Undoubtedly, one of the most prominent examples of double standards adopted by the United States and some other western countries towards the terrorism issue, is their attitude towards the terrorist Mujahedin e-Khalq
In an obvious contrast with international laws, MKO members were granted asylum while the group was still on the list of terrorist organizations. Despite they witnessed the terrorist group’s crimes, MKOs’ headquarters were protected by the Police in France.
While the group was formally recognized as a terrorist organization, they were allowed to hold meetings and gatherings in many European countries. As though western entities revealed MKO’s violation of human rights inside the cult, no efforts were made to rescue the trapped members. While it was once a crime to support the MKO (one of the reasons announced by the Bush administration to attack Iraq was Saddam’s support of the MKO), immediately after invasion of Iraq, the terrorist group was under the U.S. protection.
Even though many informed technical and diplomatic experts evaluated MKO’s claims against Iranian nuclear activities as untrue and false, MKO’s propaganda was widely used against Iran. Whenever western diplomats needed a leverage to pressure Iran, they used to line up the terrorist group’s members in London, Washington, Paris, Geneva … to protest against Islamic Republic.
Despite all their supports for the terrorist MKO, western countries have not been able to ignore some facts about the group. There are some international reports that reveal MKO’s real nature.
These documents show there is a global consensus on the fact that the MKO is a group with a criminal record.
A review on the documents could be useful for many politicians and researchers. Documents show that western countries counted on the MKO to be able to influence Iranian internal issues after the terrorist group started its armed conflict against the people and when the cult leaders escaped to France. They used to believe the MKO enjoyed popular support in Iran. But just a few years after MKO’s presence in Europe, the US Department of State destroyed all the hallucinations on MKO in a detailed report, describing the terrorist group as a mosquito against Iranian military forces. The report explained MKO’s undemocratic and cultic characteristics. The cult’s cooperation with Saddam’s intelligence was revealed in the report and at the end Iranian people’s hatred of the group was emphasized. Public disgust of the terrorist MKO is reviewed in many other documents.
Another important document on the MKO, was the Human Rights Watch report about the cult’s inner relations. The report revealed MKO’s mistreatment of own members. Those who were once deceived by the group’s leaders and were at full service of the terrorist organization, were detained in Abu-Qoraib or the cult’s own prisons, being tortured by their former comrades. The report revealed some inhuman approaches adopted in the cult including mandatory divorces and separation of children from their parents. The report also described how the MKO was held under tight control of the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi and has a history of cult-like practices that include engaging in extended self-criticism sessions.
More dramatically, the report states that former MKO members told Human Rights Watch of being arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned, when they protested MKO policies or tried to leave the organization. They were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MKO in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein.
In mid 2009, the Rand Corporation also published a report about the MKO titled ‘Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum’. This report was written by a team of four who worked for 15 months in the US and Iraq to produce the most thorough analysis to date of the group’s cultish aspects. MKO is referred to as a cult 88 times in this report. It is stated in the report ‘an examination of MKO activities establishes its cultic practices and its deceptive recruitment and public relations strategies.’ Elsewhere in the same document it is stated: ‘Rajavi instituted what he termed an “ideological revolution” in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MKO with many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options.’
There are lots of more internationally known documents that reveal the terrorist nature of MKO group.
At the end, all these documents help to figure out how unpopular and isolated the terrorist Mujahedin e-Khalq organization is in the eye of Iranian people and all the people around the world. It doesn’t matter whether they are removed from the list of terrorist organizations, it doesn’t even matter whether the United States and some other western countries fully support the cult, the nature of this terrorist organization has not changed.