{"id":7309,"date":"2017-08-20T14:15:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T09:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=7309"},"modified":"2021-10-02T10:33:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T07:03:09","slug":"toby-perkins-labour-chesterfield-mps-trip-founded-bizarre-iranian-terrorist-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/7309","title":{"rendered":"Toby Perkins, Labour, Chesterfield MP\u2019s trip founded by a bizarre Iranian terrorist cult"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Labour MP\u2019s trip to Paris was paid for by an Iranian exile group which has been described as the front organisation for a \u2018bizarre cult\u2019. Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins accepted \u00a3800 worth of accommodation, meals and transport from the France-based National Council for Resistance (NCRI) in Iran for a two-day trip in July.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7311\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7311\" class=\"wp-image-7311 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Toby_Perkins_US.png\" alt=\"Toby Perkins, Labour, Chesterfield MP\u2019s trip founded by a bizarre Iranian terrorist cult\" width=\"540\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Toby_Perkins_US.png 540w, https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Toby_Perkins_US-300x223.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7311\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toby Perkins, Labour, Chesterfield MP\u2019s trip founded by a bizarre Iranian terrorist cult<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The NCRI is widely considered to be the political front for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), who oppose the Khomeinist regime in Iran, and were a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK until 2008. Though the MEK has been praised for its opposition to Iranian theocracy, the methods and precise motives of the group have split Western opinion, with the US government describing it as a \u2018cult\u2019. Michael Axworthy, former head of the FCO\u2019s Iran Section, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The MEK] is a bizarre organisation. As it is today, it resembles a kind of religious cult, brainwashing its adherents, taking their money and property, and separating them from partners and families\u2026 It originated in the 1960s as a violent Marxist-Islamic group opposed to the Shah; in the 1970s, it killed US servicemen in Iran, among others. It gave significant armed support to the revolution in 1979, but lost out to Khomeini\u2019s supporters in a bloody power struggle thereafter, was forced into exile, and later was based in Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq. Because it fought on Saddam\u2019s side against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, it has since then been completely discredited with ordinary Iranians in Iran. No one with any claim to sound judgment, let alone high office, should have given [the MEK] their backing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guido Fawkes, UK,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Labour MP\u2019s trip to Paris was paid for by an Iranian exile group which has been described as the front organisation for a \u2018bizarre cult\u2019. Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[52,642,20],"module":[67],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-organizations-propaganda-system","tag-mujahedin-khalq-destructive-cult","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","tag-third-view-mek","module-news","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}