The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was previously listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States until September 2012 due to the killing of US personnel in Iran during the 1970s and its ties to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The US State Department\u2019s criteria for FTO designation include being a foreign organization that engages in terrorist activity or retains the capability and intent to do so, and whose actions threaten the security of the United States.
\nArguments for redesignation often point to the MEK\u2019s past violent activities and current human rights abuses within its own ranks. Historically the MEK orchestrated terrorist attacks against the Shah\u2019s regime that killed several Americans working in Iran in the 1970s. While the MEK denies involvement attributing these to a breakaway Marxist-leninist faction, a 2011 State Department report asserted MEK members participated in and supported the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran.<\/p>\n
The group also engaged in a campaign of assassinations against Iranian officials and civilians in the early 1980s including the 1981 bombing of the Islamic Republic Party headquarters killing over 70 people. During the Iran-Iraq war, the MEK sided with Saddam Hussein and participated in spying and military operations against Iran. Since then, the group has been considered as traitors by Iranians.<\/p>\n
Irandokht Pazooki, an anti-Islamic Republic journalist of Israel Hayom believes that \u201cthe decision to remove the MEK from terrorist lists appears to have prioritized political considerations over substantive evaluation of the group’s fundamental nature and documented history.\u201d She states that the MEK should be returned to international terrorist lists as \u201ca necessary correction based on documented historical facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, critics and former members of the MEK have described it as exhibiting the traits of a personality cult, testifying about authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, mandatory divorce and celibacy, emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch reported in 2005 on prison camps run by the MEK and severe human rights violations against its members, including prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement, beatings, coerced confessions, and threats of execution. These reports should be considered as \u201cterrorist activity\u201d or a threat to US national security because they are alighned with the criteria for FTO designation.<\/p>\n
Pazooki also reminds her audience of reports from Human Rights Watch and other independent observers that \u201chave documented concerning internal practices based on interviews with former members, including allegations of enforced celibacy, forced divorces, separation of family members, and mandatory ideological re-education sessions.\u201d She added, \u201cWhen French authorities detained MEK leadership during a 2003 investigation, several supporters engaged in self-immolation in protest \u2013 events thoroughly covered by international media.\u201d<\/p>\n
The correspondent of Israel Hayom believes that The MEK\u2019s delisting in 2012, \u201coccurred despite significant unresolved questions about the organization’s violent past and without compelling evidence of genuine reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US State Department delisted the MEK in 2012, citing the group\u2019s renunciation of violence and cooperation in closing its Iraqi military base, while still voicing concerns about mistreatments of its members. However, the decision was influenced by intensive lobbying of American lawmakers who were paid hefty sums by the MEK.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo what extent might organizations with reported ties to the MEK \u2013 operating under different names \u2013 be engaged in political lobbying abroad, without consistently clarifying their connection to the MEK?\u201d asks Pazooki. \u201cThis critical question remains largely unaddressed in policy discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Israel Hayom\u2019s journalist wants to exploit the MEK\u2019s redesignation as a policy against the Islamic Republic, she correctly criticizes the double standards regarding terrorism: \u201cRedesignation would restore integrity to counter-terrorism frameworks by ensuring consistent application of standards based on factual historical records rather than political expediency. Proper designation decisions must be grounded in thorough assessment of an organization’s documented history and demonstrated actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she asserts, the call for redesignation is not based on political preferences but on widely documented history, legal records, and personal testimonies. The MEK\u2019s legitimacy and its cult-like nature continues to contradict its alleged commitment to nonviolence and democracy.<\/p>\n
Mazda Parsi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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