Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) has been seen with two Canadian parliamentarians in photos in the social media. The Canadian Liberal Party MP, Judy Sgro, and former Conservative Party leader, Candice Bergen, were seriously criticized by Iranian and non-Iranian users for visiting who they call “the leader of the MEK terrorist cult”.
The post was published by Judy Sgro, on her X and Instagram accounts. The interaction of the post is more than anything based on comments. To this day, the comments that Judy Sgro has received for her photo with Maryam Rajavi and Candice Bergen is twice the likes and shares she has got. Skimming the comments indicates you why the post has become viral and has received such a number of comments by users who mostly condemned the Canadian politicians for seeking to make “a difference in the world” by cooperating with Maryam Rajavi!
Amir Yaghmai, former child soldier of the MEK who has recently appeared in the documentary “Camp Ashraf Children”, commented on Judy Sgro’s post:
Me and my friends were recruited as child soldier and sent from Europe to Iraq in the MEK cult. I advise you to make some proper research on the MEK before supporting them. And also, to see the new documentary “children of camp Ashraf” that is being screened in Sweden now.
Rouzbeh Hosseini, an associate professor in the John Munro Godfrey Sr. Department of Economics, in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, also commented:
What can I say? Very briefly and simply, you are grateful for the opportunity to take photo with Maryam Rajavi? A face abhor and spurn by the Iranian nation for all the betrayals to Iran. This does not give you any credit and as a matter of fact, it will result in deprivation of your credibility by supporting #MEKterrorists.
A few of those 12 thousands comments are the followings:
–The MEK and their leader Maryam Rajavi is an anti-freedom, anti-life, anti-woman and anti-democracy cult and a former terr0rist group (till 2012) in the US. They don’t represent Iranians or any decent, respectable, intelligent human beings. Why would you give them clout and meet with them?
–Do you not do any research before you meet with people much less endorse them? How embarrassing for you. MEK (aka PMOI, NCRI, OIAC) has zero support among Iranians.
–Continuing to cozy up to an Iranian cult that killed 17,000 Iranians from 1979 to 2016.. you show your imperial nature without shame.
–This is beyond shameful. Maryam Rajavi is the leader of a religious cult where women are abused and forced into marriages. No amount of money should buy a politician to betray the community like this
–Imagine meeting with a terrorist cult leader and saying she’s “making a difference in the world”
What difference?
–Can you tell us exactly what it is that you’re grateful over to meet a cult leader? You do know she is one, it’s not even up for debate so I would love to know what was so good about this
–The MEK/MKO people have widespread many false statements and lies; for example, they have alleged the People’s Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK cult, and Maryam Rajavi are truly enemies of the Islamic Republic, but
Iranians regard them as notorious terrorist groups as an enemy of Iranian. Iran’s public dislikes the MEK cult even more than the Islamic Republic regime. According to a recent report gathered inside Iran, Maryam Rajavi has 0 percent popularity among Iranians. regime change
The hate is because, among Iranians, the MEK is negatively associated not only with its policy of regime change but also with its involvement in political assassinations following the Revolution and during the 1980 Iranian-Iraq war. The MEK’s decision to collaborate with Saddam contributed to the increased public opinion against it. According to the RAND Corporation think tank, MEK has conducted several raids across the border. The MEK received in exchange for its support of Saddam Hussein “protection, funding, weapons, ammunition, vehicles, tanks, military training, and the use of land and land.”
The MEK is a dangerous and violent group that has carried out numerous terrorist acts against both Iranian and foreign targets. According to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, the MEK has a history of violence and terrorism that dates back to the 1970s. The report states that the group has been involved in bombings, assassinations, and other violent acts targeting Iranian and Western interests.
Numerous other reports and articles detail the MEK’s history and involvement in terrorist activities. The Guardian newspaper, for example, published an investigation in 2014 that revealed how the MEK had been involved in the killing of Iranian scientists.