Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s Propaganda System

Only, a few weeks left to the presidential elections in Iran, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK/the Cult of Rajavi) has launched its predictable propaganda campaign against the Islamic Republic. As usual, the group labels the Iranian elections as “sham”.

Reviewing the substance of elections in governing systems around the world it is worth to compare them with elections held in both ruling systems of the Islamic Republic and the Cult of Rajavi.

Elections are the central institution of democratic systems. The principal mechanism for linking public opinion into the system’s authority is the holding of elections.

All modern democracies hold elections, but not all elections are democratic. Right-wing dictatorships, Marxist regimes, and single-party governments also stage elections to give their rule the impression of legitimacy. In such elections, there may be only one candidate or a list of candidates, with no alternative choices. These are not democratic elections.

In contrast, democratic elections are not merely symbolic but they are competitive, periodic, inclusive, definitive elections in which the main decision-makers in a government are selected by citizens.

A look at the history of the MKO and the Iranian government demonstrates the dimensions of democracy that are observed in each establishment. While the MKO cult leaders accuse the Iranian authorities of being fundamentalist, dictator and undemocratic there have never recorded a fair election in the whole history of the group. The above-mentioned type of undemocratic elections are exactly the only ones that were held in the MKO. No matter the person is supposed to be selected for what rank, there is always one candidate and members are supposed to vote for this only one without any opposition. In the voting process, there is no polling station, no ballot box. No one’s vote is secret. Members of the Cult of Rajavi have to raise their hands in a public ceremony to indicate their agreement with the selected person. There is no alternative choice and there is no option to dissent the selected person.

Compare this undemocratic system to the one in Iran. Despite all deficiencies, the elections in Iran are competitive, periodic and inclusive in which candidates from the two main political wings including conservatives and reformists take part. They run their presidential campaigns, participate in debates and try to challenge their rivals, much similar to what takes place in famously known democracies in Europe and America.

Leaders of the Cult of Rajavi run their propaganda machine against the Iranian presidential elections as they are backed by certain warmonger figures of the US government who find them as the enemy of their enemy. Saeed Kamali Dehghan of the Guardian finds the exiles such as Reza Pahlavi and the MKO that seek regime change in Iran, as people “who are irrelevant to modern Iran, yet appeal to gullible Americans”.

KamaliDehghan accurately asserts that the MKO and the Monarchists do not represent the aspirations of the Iranian People. “Nevertheless, the Iranian people by and large still believe in gradual change, however slow the pace of reform might be,” he writes. “Huge turnouts for elections represent a rejection of the sort of things that Pahlavi and Rajavi have to offer.”

He confirms that the MKO is never a reliable source for the enemies of the Iranian nation. “In their constant mission to demonise Iran, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have heavily relied on groups such as MEK,’’ he suggests. “The fact of the matter is that they remain out of touch with the realities on the ground.”

By Mazda Parsi

*Kamali Dehghan, Saeed, Iran’s people care about elections. The so-called democratic fringe doesn’t, The Guardian, April 28, 2017

Decades after the lethal fate of Hitler and his highly effective and skilled minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, there are still people who use their methodology in order to deceive public opinion and to indoctrinate their followers. The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the Cult of Rajavi/ the MKO/MEK) is one of the notoriously known cult-like groups that complies with the entire methodology of Goebbels.

Leader of the MKO cult, Massoud Rajavi systematically inherited Goebbels’ legacy as a devious, manipulative master propagandist.  Like Goebbels, Massoud was extremely good at his job. He drove his listeners into trance, making them stand up for long hours, sing songs, raise their arms, repeat oaths and slogans; and he did it, not through an ardent inspiration, but as the result of a psychological manipulative methodology.

Goebbels’ guideline was based on his 19 "Principles of propaganda" that would make his propaganda campaign active. Studying Goebbels’ principals, one may find out the extent of the MKO leaders’ loyalty to these principals. However, this post is able to cover only certain ones of the principals that are more iconic and common in the propaganda machine of the Cult of Rajavi.

At the first place Goebbels believes that “the propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion”. Regarding the cult-like system of the MKO, authorities of the group use the most horrible cult jargons in order to have access to the most inner thoughts of members –in case of the MKO, public opinion is limited to the members and sympathizers of the group.

Members are forced to write daily reports to confess any kind of thought that crosses their minds to their superiors and peers. They have to attend daily meetings to submit their self-criticism reports. No two MKO members can form a friendly relationship. There is always a superior to supervise a member’s daily life. Under such a circumstance, members have no private space and thus the authorities are more easily able to control their minds.

According to Goebbels, Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority; it must issue all the propaganda directives; it must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale. Massoud Rajavi has been the absolute authority of the MKO for nearly four decades. Despite his disappearance since 2003, his authority ruled over the main officials of the cult, even his third wife Maryam Rajavi. Massoud’s influence over his high-ranking members particularly Maryam was been so extensive and destructive that she could never stop him as a polygamous cult leader. Instead, she cooperated him in his fraudulent tactics to marry a large number of female members of the group. This was how Massoud “maintained their morale”!

Goebbels suggests, “propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness.” No matter how many years the MKO has promised the “overthrow” of the Islamic Republic, it seems that repeating the word “overthrow” is enough for them to run their propaganda. From time to time, that the word loses its effectiveness to indoctrinate members, the authorities set off for a new tactic, for instance the word get printed, framed and put on the new year’s Haftsin table (the Iranian traditional table which is set for the New Year’s celebration).

The principals underline that Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. The MKO authorities are skillful users of this key principal. There are so many of such phrases and slogans. The followings are just some examples:

-Since the group was turned into a cult in the late 1980s, Massoud Rajavi has always been called as the “Ideological leader”.

-The cult-like techniques that forced members to divorce their spouses, forget their families and accept Massoud as their only source of love, has been named “Maryam’s Revolution”.

-The Iranian government is called “Reactionary Regime” and anyone who criticize the group is labeled as “agent of the Iranian Intelligence” by the Cult’s propaganda.

-“Ashrafi” and “Ashrafneshan” are used as passionate terms to instigate the group members who were once residing in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. It was in Camp Ashraf that the group formed military force by financial and logistical support of Saddam Hussein and became his private army.

Briefly, according to Goebbels’s instructions, propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat. This tactic has maintained the MKO members under the cult-like brainwashing system of the group. Over years, the members have become so anxious and fearful that they cannot find anyway out to feel secure except staying inside the cult. The leaders of the Cult of Rajavi intimidate the members by telling tales about execution and torture that is awaiting them outside the cult.

By the way, Goebbels manipulated the German media and ensured that the radical Nazi messages of German racial superiority and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory became commonplace and accepted. The last line of his last speech was a call to arms: “People, rise up, and storm, break loose!”  However, His idea of “total war”– completely mobilizing everything in the nation for the war effort– failed. His fate was a tragedy. He committed suicide together with his wife, after he poisoned his six children!

When in 2003, after the American invasion to Iraq and consequently the disarmament of the Camp Ashraf, Massoud Rajavi disappeared, the start of his declining fate was marked. A few months later, in June Maryam Rajvai was arrested by the French Police. This was a shock that convinced Massoud to continue to stay in hiding.

 Today, 14 years have passed, Massoud’s fate is uncertain although the MKO’s Saudi sponsor Turki Feisal announced his death at the group’s gathering last July. Obviously, he is not that effective, absolute leader any more. This is proved by the rise in the defections from the cult.

By Mazda Parsi