The cult of Rajavi

Organisational Divorces within PMOI

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

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

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

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

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

Quoting from Mojahed:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 17, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Instillation of Hatred in the Cult of Mujahedin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

References:

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

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

3. ibid

October 6, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Learning prohibited in the Cult of Mojahedin

Almost all MKO former members unanimously report that the organization leaders are opposed to further extra organizational studies. They reason that members have to give priority to practical considerations rather than Learning prohibited within PMOI theoretical ones. Absolute pragmatism constitutes one of the main parts of controlling system in MKO. It bans any kind of study aiming at improving theoretical political knowledge. Before reviewing the statements made by Mojahedin ex-members concerning such an approach, it is tried to evaluate it with regard to the new executed value system within MKO after the development of the ideological revolution. The reason why Rajavi, MKO leader, prevents members of obtaining theoretical knowledge has its roots in his worldview and ideological objectives.

Absolute submission to leadership is considered to be one of the inseparable aspects of all political cults and that of MKO. Mojahedin’s theoreticians have focused on such a feature and calling Rajavi the man of ideology within MKO, point to blind obedience of members as their sole way of salvation. According to Mojahedin leaders, organizational improvement is achieved through absolute submission rather than obtaining political and theoretical knowledge. Taking a brief look at the statements of some MKO former members may prove this claim. It is said that before the initiation of the ideological revolution in MKO, members were qualified according to the following factors:

Ideological instructions aiming at achieving ideological unity between members and the organization; political-social instructions to make members familiar with experiences of other revolutions; ability to make political analysis and familiarity with political and strategic stances of the organization; economic instructions for detecting the roots of economic crises and their solution and also finding an appropriate economic system; organizational and security instructions to make members aware of the principles of the organization, its internal challenges, how to solve these challenges, and how to act in cases concerned with security considerations. (1)

In other words practical as well as theoretical competencies were taken into considerations simultaneously as practiced in all political groups and organizations. However, after the start of the ideological revolution, parallel to the change of the value system within MKO, all such criteria change and were replaced with just one criterion, namely blind obedience to leadership. Rajavi asked the members not to speak but act according to what they were ordered to do with no questioning. In fact they needed no further study since they needed no knowledge and understanding. Anne Singleton, an MKO ex-member, refers to this aspect of the ideological revolution and says:

He pushed the members to work harder and not to ask questions. He changed the ethos of the organisation by passing messages down to the membership of what he expected of them. The major theme of the time was that ‘ideology is what you do, not what you say’. In other words, don’t speak, act. (2)

She further compares and contrasts the organization attitude toward members before and after the ideological revolution as follows:

The major change too was in what was meant by ideological competence. In the original Mojahedin organisation this meant someone who had political, social and moral knowledge and experience. Someone who had undergone ideological instruction as had the first members way back in the 1960s. Since the Ideological Revolution, however, it came to mean someone who is, more than others, unquestioningly obedient to Rajavi, with no ability or desire to think for themselves, who will suppress any previous knowledge or experience they had in order to parrot what Rajavi requires of them. (3)

Another former member quotes Rajavi putting forth the new criterion for organizational advancement:

Rajavi told us: ‘You are not capable enough for political discussions and analysis and may go astray. You’d better let me do it, there is no need for you to pursue political events and analyze them, I will do it for you and tell you the results. If not, you may be disappointed since you have no political knowledge. There is no need to be anxious and pour out your heart to others; it is out of your business to know whether the ways are open or not. (4)

In order to develop a deeper understanding of this controlling process in MKO it has to be noted that one of the inherent aspects of all absolutist ideological trends is that they classify outsiders as either friends or enemies. Such a viewpoint has many consequences one of which is their focus on absolute submission of members. According to one of the theoreticians of Mojahedin:

One of the features of groups with ideological absolutism is that in establishing relation with outsiders close to them, they recognize no independence. In other words, the system’s rules necessitate it to have just two options regarding political outsiders, either absolute agreement or absolute opposition. (5)

It is not possible to understand how organizational limitations and prohibitions result in controlling members unless the value system of the organization is understood since the structure of mojahedin ideological revolution is very complex and intermingled and there is a kind of cause and effect relationship between its strategies and procedures. Therefore, a deep knowledge about the ideological revolution and its consequences is needed in order to evaluate the course of events within MKO.

References:

1. Niyabati, Bijan, A different look at the ideological revolution within MKO.

2. Singleton, Anne, Saddam’s private army

3. ibid

4. Shams-e Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

5. Niyabati, Bijan, A different look at the ideological revolution within MKO.

October 4, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Cultic Collective life

Collective life constitutes one of the most significant stages of human development; however, nowadays some cultist groups misuse it as a favored Cultist joint life is based on a collective unity in which individuals are exposed to some uncommon factors resulting in their blind obedience and submission means through which a variety of controlling techniques such as brainwashing and mental exploitation of their members is accomplished. It has to be pointed out that communal life in a cult has a meaning much different from that we have in our mind.

Cultist joint life is based on a collective unity in which individuals are exposed to some uncommon factors resulting in their blind obedience and submission. A kind of discipline is exercised within cults much stronger than that of army, schools, political groups, etc. Such a discipline covers all aspects of cult members’ life such as their mentality, beliefs, sleep, food, leisure time, occupation, emotional relations, blood ties, etc. Eric Hoffer describes cultist collective life as follows:

Collective unity is not the result of the brotherly love of the faithful for each other. The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole-the church, party, nation-and not to his fellow true believer, True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society, As Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son to prove his devotion to Jehovah, so must the fanatical Nazi or Communist be ready to sacrifice relatives and friends to demonstrate his total surrender to the holy cause. The active mass movement sees in the personal ties of blood and friendship a diminution of its own corporate cohesion. Thus mutual suspicion within the ranks is not only compatible with corporate strength, but, one might almost say, a precondition of it (1).

Cultist relations aim at cutting all individuals’ personal attachments on the one hand and then putting that individual within a collective unity. In other words, it is attempted to prevent member’s connections with the outside world and all his/her family, emotional, social, professional, mental, and ideological relations to make him/her wholly dependent on the cult. There is a paradox between the individuals’ separateness from the society and connection with cult members. According to Hoffer:

The effacement of individual separateness must be thorough. In every act, however trivial, the individual must by some ritual associate himself with the congregation, the tribe, the party, and etcetera. His joys and sorrows, his pride and confidence must spring from the fortunes and capacities of the group rather than from his individual prospects and abilities. Above all, he must never feel alone. Though stranded on a desert island, he must still feel that he is under the eyes of the group. To be cast out from the group should be equivalent to being cut off from life (2).

In fact the main motivation for conducting collective life in cults is taking members under full control. According to Hoffer, the mechanisms of cultist life change the value system of members in a way that it even puts value on aggression and aggressive behaviors:

There is also this: when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgment. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom-freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse (3).

It is a fact that communal life is the sole solution for keeping absolute control over a group of individuals. As a result it is a common strategy in all cults to resort to collective life.

Where new creeds vie with each other for the allegiance of the populace, the one which comes with the most perfected collective framework wins (4).

Such a collective framework has been referred to repeatedly by Mojahedin as the main factor resulting in winning their political and ideological achievements and legitimacy.

References:

1. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 115.

2. ibid, 61.

3. ibid, 93.

4. ibid, 44.

September 27, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

A matter of control and freedom

Majority of those who joined Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) and spent years and decades trapped in the leftist group could never dream that their quest for a socialist utopia would lead them to the abyss of a destructive cult of personality. Many of defectors that managed to break the embrace of the cult confess that what they gained in all those lost years was an understanding that they had been the sure victims of a man’s power abuse and ambitions who had not the least idea what democracy could be like.

Kept totally in ignorance of the true nature of the group, since the group severely controls the outlet and leak of information, even the sympathizers living in the free world of modern European countries as well as a handful of European parliamentarians, who seem to be after their own party and political interests rather than caring about Iranian people, have been led to a prejudice that the organization is a pro-democratic political group struggling for the institution of democracy in Iran. However, a merely show of sympathy does not seem to harm anybody. But when it comes to sympathize with a cult and terrorist group to further keep and enslave its members against their will it makes different.

Looking it from a humanitarian point of view, let’s support voluntarily return of MKO members to Iran or any other country they wish to move according to international regulations and through the organizations concerned. Let’s help those in Ashraf decide where to live rather than who controls them. They have had enough of any form of control and what at the present need is to be free.

September 27, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Fostered ambiance of distrust within Mujahedin

As was explained in previous articles, one of the controlling techniques practiced within MKO is espionage. Despite the fact that in almost all political systems and groups it is attempted to conceal the identity of the spies, within MKO spying is respected and valued so all members are involved in it openly and consider it to be an ideological and organizational duty. It seems that Mojahedin have redefined some terms. According to a former member:

Many reactionary features such as blind obedience and submission are considered to be positive ones. In fact, terms have lost their original meaning and the most shameful actions are introduced as revolutionary and valued characteristics and vice versa (1).

It is a fact that Mojahedin’s leadership resorts to appropriate approaches in accordance with the existing situation and conditions so that utmost security and control is achieved. According to some MKO ex-members, the strategy of spreading mistrust among members was taken after the ideological failure of Rajavi in the operation Eternal Light (Forugh-e Javidan). In other words, faced with a strategic impasse concerning the issue of the overthrow of the Iranian regime, Rajavi decided to put more strict control over the internal relations and MKO members.

It has to be noted that Rajavi had clear justifications for his decisions. For example, this strategy would control individual members one by one and consequently all the MKO members would be under control. What was of utmost importance for Rajavi in this critical phase was the danger of emotional relations of the family. Therefore, he decided to create mistrust among family members in order to prevent the negative consequences of their family ties. The leadership was well aware that after the failure in the operation Eternal Light, the family relations might intensify the challenges the organization was facing. As a result, the leadership tried to make family members pessimistic against each other by means of different approaches one of which was spying against each other.

Inter-organizational marriages that aimed at making the mind of members engaged in other issues rather than thinking of organizational challenges turned itself into a problem that threatened the organizational potentialities in next phases. One of the former Mojahedin members, Hadi Shams Haeri, refers to the main reasons behind obligatory organizational marriages in the first phase of the ideological revolution and the obligatory divorces in the second phase and writes:

Another trick played by Rajavi was creating much pessimism and hostility in women against men to create a resultant deep gap. Also the organization announced repeatedly that ‘men coveted women to satisfying their own sexual desires. For them, women are like properties and dolls. They are very selfish and aim to exploit women. Men are wild creatures and the ideological revolution is to solve the existing disparity’. Such comments affected the family relations negatively and made it full of distrust and disfavor (2).

He further explained that this controlling strategy was taken after the initiation of the first phase of the ideological revolution in 1985-6. He himself can be referred to as one of the victims of this strategy. As he says:

After the ideological revolution in 1985, I never felt secure at home. I talked to my wife cautiously since I felt that she controlled me like a spy. In fact she reported my words to the officials many times and they interrogated me for that. She was very different from the early years of our marriage turning to an obedient spy who did whatever she was ordered. She told me many times: ‘why are you such a subordinate member? I expected you to help me win promotion’ (3).

There are many reported instances in MKO in which the couples are made to belittle each other by spitting at their spouses’ face, using ideological swears and expressing hate to each other in order to pave the way for the leadership to put more control and hegemony over the members.

Anne Singleton, an MKO former member, elaborates on this controlling procedure and believes that Rajavi has generalized the absolute distrust exercised in the external policy of the organization to that of internal relations of the members in that the members felt pessimistic toward the outside world as well as other members and even their family members to the extent that all members tried to act in a cautious way not to be subject to the suspicion of others.

In such an atmosphere, any event resulting in others’ misunderstanding and doubt may lead to a lack of trust on the part of the leadership toward the members. According to Eric Hoffer, any individual’s reaction in such a milieu is the result of his adaptation with circumstances came across and the sole inlet into a system of values is renouncing individual wills to be dissolved in a collective whole:

Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world. Once the harmony with the self is upset, and a man is impelled to reject, renounce, distrust or forget his self, he turns into a highly reactive entity (4).

This mechanism may be interpreted as the best instrument for controlling members by their own family members after losing trust in each other to become reactive entities. According to Anne Singleton:

There is total trust between all the members of the Mojahedin, as a group of people facing an outside enemy (the rest of the corrupting world) they must trust one another completely. But, there is also a total absence of trust between all the members because no-one can ever be sure what anyone else is really thinking, or even what oneself is thinking and therefore it is easy to lose trust in oneself as a rational being. The only certainty that remains is to listen to and obey Rajavi (5).

References

1. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The Swamp, vol 1.

2. ibid.

3. ibid, p.131.

4. Hoffer, Eric, The true believer, p. 80.

5. Singleton, Anne; Saddam’s private army.

September 21, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Enforced internal intelligence activities in MKO

Mojahedin-e Khalq organization (a cultist group also known as MKO, MEK, PMOI) resorts to brainwashing and controlling techniques as well as engaging in other blameful activities such as training spies in a way different from other political and security systems. Normally, espionage is considered to be a profession by itself. However, in most cases it emerges as a result of ignorance, unfounded demands, and an ever-increasing phobia on the part of those involved in it. Although it means gathering, transmitting, or losing, of information by those who pretend to be part of a system or group, Mojahedin relate it to ideological and religious issues as a valued activity.

Cultist groups make psychological use of such a phenomenon. Eric Hoffer refers to it as a marvelous slime to cement the embittered and disaffected into one compact whole, a unifying agent. He writes:

The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. Thus when the frustrated congregate in a mass movement, the air is heavy-laden with suspicion. There is prying and spying, tense watching and a tense awareness of being watched. The surprising thing is that this pathological mistrust within the ranks leads not to dissension but to strict conformity. Knowing themselves continually watched, the faithful strive to escape suspicion by adhering zealously to prescribed behavior and opinion. Strict orthodoxy is as much the result of mutual suspicion as of ardent faith (1).

Then he refers to some examples in right Fascist parties and expounds on such an assumed sacred process as follows:

Mass movements make extensive use of suspicion in their machinery of domination. The rank-and-file within the Nazi party were made to feel that they were continually under observation and were kept in a permanent state of uneasy conscience and fear. Fear of one’s neighbors, one’s friends and even ones relatives seems to be the rule within all mass movements. Now and then innocent people are deliberately accused and sacrificed in order to keep suspicion alive. Suspicion is given a sharp edge by associating all opposition within the ranks with the enemy threatening the movement from without. This enemy-the indispensable devil of every mass movement-is omnipresent. He plots both outside and inside the ranks of the faithful. It is his voice that speaks through the mouth of the dissenter, and the deviationists are his stooges. If anything goes wrong within the movement, it is his doing. It is the sacred duty of the true believer to be suspicious. He must be constantly on the lookout for saboteurs, spies and traitors (2).

Such a deep theoretical consideration within the cultist relations of MKO constitutes what we call ideological sacredness which paves the way for the application of espionage activities. Subornation is used in order to convince members of being engaged in espionage in MKO, a common approach in the world of politics practiced by Mojahedin as well. One of the Mojahedin former members expands on such a controlling procedure and writes:

One of the undemocratic and even un-revolutionary relations is that of training spies. Spy is a person communicating with others in a friendly manner and then reporting his/her actions and speeches to the leader of the organization. This approach has penetrated within the families too. Wife spies against her husband, sister spies against her brother and vice versa giving the report to the officials which debilitates the marital relations resulting in suspicion and hatred in the families. Even in one or two hours allowed to be with each other, no one dares to talk to or consult with her/his spouse since it may end in giving secret information or criticizing the organization both of which are forbidden (3).

Hadi Shams Haeri describes such a process as follows:

Spying was another means for the mental reformation of members. The organization asked members to make daily reports of their family members and give it to their person in charge to control the affairs. Even talking in a specific dialect was forbidden not to disclose information in this way. As a result, distrust was spreading among the members and every one considered other members as security agents. Also the reporting person was affected negatively turning to a double-faced person (4).

Saeed Shahsavandi, former member of Mojahedin’s central democratic cadre, in his letter to Masoud Rajavi (MKO ideological leader) refers to one of the doctrines of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin, writing:

Members’ espionage and even that of couples is done as report writing. It was initiated after the development of the ideological revolution and nowadays is ever-increasingly practicing (5).

In a nutshell, espionage turned to be a kind of organizational advancement after the initiation of ideological revolution. In most ideological sessions of Mojahedin especially that of the so-called ‘article c’, members were told to be involved in espionage in order to get promotion. It is very interesting that this approach has no red line and all members were obligated ideologically to write reports. For example, European members returning to Camp Ashraf were accused of being secret agents too. In this regard, Masoud Banisadr writes:

By now not only we had to give reports about ourselves, and our thought, but as we were told that we have to be safeguard of each other, and report back misbehaviour of each other. God knows how many people gave such reports about us from abroad that didn’t know about this new situation. Some times I could not believe my ear when I could hear some facts people were giving about themselves or others. In a meeting, a brother was accusing another brother who sat on a seat occupied before be a sister. He was accused of wanting to touch a seat, already touched by a woman (6).

According to some detached members, sometimes even the common recollection of members they chat over turned to a means for their own indictment. However, although such exchange of information in no way aimed at giving reports, the internal relations of MKO made it inevitable to end the ordinary and day-to-day chitchats of members in giving reports against one another.

The most pitiful event was that of family members’ spy against each other done under the pretext of ideological and religious considerations. Making all members indebted to the leader is one of the most important phases of the ideological revolution without which organizational membership and advancement is impossible. This principle affected common emotional relations between relatives and made members mostly concerned about organizational upgrading and contentment of the leadership.

Some members had to divorce their spouse just because of losing their organizational status. The family turned into a place of mistrust and spying within MKO. Every one was obligated to report all events happened in his/her family to the organization. There was no freedom at home. Every one with a higher organizational status had hegemony over others and more facilities and welfare (7).

Taking members under control by means of spying is one of the appalling mechanisms practiced within MKO. According to some MKO ex-members, some members ignored all ethical principles accusing their fellow warriors falsely in order to satisfy the leadership. One of the most famous gatherings of Mojahedin in which a member was condemned harshly and sometimes beaten by others was called ‘pot’. It was like being put in a pot and boiled on fire as members were put under heavy, inescapable psychological pressures and reproach. Such sessions were formed based on the reports given to the officials about members.

The process of espionage in MKO is different from other systems and organizations; in the latter it is preferred to hide the identity of spies while in MKO it is respected because it is a duty to prove loyalty to the leadership. The value given to surveillance results from the fact that MKO leadership has theorized it ideologically. As Hoffer refers to psychological aspects of this issue, Mojahedin make use of the same aspect as well as ideological considerations thus making it an ordinary daily activity.

The study of such controlling mechanisms in MKO is of special significance since they make members do self-censorship due to the fact that no one can distinct spies from ordinary members. As a result, all members control each other automatically preventing the occurrence of any tension within the organization. There are many evidences provided by separated members proving this fact. The cases discussed above well illustrate the quality and quantity of such an unethical phenomenon in the internal relations of Mojahedin many of which are not mentioned here.

References:

1. Hoffer, Eric, The true believer, p.114

2. ibid, p.115

3. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The impasse of deviations, p.26

4. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

5. Shahsavandi, Saeed, Documents of my letters to Masoud Rajavi

6. Banisadr, Masoud, The memoirs of an Iranian rebel, p.376

7 Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

September 18, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Who cares about children in the cult of Rajavi?

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

September 9, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

A Cult called NCRI

Most cultish groups in the world are active in recruiting, expanding their activities, and gaining money and power [62]. One cannot resolve the problems related to the cults through a philosophical debate or their denunciation through heated discussions on TV. The threat that the cults impose on our societies goes beyond that. The cults, in fact, threaten the physical condition, psychological health, political power and democratic freedoms in our societies. The cults may even threaten the lives of our people.

In a cult, the self appointed leader is the centre of power and is the one who determines the values and goals. There is no limit to the authority of the leader. He/She will not respond to any-one and preaches a sort of a religion that has been invented by the superficial extraction of elements from this or that religion. Some of the most common and important methods that the leadership of a given cult uses for preserving and expanding its dominating power are:

The physical elimination of its opponents

Discrediting and treating the opponents as traitors before and after the physical elimination,

Slandering, accusing and using abusive language against its opponents and critics

Impetuously inverting the ideological and political positions

Inculcation and making the others believe what the cult says as true and inciting its members to self-humiliation and destruction of their own character are among other main tactics used against who have doubts, questions, hesitations or opposition to the leadership of the cult. The individual by turning to be a devotee inculcates in himself that he has no power to distinguish and understand the issues. Thus it is the leader who builds up the ideas and interprets the meaning of life.

It is the leader who defines what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad and who are friends and enemies. He is not answerable to the followers and there is a huge distance between him and the rest.

He is a person considered beyond a normal human being and capable of doing impossible things; and therefore others should obey and follow him. Contrary to the authentic religions who invite followers to obey God, in cults, the leader of the cult itself takes the place of God and becomes sacred and divine. Most cults try to use a deviated language and culture of religions to gain legitimacy. It is for this reason that they claim that the leader of the cult inspired by divine teachings is aware about the secrets of the world creation and world view and the nature of the human being. That’s why telling lies, deception and temptation and having multiple personas are justifiable in the cult and having these characteristics would be permissible to protect the leader and members of the cult.

The leader of the cult forms the society under his/her control in a closed and confidential manner. In this way, secrecy and confidentiality of issues –even minor ones- are vital and irrefutable. Emphasis on protecting the cult secrets is aimed at creating a harsh discipline and security hierarchy based on total and blind obedience. [63]

MKO, taking Marxism as a model, as of its inception and during expansion of its organi-sational structure, administered itself based on democratic centralism or central rule based on majority of votes. According to the Organisation there was a transitional period between the years 1978 and 1979 and between 1979 and 1984 when Rajavi’s authoritarian rule was established and from 1984, the organisation transformed itself into a cult. According to Iran Interlink, 1985 saw the start of the internal ideological revolution:

“[It was] Introduced at the time of the marriage of Massoud Rajavi with Maryam Azdonlou in February 1985. Rajavi declared himself the self-appointed ideological leader of the Mojahedin, or spiritual leader – a role taken over in public by his wife Maryam Rajavi since his disappearance after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Along with this role he introduced ‘phases’ of the Internal Ideological Revolution which would in his terms lead the members to a full understanding of his ideological beliefs. The phases includ-ed daily reporting of thoughts and feelings; forced marriage followed by forced divorces; separation of children from parents; confession of sins including erotic dreams and fantasies. The aim of these phases is to connect the member to the leader with nothing between them in an exclusive relation-ship of total submission to the leader’s will.” [64]

Former member Anne Singleton, on the BBC’s Newsnight programme, also describes the effects of the cult upon her and confirms the many reports of MKO survivors (former members) of the brain washing activities of the group. The piece mentions that many former MKO members gave account of the ‘psychological manipulation’ that was designed by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to control the minds of the MKO members. Ann Singlton and her husband Massoud former MKO activists who had served MKO for 20 years in “absolute loyalty” were amongst them. It was launched in the name of “permanent ideological revolution”. The project aimed the renunciation of all types of sexual feel-ings and family connections. MKO leaders decreed that every member of the organization should divorce their spouses in order to dedicate their entire effort, energy and thoughts for the sake the Rajavi Family. Ann Singleton states that MKO expected that its members devote their wholel being to the Rajavi family. This was enforced through a system of daily reporting. Any types of erotic thoughts and fantasies had to be reported to the organisation in “details” in the form of complete openness [65].

According to Bahar Irani, the drift towards a cult started before the internal ideological revolution:

“The most explicitly expressed views in this respect are stated in a book entitled Ravand-e Jodaee "the process of separation" edited by a number of MKO’s separated members. The book is in fact the formal declarations of a number of Iranian students in abroad who published it just after the start of the ideological revolution. It investigates the strategic deviations of MKO and Rajavi from the organizational principles that inevitably led the organization into a cult:

“It is highly probable that Mojahedin, if they fail in their identification with liberalism and assuming the political power and face an overall stalemate, will turn into a cult because of their separation and isolation from the masses; something which is not unprecedented in the history. [1]

“In this regard, another ex-member has nearly the same opinion:

“Before the initiation of the military phase in 1980, some eminent political figures imprisoned by Shah [Pahlavi’s regime] who were somehow familiar with MKO envisaged it would turn into a cult! It was predicted that if the organization failed to settle it with the liberals, it had to inevitably suffer isolation and turned into a closed religious cult. [2]

“In this regard, Ali Ferasati, an MKO member, states that in 1984 Rajavi ordered the infor-mation bureau of the affiliated associations to do some investigation about the structure of cults. He says:

“In 1984, the information bureau of associations was asked to investigate the western religious cults. The reason was said to be since the imperialists were pushing policies ahead through religious cults, the organization needed to find out what the cults were doing and under what mechanism. [3]

“As Ferasati points out, he had managed to realize the real intention of Rajavi:

“At the time I got to the bottom that Massoud [Rajavi] was aware of the fact that the organization was getting dissociated and thus, wanted to see how the western cults operated so he could model on them[4]” [66]

In this period, the tendency towards a single person’s rule increased and gradually dominated all over the organisation. From December 1979 Masoud Rajavi’s tyranny became more evident and he became the lead man in the organisation.

“After the death of Mussa Khiyabai in February 1991, Rajavi became the irrefutable ruler of the organisation. From this time, Masoud Rajavi soon engaged himself to downgrade this political/religious organisation into a semi-religious/Mafia cult. Masoud Rajavi sat in place of God and all members of the organisation were duty bound, openly and officially, to bow in front of this new idol.” [67]

Maryam Azadonlou [68] repeatedly in her speeches, talked about “Rajavism” or “Masoudism” school of thought. “Rajavi considers himself the sole rightly designated representative of God on earth and calls the organisation the arrowhead.” [69] The following reasons indicate that the organisation turned itself into a cult:

Adopting a mixed ideology

Sanctification of Rajavi leadership

Its position regarding the family

Organisational divorces

Ideological revolutions and secret inter-organisational relationships

September 7, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The NCR, an alias for Mujahedin Khalq

It may seem hard to believe that the first seeds of MKO’s transition to a cult of personality were sown in the heart of the Western democratic and free soil following the initiation of the ideological revolution within MKO. In fact, before MKO relocation to Iraq to execute cultic relations in Camp Ashraf as its main cult bastion, the cult thought had passed its embryo stage at Auvers-Sur-Oise in Paris. The importance of Camp Ashraf lies in the fact that it was the best remote and controlled spot as needed for cult activities. It well reinforces the first of the eight main conditions that Lifton identified as indicating the presence of ideological totalism in an organization:

Milieu control. As Lifton postulated it, this is primarily the use of techniques to dominate the person’s contact with the outside world but also their communication with themselves. People are "deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it. 1

Burt before establishing its main controlled base to practice its cult process, MKO first requisite was to expand its extraordinarily exalted view of its role in political scene as the main Iranian opposition. As a result, it needed a prestigious ancillary establishment with prominent, opponent figures to confer required political legitimacy. The formation of the National Council of Resistance (NCR/NCRI) in France worked as an important alias that could accomplish the cause. It has to be pointed that formation of aliases was in no way an overnight happening. A look at the history of MKO especially after the advent of Islamic Republic in Iran reveals that the group had taken on the strategy of forming a number of affiliated groups under different pseudonyms as a working tool to recruit from among the social ranks and classes and obtain the needed public support.

Compared with other many formed aliases, the NCR is known to be MKO’s most important political wing in the West. Because of the wide membership diversity, the NCR is an exception to MKO’s cult influence. However, it has been itself utilized to intensify and expand cult relation. Although the formation of the NCR soon after MKO’s settlement in France aimed on creating an exclusively united front against the Islamic Republic, it soon turned to function as another alias for MKO. The main goal was on the one hand to recruit members with no ideology or whose ideology somehow contradicted that of MKO, and on the other hand the NCR was intended to act as a catalyst between the West and MKO. Explaining on the goal, an ex-member has said:

The fundamental reason for this new development of the NCRI was that Rajavi desperately needed to rebuild his contact with the West. He couldn’t do this directly himself as none of the Western countries would accept him whilst he continued to maintain relations with Saddam. Nor would Saddam let him loose to leave Iraq and do what he wanted beyond his control. 2

However, Rajavi needed a second trustable chip to introduce. Presentation of Maryam Rajavi as his surrogate in the West at the head of the NCR is known to be one among many errors made by Rajavi; she is hardly qualified to administer some ordinary organizational affairs let alone be elected and accepted as the president elect:

Rajavi hoped that by presenting Maryam as a President and giving her over 150 devoted members to choose from, she could go to the West and start building a place for him again in the political scene. It became a costly mistake. Maryam, as good as she was at promoting Rajavi for the members of the Mojahedin, could not act as a good CEO and take advice. 3

Still, Rajavi is the one to lead the NCR and his hegemonic rule is the sole cult characteristic that dominates it. That was enough for a number of members to leave it as they did. Yet, MKO’s active members constitute a big part of its membership, that is to say, the insiders living in a cult milieu out of a cult’s bastion.

References:

1. Dennis Tourish & Tim Wohlforth: On the edge; political cults right and left, p. 12.

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

3. Ibid.

August 30, 2008 0 comments

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