Imagine a society in which people are not allowed to have any saying in choosing their own \u00a0clothing, schooling, work, shopping and any other aspect of life. This society is a slavery in which people are forced to hard labor and deprived from sleep, rest and leisure time.<\/p>\n
You may think that slavery is no more an issue of the contemporary man but modern slavery is still going on in the world as it was so general during the 1970s. The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) which is known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The Khmer Rouge began to implement their radical Maoist and Marxist-Leninist transformation program. They wanted to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society in which there were no rich people, no poor people, and no exploitation. To accomplish this, they abolished money, free markets, normal schooling, private property, foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and traditional Khmer culture. Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and granaries. There was no public or private transportation, no private property, and no non-revolutionary entertainment. Leisure activities were severely restricted. People throughout the country, including the leaders of the CPK, had to wear black costumes, which were their traditional revolutionary clothes. [1]<\/p>\n
Today in 2018, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO\/ MEK\/ PMOI\/ the Cult of Rajavi) is believed to be the next Khmer Rouge regime in case that it gains power in Iran. Former deputy assistant secretary of state for Iranian affair, John Limbert\u00a0 suggests that support for the MKO by the side of some US politicians including National Security Advisor John Bolton and his friends, \u201cwould end up backing MEK, a group hated by most Iranians and resembling a combination of the Jonestown cult and the Khmer Rouge.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n
Limbert\u2019s interpretation on the MKO was first stated by the contributor to the New York Times magazine, Elizabeth Rubin in 2003 after she visited the MKO\u2019s military headquarters in Iraq. \u201cThe Rajavis, given the chance, would have been the Pol Pot of Iran\u201d, she concluded at the end of her investigated detailed report on the MKO. [3]<\/p>\n
Pol Pot was the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge. It is estimated that from 1975 to 1979, under the leadership of Pol Pot, the government caused the deaths of more than one million people from forced labour, starvation, disease, torture, or execution while carrying out a program of radical social and agricultural reforms. [4]<\/p>\n
Cult-like practices of the MKO leaders is widely denounced by the international bodies and various journalists. \u201cThe MEK leaders in Iraq, husband and wife Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, ran the group through obsessive control over its member\u2019s behavior – enforcing total sexual abstinence, making use of torture, and encouraging lethal violence against any perceived enemy, including members\u2019 families,\u201d reported Abawaba website.\u201d According to a Human Rights Watch report, dissenters who criticized the Rajavis or expressed an intention to leave were subject to torture. Two of their members were tortured to death.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n
Albawaba correctly states that the MKO is not democratic as it claims. Maryam Rajavi retains tight control of their members\u2019 lives in Albania as well, reportedly doling out minimal money to each of its members to allow them to buy rations of food. She continues to prevent them from speaking to their families or letting them to leave the cult. At the same time, she began effectively courting anti-Iran American politicians, selling herself as a democratic opposition-in-waiting to the Islamic Republic. As the article says the only evidence for Mayam Rajavi\u2019s claim of being \u201cdemocratic\u201d comes from her \u201cTen Point Plan\u201d, and her claim that if the MEK were to assume power in the event of regime change, they would ensure parliamentary elections within six months. \u201cHer Ten Point Plan is not in itself objectionable\u201d, it writes. \u201cIt outlines commitments to secularism, democracy, gender equality, human rights, a free-market economy, and a foreign policy based on \u201cpeaceful coexistence\u201d \u2013 objectives that many Iranians likely share.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n
However, Albawaba proves that the group\u2019s history is the best evidence to contradict the leader\u2019s claim. \u201cThe problem is that Rajavi\u2019s history shows her adopting whatever label is politically convenient at the time, usually without living up to it,\u201d it says. \u201cThe 10 Point manifesto itself is quite an about-turn for a group that began as Islamist Marxists. And if the description of Rajavi as an autocratic \u201ccult leader\u201d is even somewhat justified, then taking her word that she will give up power after six months would be foolish indeed. Cult leaders crave power, and will invariably find a reason to cling on to it.\u201d [7]<\/p>\n
Ali Alfoneh, a visiting scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington D.C., told Al Bawaba, \u201cBased on their past record, NCRI\/MEK rule over Iran is more likely to resemble the Khmer Rouge\u2019s rule in Cambodia. I can\u2019t measure the level of their popularity within Iran, but if their level of popularity among \u00e9migr\u00e9 Iranians is any guidance, they probably do not enjoy significant popular support within Iran.\u201d [8]<\/p>\n
What is noteworthy is that the MEK\u2019s notorious background is known to most scholars and analysts on Iran affairs. American advocates of the MKO in the US administration must keep in mind that the majority of Iranians would never embrace the MEK as a \u201cdemocratic\u201d alternative. Moreover, the MKO has all the potentials to turn into a Khmer Rouge-like regime under the leadership of Rajavi as the Pol Pot of Iran.<\/p>\n
Mazda Parsi<\/p>\n
References:<\/p>\n
[1] Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Website<\/p>\n
[2] Limbert, John, Pompeo and Iran: A Bizarre Mentality, Lobelog<\/em>, July 24, 2018<\/p>\n [3] Rubin, Elizabeth, The Cult of Rajavi, The New York Times Magazine, July 13, 2003<\/p>\n [4] Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Website<\/p>\n [5] Al Bawaba, Attempts to Rebrand Iran’s MEK Are Far From Convincing, July 25th, 2018<\/p>\n [6] ibid<\/p>\n [7] ibid<\/p>\n [8] ibid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine a society in which people are not allowed to have any saying in choosing their own \u00a0clothing, schooling, work, shopping and any other aspect of life. This society is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85,185],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[3],"class_list":["post-8608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nejat-missions","tag-mujahedin-khalq-terrorism","tag-the-threat-of-cults","module-article","ctype-story","blog-nejat-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608","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=8608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}