The details given by Shahsavandi well assert that the theatricalised ideological revolution was a plot for Rajavi’s hegemony that transformed a political group into a destructive cult of personality. The organization follows no logic in its relation with the insiders and the outsiders and the session 125 of the interview examines the group’s undemocratic practices with Rajavi …
The original meaning of the term cult, derived from the French word”culte”, comes from Latin noun”cultus”which is related to the Latin verb”colere”meaning”to worship or give reverence to a deity”. The term has originally a positive, religious connotation but in recent years, it has turned to be a widely used popular term,
the organisation calls all of its previous members, critics and who were showing some kind of opposition towards the group as the Iranian regime’s agents and members of secret police of Iran. Such allegations are made at a time when the organization is posturing as the most democratic Iranian opposition in exile.
There are some cases in which cult formation has not been predetermined and leaders were to bring about religious and social reforms. However, as a result of inferring new ideologies, they have separated themselves from others thus forming a cult faced with opposed ideologies on the part of the society.
Psychological strategies used for justifying people such as the length of organizational sessions, debriefing strategies and mental control, duality of extra and intra relations, humiliating members, cutting emotional relations with relatives, determining the relation of members with others, and their family in particular!nternal controlling system of MKO in contrast with traditional cultist system focuses on some complex and unbelievable dimensions.
After ideological revolution in MKO, leadership was considered as the zenith of the organization that, emphasized in inter-organizational meetings, had to be obeyed blindly and whose superiority could never be questioned. Such a leader is only accountable to God. In other words, he is regarded as the vicegerent of God. Mahdi Abrishamchi describes the position of leader as follows:
Nowadays, there are at least two organization accused of being terrorist and cultist, namely Al-Qa’ede and MKO. In 1997, U.S. foreign ministry introduced MKO as a sect following cultist doctrine. The US State Department’s report refers to the terrorist nature of MKO and their cultist doctrine: Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself.
It is a word which resonates with people. More familiarly I would call it ‘mind control techniques. These are well-known, well-documented. For years and years destructive cults have been using them. The way that they work in essence is that they will take a perfectly ordinary person and strip that person of their values using specific psychological manipulation.
One example of the social destruction of cult practices could be observed with the case of Mr Djavani. He has not only abandoned the organisation but every kind of religion and the Almighty God too. He has lost his faith with God all together after being disappointed with a cult claiming to be a religious establishment.
..intra-organizational controlling procedures in order to exercise a permanent and all-out mental, emotional and political control over the insiders. It was aimed to break members’ ties of attachment to anything and replace them with an ideological, political and social dependence to Rajavi’s leadership… .