had its own history, martyrs, hagiographies, honored families. It even had its own calendar.

“The organization had adopted its own dress code and physical appearance. It had begun to see the world as divided into two contradictory forces: on one side was the Mojahedin, the vanguard of the select, and those willing to accept its leadership; on the other was Khomeini, the forces of darkness and anyone refusing to accept Mojahedin leadership.
“Essentially the “Mojahedin became increasingly a world unto itself.” [2]

Sadly, in the name of Islam, and in the name of freedom and democracy, after the mid 1980’s, MEK members became increasingly devoted, increasingly isolated—as they were forced to stay on compounds and in camps based in Iraq—the biggest one being Camp Ashraf, where many members are still being housed and are prevented from knowing about the outside world. The MEK leaders, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi remain idols. Members worship them. Today the innocent devotees “volunteer” as suicide bombers or hunger strikers, willing to die for their cause and for their leaders. But the MEK, will never openly admit this practice is required. In January 2009, Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie’s made a statement to the Washington Post declaring that “a member of the organization had turned himself in to Iraqi security forces and told them that group leaders had instructed him to detonate explosives at the headquarters of the Iraqi security forces.” [3]

In July 2003 upon the arrest of MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, MEK members took to Paris’ streets and engaged in self-immolation. [4] [At least ten] members set themselves on fire in cities across Europe. [5]

The MEK suicidalists are the modern parallels of Hassan Sabbah’s “Druggers” in the Valley of the Assassins. MEK defectors describe the group as a cult. [6] Former MEK members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. Two former recruits told the human-rights group that they were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein. [7]

The MEK is a group of misguided individuals who do evil things to themselves and others—not out of malice, but out of faith and devotion to a pair of twisted leaders.

References:
[1] Abrahamian, Ervand. The Iranian Mojahedin. London, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. pp.260-1

[2] ibid

[3] Londoño, Ernesto. "Iraq Accuses Iranian Exiles of Plotting Attack". The Washington Post.Wednesday, January 21, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article
/2009/01/20/AR2009012004051.html.

[4] United States Department of State, Naval Post Graduate School. “Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MEK), Country Reports on Terrorism, 2007”. Dudley Knox Library. April 2008 ‘
<http://www.nps.edu/Library/Research/SubjectGuides
/SpecialTopics/TerroristProfile/Current/MujahedineKhalq.html>.

[5] BBC News, "Iranian fire protests at Paris arrests". June 18, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2999652.stm.

[6] Allam, Hannah. "Middle East Diary: MEK in Iraq". McClatchy Newspapers .
August 14, 2009
http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/cairo/2009/08/mek-in-iraq.html.

[7] Isikoff, Michael. "Terror Watch: Consider the Source". Newsweek. May 18, 2005
<http://www.newsweek.com/2005/05/17/
terror-watch-consider-the-source.html>.

By Mazda Parsi

July 14, 2010 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

The Roots of immorality molded in leader of MKO

The echo of the statements made by Ms. Batool Soltani disclosing facts about the sexual abuse and relations of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of Mojahedin Khalq cult, with the female members had the shocking impact of a bomb explosion among the public. She made the testimony in a meeting held in support of the victims of Rajavi’s castle, Camp Ashraf. Although she did not go into very details, her direct avowal did not take the audience in abroad by surprise since, as the organization is commonly referred to as a cult of personality, the prevalence of the sexual exploitation of women in cults is an undeniable fact that may only take different forms.

Surely, the truth of such claim made by one of the ranking members of the organization and one of the closest layers to Rajavi’s private relations cannot be denied but analyzed. Of course, the question of sexual relations within the armed, underground establishment of the organization was a challenge it was facing from its very days of formation and at time it had to adopt different solution to overcome the problem. Although it is in no way considered a problem among the Marxist-oriented groups, at time it turned into a crisis in Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO,MEK, PMOI) because it acted under the guise of a non-secular and religious organization. The instances of illicit relations and sexual scandals in the organization’s split Marxist branch, headed by Taqi Shahram, are undeniable facts confessed by many ex-members and recorded in the files of those Marxist-biased arrested by SAVAK, Pahlavi regime’s notorious security and information apparatus.

Needless to say that Ms. Soltani’s disclosure does not necessarily mean to question morality of many old members of the organization who were devoted, honest Muslims, but to dig into the roots of deviations that has led to the broad scandal. What did really happen that after the execution of the early founders of the organization by the Pahlavi’s court-martials, Rajavi seized the power in their absence, and through an enforced ideological revolution, glamorized an illicit marriage with Maryam Azodanloo? And it became the beginning of a process of female domination promoting women to the ranking, key positions of the organization. The enforcement of the compulsory divorces granted Rajavi the hegemonic monopoly right of exploiting women as his property while he totally deprived other rank and files of their natural right. Sexual control was, and is, seen as the final step taken by Rajavi’s system to objectify members similar to other members of the cults; it took the form of controls of sexuality and sex lives of members through daily and weekly sessions of confession and repentance.

It has become a cult routine inside MKO that requires members to keep daily records of their thoughts and nighttime dreams, particularly sexual thoughts and desires (which are, of course, forbidden), as well as observations about their fellow members. They must submit their journals to their supervisors. During large meetings, members often are forced to read their reports aloud and to make self-critical statements. It is a process going on while Rajavi is unveiled to have been engaged in a rampant, lustful and scandalous relation with female members observing them both as easily controlled subservience and objects of his harem.

It was commonly believed, or instilled into the insiders, that Massoud and Maryam were not married for the sexual purposes as many would think since Massoud, before the initiation of the ideological revolution, had overcome sexual bonds and had made a revolution within himself to bury all lustful bends for the cause of struggle. However, the disclosures about Rajavi’s indecent relations with the female insiders indicate that sexual acting out of all sorts is frequent among cult leaders and can be primarily regarded as a control and power issue. But how Rajavi came to put his feet on the very same road is a question to be studied with great care and scrutiny.

July 13, 2010 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi’s background and experience

While I was browsing Maryam Rajavi’s website, which was totally including lie, treason and anti-nation items, I came across a question :”who is Maryam Rajavi?”

The answer included a bunch of lies. They portraited Maryam Rajavi as a saint, the best woman in the whole world! What was the truth? Maryam Rajavi’s background and experience as an MKO member refered to that of her sister Narges Qajar Azdanlou who according to the journal Partow Iran, swallowed a cyanide capsule following her clash with the Shah’s agents a few years before the Islamic revolution. Maryam Azdanlou (Rajavi) was lucky to enjoy the advantages of a revolutionary leader who hoisted the flag of her so-called resistance in order to break a new record of massacre of generations.

She dedicated her personal, emotional life to make female members barren and to sacrifice male members for The Cult of Rajavi.

Launching her ideological revolution in the late 20th century, Maryam Rajavi took her cult to the darkest days of middle ages. She suppressed any freedom not only in Ashraf prisons but also in members’ family and personal life.

Maryam Rajavi points the sharp edge of her cruelty blade toward women in Camp Ashraf. In order to maintain her cult, she has no way except depriving people from their freedom. She has even theorized the issue claiming that the human’s substance was originated in evil and corruption so people’s massacre would be a blessing for them. She succeeded to inject this disappointment to her cult members.

Maryam Rajavi’s historical character signifies a woman who is completely different from ordinary women. She is incredibly a massacre lover who makes women barren to remove the least hope for future family life in their minds.

When in 2003 she was arrested by French Police, she was imprisoned for 15 days but she was never treated badly or tortured but her supporters called her as Iranian Jean d’arc.
Jean d’arch was a girl who fought for the freedom and independence of her nation. She tolerated torture and imprisonment. How can Maryam Rajavi be compared with Jean d’arc? What part of her life is similar to that of Jean d’arc?

Rajavi’s sympathizers also compare her with Martin Luther King whose acts can never be compared with Maryam Rajavi’s crimes. The followings are some of her criminal acts:
Maryam Rajavi issues orders to physically remove certain members based on faked reasons.

Maryam Rajavi forbids the members captured in Camp Ashraf from visiting their families. She verbally abuses the families who are wiling to visit their children.
Maryam Rajavi forces the captured members of Ashraf to attend her TV shows in order to swear at their families.

Following her so-called ideological revolution, Maryam Rajavi sent dissident members to Abu Qoraib prison, Iraq. She launched a massacre, she brainwashed teenagers in order to be mobilized to Iran to launch terrorist operations. She manipulated members’ minds in order to commit self-immolation in case the organization is in need.
She ordered her removal teams to abandon the dissident members on mine fields to be killed; otherwise they had to be shot.

She launched a human disaster in Camp Ashraf on July 28th when a number of members were caused to be killed.

Today Maryam Rajavi is extremely happy with new sanctions imposed on Iranian nation. She is proud of her treasons against her fellow men.

Today she sheds crocodile tears for families of political prisoners in Iran but she doesn’t let the families who have been waiting at Ashraf gates for four months, visit their beloved ones.

To exaggerate the number of her sympathizers, she hires innocent Afghan, Pakistani … refugees to attend MKO meetings to raise the number of participants. She orders her followers to molest defectors of her cult because she is terrified of their enlightening denunciation.

After the collapse of her former land lord Saddam Hussein, Maryam Rajavi fled to France to kiss the feet of her new western supporters.

Translated by Nejat Society

July 3, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

MKO and Grasping for Support in a Very Wrong Way

In the 1920’s Joseph Stalin, in the spirit of socialization, had plans for justice, democracy and peace. He envisioned a classless society. But his narrowness of perspective combined with an ethnically and politically diverse population became a major challenge in building unity and Former members of MKO have compared its leaders to Stalin consensus. Slavery flourished. And ultimately what became central during his tenure was the building of his cult of personality. His totalitarian leadership, perpetual lying, and deception eventually ushered in the near-destruction of Soviet Russia. Eventually Stalin had no support from the people he so desperately wanted to save.

More than half a century has passed since the world has known of Stalin’s terror and his cult of personality. But beware: There is similar potential retribution toward the country of Iran as the dissident group, Mujahedin el Khalq (MKO) attempts to use the media to sell a message that they exist in the name of justice, democracy and peace. Former members of the group have compared its leaders to Stalin. [1]

Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the MKO, like Stalin, is also a cult of personality and her justice-democracy-peace campaign is deceitful. Her cheap catch-words for the organization’s ultimate goal of overthrowing the Iranian regime—and this goal has been in place for more than three decades—are wrong. In the MKO’s grand effort to achieve power in Tehran, they have stepped up their focus on trying to erase a weird, violent, and bloody past while increasing effort to legitimize their current fiction.

Sam Dealey, a journalist, who in January 2010 became Editor in Chief for the Washington Times, specified eight years ago how the MKO managed to win the support of mainstream US politicians. Dealey’s well researched claim is that “the [MKO’s] political representatives in the U.S. have worked hard to repackage the group as a legitimate dissident organization fighting for democracy in Iran—whitewashing its record and duping our leaders.” [2] And Dealey’s statement still applies today because currently the same political representatives—the crisis mongers of the MKO—are challenging the West’s policy towards Iran while feeding the public mendacity. After a 30-year track record of fabrication, the group’s latest headliner sham proclaims that Iran has nuclear capabilities. But fortunately some US politicians who are aware of the MKO’s track record of producing false and misleading information, along with weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), are very suspicious about what MKO leadership says. [3]

After all, in 2003, ten MKO members (two of whom died) staged a bizarre show of solidarity towards their leader, Maryam Rajavi, by setting themselves on fire in cities around Europe. Before the self- immolations even took place, Sam Dealey wrote, “Despite its violent history, the People’s Mujahedin would like to gain international legitimacy as Iran’s ‘government in exile.’ Its immediate goal is to get its name off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations; to that end, it now purports to support a host of democratic ideals, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to freedom of religion and the free market. It has even abandoned its revolutionary flag — composed of a Koran verse, a sickle, and a Kalashnikov assault rifle — for that of the former shah, whom they worked to depose.” [4]

As early as 1997, TIME ran an in depth article about the group, citing the State Department’s report that the MKO “has Marxist leanings,” and “few democratic tendencies.” TIME’s journalists, observed that “[MKO] troops wear no insignia of rank, live communally and receive no pay. They have taken a vow to remain celibate until Iran is freed. And all express near fanatical loyalty to the woman they hope to install as the next President of Iran: Maryam Rajavi.” Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy asserts that there is an unhealthy cult of personality around Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. He writes, “If they were to achieve power, it is unlikely they would give it up. The [MKO] are simply not a viable alternative to the current regime because of their ties to Iraq.” [5]

Most recently, Ali Safavi, the MKO’s primary lobbyist in Washington DC, and also a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, is making a huge effort to deviate the public’s attention away from the group’s strange cult practices and history of terror. He’s pushing the message that the MKO is a legitimate option for the future of Iran, and opportunistically maintains that Maryam Rajavi is the "most prominent Iranian opposition leader" who "has called on the West to support democratic change in Iran by the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.” He urges President Obama to “strengthen Iran’s democratic opposition,” and “set his sights on a strategic Iran policy by removing obstacles on the path of democratic Iranian opposition groups,” and also criticizes the US administration’s smart and cautious policy towards Iran, claiming that “the track of [US] pressure is insufficient and engagement is problematic.” [6] In short Safavi is suggesting that the Obama administration can and should close dialogue and stop diplomacy with Iran, and then remove the MKO from the State Department’s list of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Safavi’s ideal proposal would make way for a terrorist cult group to replace the Iranian government. But Savafi’s proposal must convince more than just the Americans.

Iranians all over the world will admit that the MKO has no support among the Iranian nation. The MKO turned against their own people, as they sided with Saddam Hussein during the war with Iraq. In 2000, Wilfried Buchta of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and author of Who Rules Iran? The Structure of Power in the Islamic Republic, analyzes the formal and informal power structures in the Islamic Republic and assesses both the future of the reform movement and the prospects for peaceful change in Iran. [7] Buchta asserts, "The large majority of Iranians inside and outside the country reject the MEK [MKO] because of its support for Bagdad during the Iran-Iraq war and for its [continued] alliance with Saddam. As a result it has only a small dwindling power base in Iran." [8]

As Iran remains in the spotlight, for the sake of public edification, the reality of the MKO must be exposed. The details of the horrors committed by MKO—either against Iranians or their own members in the organization—were the direct result of their terrorist and destructive cult-like nature. Be aware that their campaign is strong, and that MKO opportunists, with their shifty arrangement of excuses regarding past terrorist activities, believe that the seat of political power will be handed to them by the West—if they can persuade the unaware powerful. They simply exist in a very wrong way. They will vitally need the support of the Iranian people—and this is what they mostly lack.

References:
[1] Peterson, Scott. "Inside a Group Caught Between Three Powers." Christian Science Monitor. December 31, 2003 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1231/p10s01-woiq.html>.
[2] Dealey, Sam. "A Very, Very Bad Bunch." National Review. March 25, 2002 <http://old.nationalreview.com/25mar02/dealeyprint032502.html>.
[3] Collier, Robert. "US Gleans Facts on Iran From Debatable Source: Nuclear Arms Allegation Derived in Part From Rebel Group’s Data". San Francisco Chronicle. Sunday, October 26, 2003 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/26/MNGPE2JMGO1.DTL>.
[4] Dealey, Sam. Ibid
[5] Michael Serrill and Edward Barnes, "Armed Women of Iran." TIME MAGAZINE. Monday, April 21, 1997 <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986213,00.html>.
[6] Safavi, Ali. "Iran Crisis Needs a Firm Response". Huffington Post. May 11, 2010 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-safavi/iran-crisis-needs-a-firm_b_572045.html>.
[7] Buchta, Wilfried. "Who Rules Iran? The Structure of Power in the Islamic Republic". Brookings Institution Press. 2000 <http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2000/who_rules_iran.aspx>.
[8] ibid p. 116

By Mazda Parsi

June 29, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Letter to the Director General of the ICRC (182 signatories)

Director General, Mr. Angelo Gnaedinger,

International Committee of the Red Cross
We are the signatories to the statement of the seminar in “support for the families of victims of the Rajavi cult in Camp Ashraf, Iraq” which took place on the 19th of June 2010 in Paris.
19 avenue de la Paix
CH 1202 Geneva

Dear Mr Gnaedinger,
We are the signatories to the statement of the seminar in “support for the families of victims of the Rajavi cult in Camp Ashraf, Iraq” which took place on the 19th of June 2010 in Paris.
Our aim is to put pressure on the leaders of the Rajavi cult (Mojahedin Khalq Organisation) to allow visits between the captives in camp Ashraf and their families, as one of the most basic human rights for any captive person.

These families, after years not being able to travel to Iraq and years of uncertainty about the fate of their children, now have had the chance to travel to post-Saddam Iraq in order to discover the situation of their loved ones held captive in Ashraf garrison. It is now over 4 months that they have been picketing outside the gates of the camp in the harsh conditions of the desert, without much in the way of facilities, hoping to visit their loved ones.

Although the right to have visitors is one of the accepted rights for any prisoner, it is unfortunate that the leaders of the Rajavi cult block any attempt at reunion and meeting between these captives and their old and tired mothers and fathers. They have announced, in their own cult jargon language, that any contact with family members is considered as a sin.
It is with regret that we must announce that the situation is so bad that after four and a half months of picketing not only has the aim of meeting their loved ones not been achieved, but the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq have constantly harassed these parents using abusive and threatening language against them. On some occasions, physical attacks on the families have also been reported.

Dear Sir,
Documents and evidence of the violent history of abuse of human rights by the cult of Rajavi (Mojahedin Khalq) clearly shows that during the past two decades, the leaders of the cult have forbidden any kind of affection or love between family members and have considered it as a sin and a punishable crime. The cult members are expected to only show affection and love to the leader solely.

Rajavi, using the opportunity provided by the fallen dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, has used the past two decades to create an atmosphere inside camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) in which any marriage, friendship, writing letters, exchanging photos, using telephone, meeting and chatting or any relation between parents and children or between siblings or other relatives has been forbidden and even thinking about it would have resulted in severe, violent punishment and suppression.

We call on all international bodies as well as all relevant governments. We ask specifically from your good self to intervene in a purely humanitarian role and convince the leaders of Mojahedin Khalq to allow free visits between the families and their children outside the walls of camp Ashraf in the presence of representatives of the ICRC and put an end to this hardship and misery.

Signatories:
1.Abas Sadeghi/Germany

2.Rana Samadzadeh Aghdam/Sweden

3. Maryam Ahmadi/Sweden

4. Hossein Samadzadeh Aghdam/Sweden

5. Ariya Abdollahi/Norway

6. Javad Abolhosseini/Netherlands

7. Alireza Bashiri/Norway

8.Batool Maleki/Switzerland

9.Massoud Jabani/ Netherlands

10.Mohammad Hossein Sobhani/Germany

11. Hadi Shams Haeri/Netherlands

12. Noshin Bashiri/Norway

13. Tovartan Babakhani/Netherlands

14. Tamin Abdollahi/Norway

15. Rabeae Shahrokhi/Sweden

16. Hashem Payro/Norway

17.Hamid Yazdanfar/Norway

18Jafar Ahmadi/Norway

19.Maryam Taheriyan Pajoh/Sweden

20.Mehdi Ahmadi/Sweden

21.Omid Ahmadi/ Sweden

22.Massoud Khodabandeh/England

23. Ayob Kord Rostami/Canada

24.Farshid Ahmadi/Sweden

25. Farid Armideh ,The son of Aliakbar Armideh/Sweden

26. Saeed Armideh ,The son of Aliakbar Armideh/Sweden

27.Mitra Yosefi/Sweden

28. Naser Rezvani/Sweden

29. Farshid Nazari/Norway

30. Farzad Farzinfar/SWeden

31. Nima Parniya/Norway

32. Anne Singleton/England

33. Saeed Khodabakhsh/Canada

34. Parvin Haji/Canada

35. Fereshteh Hosseini/Denmark

36. Parya Dabiryan/Greece

37. Hassan Faraji/Sweden

38. Omid Ariyapoor/ Norway

39. Faramarz Afshari/Greece

40. Elham Norouzi/Canada

41. Soheyla Norouzi/Canada

42. Babak A/France

43. Alireza Nasrollahi/France

44. Mostafa Mohammadi/Canada

45. Shan Kord Rostami/Canada

46. Marlen Kord Rostami/Canada

47. Bahareh Nikbakht/France

48. Hassan Piransar / France

49. Hamed Sarrafpour/France

50.Alireza Nabavi/Sweden

51. Anika Nabavi/Sweden

52.Sara Nabavi/sweden

53.Rohi Aslani/Sweden

54.Zahra Makari/Sweden

55. Kenar Jasem Ali/Netherlands

56. Horiyeh Mohammadi/Canada

57.Shirin Aghvami/Sweden

58. Zari Aghvami/Sweden

59. Mehri Nasiri/Sweden

60. Gholam Shirali/Norway

61. Habib Khorami/Netherlands

62. Marziyeh Gonjeshki/ Netherlands

63. Mahbobeh. Hamzeh /Canada

64.Narmin Jasem Ali/Netherlands

65. Zahra MOhammadi/Netherlands

66. Mohammad mohammadi/Canada

67. Morteza Mohammadi/Canada

68.Hamid Tavana /Netherlands

69. Mohammad harati/Netherlands

70. Tol Malavi

71. krigoriyan

72. Mohammad ellami

73. Khalil Taghavi/Netherlands

74. Mina Taghavi/Netherlands

75. Karim Haghi / Netherlands)

76. Khaled Taghavi/Netherlands

77. Zaghik Babakhani/Netherlands

78. Hamid Balfan/Netherlands

79. Maryam Jahanfard/Netherlands

80. Mohammad Karami/France

81. Javad Firozmand/France

83.Mehdi Sojodi/Germany

83. Mehrdad Sagharchi/scandinavia

84. Ali Jahani/ Germany

85. Majid Rohi/Denmark

86. Parvin Jafari/Denmark

87.Roya Haratipour/Norway

88.Bashir Hamdardzadeh/Sweden

89. Javid Hosseini/Greece

90. Mohammad Satari/NOrway

91. Jalil Hasimi/DEnmark

92. zayd Rahmanpour/Norway

93. Ashraf mohammadi/Norway

94. Hamid Balfan/Netherlands

95. Noor Dara/Netherlands

96. Soheyla Behboodi/Germany

97. Nasrin Behboodi/Netherlands

98. Kazem Hosseini/Netherlands

99. Ali Ghashghavi/ Germany

100. Amir Movasaghi/Germany

101. Edvard Tormado/Germany

102. Armineh Tormado/Germany

103. Behzad Alishahi/Netherlands

104. Nahid Amiri/Netherlands

105. Alireza Mirasgari/Germany

106. Mohsen Abaslo/Austria

107. Alireza Naghashzadeh/Germany

108. Elham Kakavand/Netherlands

109. Ali Akbar Rastgo/Germany

110. Majed Dara/Netherlands

111. Noryeh Dara/Netherlands

112. Nona Abdollahi/Netherlands

113. Ali Taghavi /Netherlands

114. Mehdi Fadayee/Germany

115. Khaled Taghavi/Netherlands

116. Yorik Ebrahimiyan /Germany

117. Farideh Barati/Netherlands

118. Mahbobeh Barati/Netherlands

119. Arash Moghadam/Netherlands

120. Batool Soltani

121. Armin Seraj/Netherlands

122. Kardo Dara/Netherlands

123. A Abkhaziyan/Germany)

124. Narineh Artesh/Germany

125. Ali Zirak/Netherlands

126. Sara SAdeghi/Germany

127. Bahadoor Khorami/Netherlands

128. Jafar Gonjeshki/Denmark

129. Jamshid Charlang/Germany

130. Ali Sheykhi/Netherlands

131. Hesam Sheykhi/Netherlands

132. Reza Sadeghi/Belgium

133. Eman Vaseti/Netherlands

134. Khalil Vaseti/Netherlands

135. Faramarz Pashayee / Canada

136. Mohammad Nabi Soleyman Nejat/Canada

137. Khoshnam Hesami/Canada

138. Hassan Saberi/Canada

139. Mehrzad Zardoshtiyan /Netherlands

140. Ghodrat Hamidi/Canada

141. Hasheh Mirza/Netherlands

142. Ershak Naghdali/Netherlands

143. Ebrahim Manaf/Netherlands

144. Sava Manaf/Netherlands

145. Amir Atefeh/Netherlands

146. Sanaz Dara/Netherlands

147. Saeed Soltanpour/Canada

148. Mahnaz Alavi/Netherlands

149. Christin Karkhaziyan/Germany

150. Habib Asadollahi/Germany

151. Millad Ariyayee/Germany

152. Ali GHashghavi/Germany

153. Shadi Doosti/Netherlands

154. Hassan Haghi/Netherlands

155. Mostafa Rahmani/Germany

156. Amir Movasaghi/Germany

157. Saeedeh Jabani/Netherlands

158. Maryam Vaseti/Netherlands

159. Hossein Ghanbari/Finland

160. Mansour Nazari/France

161. Hossein Naghdi/Germany

162. Mohammad Razzaghi/France

163. Nader Naderi/France

164.Yahya Haghjo/Sweden

165. Faramarz Niksefat/Denmark

166. Sepideh Aref/France

167. Dr. Farzad Rahnama/Carolina, USA

168. Mohammad Allavi/France

169. Shiva Mostafavi/France

170. Mehran Taghiabadi/France

171. Jamshid Peyvasteh/Netherlands

172. Mehrdad seyyedian/ Norway

173. Eshrat Fallah / Norway

174. Amir Taherloo / Sweden

175 . Shiwa Mostafavi / France

176. shokoufe Bayat /Sweden

177. Fateme Soleymani / Norway

178. Ali Mirzayi / Norway

179. Ashraf Amrolahi / Sweden

180. Ahmad Nooraei / Germany

181. Zohre Shams / gemany

182. Heydar Ghadiri /

June 24, 2010 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Self-Immolation by the MKO Must be Re-Examined

Setting Oneself Ablaze—For What? Self-Immolation by the MKO Must be Re-Examined

It has been seven years since the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, the leader and so called president of the Mujahedin–e-Khalq (MKO), a foreign terrorist organization. The arrest took place at the MKO headquarters located in Auver Sur d’Oise, Paris, France on June 17th, 2003. Devoted members faced a shocking challenge as their leader was incarcerated. Some even resorted to a violent extreme political protest over the arrest of Maryam Rajavi when they set themselves ablaze. Two women died as a result. These alarming acts of self-immolation pinpoint a human tragedy in the midst of a cult mentality. The tragedy lies not only in the act itself, but in cult members’ numb emptiness and canopy of devotion for their leader, Maryam Rajavi, who used the Paris headquarters as her private sanctuary.

The 2003 arrest came as part of a raid by French police, whose government felt it was a necessary reaction to the MKO conundrum. Along with the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, the raid ended with about 160 other arrests of members and the confiscation of millions of dollars and technical materials.

After the raid, a judicial source told the la-Croix, a French newspaper, that “The intervention of security forces was conducted as part of a commission issued by the anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louice Bruguiere. It particularly results from a long investigation of financial flows which could fall within the ‘financing of terrorism.’ The raid was led by the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST),” [1]

At the time, the BBC reported that Nicholas Sarkozy, now the French President, and then the Interior Minister, said [during the French Assembly on June 17, 2003] that the MKO”recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq. We cannot accept that.”[2]

Such interest and involvement by authorities was crucial for the French government because the MKO has, in order to further their agenda, conducted and participated in violent political attacks against American, Iranian and Iraqi citizens. For too long, France had been tolerating their presence. In the midst of the crackdown, the head of France’s domestic intelligence service, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, said the group was”transforming its Val d’Oise centre [near Paris] … into an international terrorist base.”[3] In a bizarre show of devotion, after the arrests took place, it became clear that members continued to be forthright and obliging in their blind commitment towards their leader. Ten members, committed senseless acts of self-immolation in an extreme response to the arrest of the leader—for the sake of the leader—not for the sake of the Iranian people. There was outrage among people who follow European news. A contributor to the French website aufeminie.com who under the name Yelann, posted an Agence France-Presse (AFP) article referred to the stories of self–immolation and found the group’s history shocking—from the immolation to the hunger strikes. She surmised they were posing as martyrs, but speculated, “Are they really doing it for their people? It seems they are extremists and fanatics. And generally these actions do no good.” [4] In 1963, with the self sacrifice of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, self-immolation became spotlighted and has since become a popular tactic for gaining political attention. But historically, the act goes back thousands of years. Psychologists suggest it is the result of extreme mental distress—particularly those who have had distress from being culturally isolated from the mainstream, and programmed with a distorted ideology, and who view self-immolation as an option. The International Study for the Center of Terrorism is developing The Global Self-Immolation Events Database (GS-IED). The database, a multi-year project, seeks to identify and track the prevalence and spread of self-immolation in the context of political conflict. Preliminary results from this project will be published in late 2010/early 2011. [5] While studies are needed regarding the relationship between self-immolation and terrorism, it is important to closely examine the possibility of a disturbing predilection. Will others in the MKO French headquarters use this type of aggressive “protest” on European soil in the form of a suicide bomb or with other emblematic terrorist-type acts?

In an article titled, “Sad Spectacle” published in Iranian.com shortly after the coverage of the raid on the MKO, Babak Mazarei, who at the time was a fourth year political science major at Carleton University in Canada, and who knew the brother of one of the people who set themselves on fire, wrote an opinion in response to the tragedy. Mazarei comments, “I wrote a brief piece on the unconditional right of the Mujahedin to express themselves. I, however, do not believe that self-immolation is a legitimate means of protest. Therefore, it is only logical to write a piece that explains my reasons for holding this view, in light of the Mujahedin’s extensive use of self-immolation and the resulting death of a young girl who had so much more to live for.

“The quasi-terrorism engaged in by Mujahedin of late is a testament to their ideological bankruptcy and the hypocrisy of their pro-human rights stance. I was very much angered and disheartened when I learned of the news of Neda Hassani’s death, if not for the hypocrisy this act of human degradation sheds, then certainly for the loss of life. What remains are the People’s Mujahedin. The record of this organization is marred by acts of violence both historically, and most recently, the materialization of protest-suicide in the form of self-immolation. In the 1970’s the Mujahedin assassinated US military personnel, supported the nonsensical siege of the American embassy, and in 1990 under the operation name ‘Operation Great Bahman’ in February 2000 attacked Iranian military sites and government buildings. These acts of violence have only detracted from the credibility of the exiled opposition movement. The very simple, but nonetheless true rule of conduct ‘two wrongs do not make a right’ comes to mind.

“Finally, recently the Mujahedin have resorted to self-immolation. What is disturbing about these latest acts of non-sensical violence is the purpose for which they are being committed. It is not in pursuit of freedom for Iranians that Mojaheds are now immolating themselves, but rather in protest at the incarceration of select members of their leadership.
“This reaction only proves that People’s Mujahedin are not a flexible, open organization, but rather a dogmatic entity with little hope for survival, let alone a legitimate political claim in Iran.”[6]

According to a June 25, 2003 report by New York Times correspondent Elaine Sciolino, French Counter Intelligence service prepared a classified report on the group and its activities. Sciolino details that “An Iranian opposition group operating in France that was the target of a large police operation last week had plans to attack Iranian embassies and assassinate former members working with Iranian intelligence services in Europe.” [7] The [Intelligence] report also said the group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Mujahedin, had discussed having their members commit suicide by setting themselves on fire to draw attention to their cause.” [8]

Sciolino furthered in a later New York Times article that “it was devotion to Mrs. Rajavi, who is about 50 years old, that led several of her supporters throughout Europe to set themselves on fire to protest her arrest. Although Mrs. Rajavi sent a message from jail asking her supporters to stop, former Mujahedin members said that in training camps in Iraq, self-immolation was praised as a fitting response to the possible persecution of the Rajavis.” [9]

On July 13, 2003, Elizabeth Rubin wrote an article titled “The Cult of Rajavi” for the New York Times. In this article Rubin details her encounters with MKO members she met in Camp Ashraf. Rubin concluded that the Rajavis lead a sect hated in their home country and clarified that,”While Mujahedin press releases were pouring out last month, taking undue credit for the nightly demonstrations, many antigovernment Iranians were rejoicing over the arrest of Maryam Rajavi and wondering where Massoud was hiding and why he, too, hadn’t been apprehended. This past winter in Iran, when such a popular outburst among students and others was still just a dream, if you mentioned the Mujahedin, those who knew and remembered the group laughed at the notion of it spearheading a democracy movement. Instead, they said, the Rajavis, given the chance, would have been the Pol Pot of Iran. The Pentagon has seen the fatal flaw of hitching itself to volatile groups like the Islamists who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and, more recently, the Iraqi exile groups who had no popular base at home.” [10]

As we observe the anniversary of this human tragedy where members of this cult were either ordered or felt compelled to set themselves ablaze in several European cities, let us remember the deaths of two women who created dreadful scenes—a shameful way to publicize and denounce the arrest of an alleged “resistance movement” leader. Before any more senseless deaths occur, the reality of the MKO must be re-examined not only by the French but by all by European government officials.

References:
[1] Guillemoles, Allain and Emmanuelle Rejue,”Opération contre Les Moudjahidines”. la-Croix.com. 13 June 2010 <http://www.lacroix.com/article/
index.jsp?docId=494032&rubId=4076>.

[2] BBC NEWS,”France investigates Iran exiles”. BBC MMX. 2003/06/22 07:03:17 GMT <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3010422.stm >.
[
3] ibid

[4] Agence France Presse,”Yelann”.”Maryam radjavi, personnage emblématique des moudjahidine, emprisonnée”. aufeminin.ca/société .
posté le 22/06/03 à 14:40 http://forum.aufeminin.com/forum/actu1/__f12971_
actu1-Maryam-radjavi-personnage-emblematique-des-moudjahidine-emprisonnee.html.

[5] Horgan, John, Director.”International Center for the Study of Terrorism”.
Penn State University. 11 June 2010 http://www.icst.psu.edu/current_projects.shtml.

[6] Mazarei, Babak.”Sad Spectacle”. Iranian.com. June 30, 2003 <http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2003/June/BM/index.html>.

[7] Sciolino, Elaine.”Iranian Rebel Group Had Attack Plans, French Report Says”.
New York Times. June 25, 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/25/world/
iranian-rebel-group-had-attack-plans-french-report-says.
html?scp=1&sq=Iranian%20Rebel%20Group%20Had%20Attack%20Plans,%20French%20Report%20Says&st=cse 4](http://www.icst.psu.edu/current_projects.shtml>.

[8] ibid

[9] Sciolino, Elaine.”Iranian Opposition Movement’s Many Faces”. New York Times.
June 30, 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/30/international/
middleeast/30PROT.html?ex=1057550400&en=0d936b988c92e183&ei=5062&partner=
GOOGLE&pagewanted=2NewYorktimes, ELAINE SCIOLINO, June 25,2003>.

[10] Rubin, Elizabeth.”The Cult of Rajavi”. New York Times. July 13, 2003, 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/magazine/the-cult-of-rajavi.html?scp=1&sq=the+cult+of+rajavi&st=nyt>.

By Mazda Parsi

June 17, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Victims in Camp Ashraf continue to suffer as MKO forces video performances

Victims in Camp Ashraf continue to suffer as Washington backed Rajavi cult forces video performances

(Families have been picketing for the past 4 months)

For over four months the families of Rajavi’s hostages in Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) have been picketing outside the gates of the camp demanding the right to meet with their relatives

During these four months they have asked for help from all the major international agencies concerned with the camp; UNAMI, ICRC, UNHCR, etc, including the American Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill. So far, despite their clear humanitarian case, no help has been forthcoming.

Now in a bid to force the families to give up and leave without meeting their loved ones, Massoud Rajavi has devised a plan to single out each of the hostages whose relatives have come to find them and one by one sit them in front of a camera to swear at and abuse their own families as well as the Iraqi government. Sadly, the hostages inside the camp have spent over two decades incommunicado and have had no contact with the outside world through media, telephone or the internet, and have certainly had no contact with their families in all that time.

Following is one of the forced video sessions broadcast by the Washington-backed terrorist cult leaders in which Mohammad Karimi has been made to sit before a camera without his military uniform, he is seated somewhere like a gymnasium inside the garrison. His speech is marked by MKO-speak and cult jargon as he swears at and insults his own sister and the Prime Minister of Iraq. Karimi claims that he is at war with Iran and that Iran’s leader (Ayatollah Khamenei) and the Prime Minister of Iraq (Nouri Al Maliki) have been defeated simply by him sitting inside the camp and refusing to see his sister.

We should not forget that these people have been used and exploited by Rajavi and Saddam for over two decades. When Rajavi and his wife (co-leader of the cult) ran away just before the arrest of Saddam, they abandoned these people to be used as hostages and bargaining chips. Now over seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, these people are still kept incommunicado and are imprisoned in the camp by the leaders of the cult with the backing of the USG and its agencies in Iraq.

Any right minded person can clearly see in his eyes the pain of swearing at his own sister.
Any right minded person can understand that if this was not a forced video confession, he could have been allowed to walk to the gates of the garrison without a prison guard and tell his sister to go home and that he is happy to stay there.

Any right minded person can see that the problem for the camp and Rajavi as its leader is not whether they want to engage in political activities or not (in that case the first step would have been to escape self-imprisonment in the deserts of Iraq), but their fear of the families and human rights activist trying to make contact.

Rajavi must answer to the outside world why no marriage is allowed among members, why no children have been born to any members for twenty years, why there are not even newspapers, or radio, no TV, no telephone or email to contact the outside world, etc. Why do those who have managed to escape the camp all report severe human rights violations against the people stuck inside without any recourse to help or contact?

The backers of Rajavi and other remains of Saddam’s era (especially, the infamous Ros-Lehtinan in the US House of Congress, Struan Stevenson in the European Parliament and Robin Corbett in the British House of Lords) should hang their heads in shame for supporting and endorsing such severe abuse of human rights of hostages in front of the eyes of their families.

As examples of such broadcasted forced videos is that of one of the victim hostages, Mohammad Karimi tortured to sit in front of a camera and play as instructed, including swearing at his own sister whose only ‘crime’ is that she has been sitting outside the camp for the past four months hoping to see him.

June 12, 2010 0 comments

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