The Threat of Cults

Elimination Project, Masoumeh Gheibipour

Masoumeh Gheibipour was a mother whose son was separated from her under the leaders’ decisions in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization ( the MKO/ the Cult of Rajavi). Prominent former member of the Mujahedin Khalq, Batul Soltani recalls the times that they both suffered grieves of separation from their children. ”We both missed our children”, she writes. However, they could not criticize the cult-like system ruling the group.

Masoumeh was not used to observe religious rules well so she was under severe peer pressure in the cult, according to revelations made by Batul Soltani listiong a number of dissident members of the MKO who were physically diminished by the leaders.

“She was all the time suppressed by the group authorities for her careless covering or for not performing prayers,” Batul Soltani writes.

Meanwhile, another former member of the MKO, Edward Termado writes about Masoumeh Gheibipour,”She used to take her headscarf back to show off her hair as a way to protest suppressions made by her superiors.”

Edward Termado describes the grieves of Masoumeh, “Before she was separated from her son, she looked happy and delighted to see her son in the camp but her son -Makan- was sent out of Iraq. Since then she always looked depressed and sad.”

Batul Soltani who was a friend of Masoumeh stated how Masoumeh left her life behind by openly criticizing the leaders’ approaches in public meetings. “She was so courageous that she could stand up in the meetings and say “Ideological leadership is a suppressive argument.” Her courageous objections was then resulted in grave pressure by the side of the group authorities or her peers. She was labeled as “traitor”. Batul recalls that one of the agitated brainwashed women in the meeting saying “if you cheat on Masoud, I will strangle you!”

Eventually, Masoumeh was found dead in her bed a few days later. She was strangled to death by her headscarf.

When Batul got to know that Masoumeh was killed, she rushed into the location. No one was there except twelve members of the newly elected members of the Elite Council!

Batul was so shocked that she got sick after the horrible incident. Then she was made to attend a meeting in which Maryam Rajavi tried to convince them that Masoumeh was loyal to Massoud Rajavi until the last moment. “Nothing was said about how Masoumeh was killed,” Batul Soltani writes.

Surprisingly, a few days after her assassination, the group announced that Masoumeh passed away in hospital! They graved on her tomb that she died from an illness!

May 14, 2016 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Mothers, the forgotten victims of ISIS and the MEK

Earlier this year, the Euronews network aired a short documentary film titled The forgotten victims of Syria: foreign fighters’ mothers speak out by Robert Hackwill.

This was accompanied by another short interview titled: My son the Jihadist – A mother speaks out produced by Anne Devineaux.

These films reveal the distressing situation of that group of victims of ISIS who are too easily demonized or forgotten. The films, and others like them, focus on the stories of mothers of the young people who were deceived into travelling from Europe to Syria and, once there, embroiled in a hideous deadly fight which bears no relation to their past lives and relationships.

Some of the mothers already know that their children have been killed in the fighting. Some are still in contact with theirs. Other mothers have no idea about the whereabouts of their children and have no means of getting in touch with them. They simply wait day and night to hear something of their loved ones.

These mothers describe young people who had normal and comfortable lives in Europe. Some had no Islamic background and as converts had no other Muslims in their families. But they all believed they were following a glorious cause and they believed they and others would change the world into an ideal place in which they could practice their faith without the distractions of western lifestyles. With this mentality they were easy prey for those who seek to exploit them, terrorist leaders who will commit any crime and atrocity for their own benefit. These young people became victims of cultic abuse which has caused their mothers a great deal of suffering.

This is reminiscent of the mothers of the people deceived by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK aka Rajavi cult) over three decades. As a result of deceptive recruitment, they were taken to bases in Iraq to commit terrorist acts against their homeland. They are also victims of cultic abuse and remain psychological and physical prisoners of the cult leader Massoud Rajavi, some in Iraq, some now in Albania. Similarly, their mothers are denied contact with them and do not know anything about their mental and physical welbeing.

These mothers, however, are even more forgotten and isolated since the likes of Euronews do not portray their stories as they have those of European mothers and they have no means to let world public opinion know about their situation. These mothers, unlike those in Europe, actually do know the whereabouts of their children. They have even travelled to find them and got within 100 metres of their base, but were still denied contact with their loved ones by Rajavi. In spite of this, the officials of the UN and other international organizations could easily arrange for them to meet with their loved ones inside the MEK camps in Iraq and in Albania except that for simple expediency they yield to Rajavi’s demands and deny the mothers this basic right.

Who should raise the voice of these most forgotten mothers and let the world know about them? It seems the UNHCR is determined to close their eyes to their plight and talk and collude only with the cult leader Massoud Rajavi. The bias is so brazen that we are entitled to ask what benefits accrue to those who knowingly ignore the rights of these mothers?

Is there any reason why the mothers of MEK members in Iraq and Albania cannot have the same access to publicity in order to try to win public sympathy as the mothers in Europe? When they travelled to Iraq after 2003 and braved war and chaos these mothers were supported by former members and a few human rights activists, but their efforts attracted little media interest. Surely there is nothing to stop European mothers joining with them in common cause, to tell the world “We need to be recognised as victims, not the families of terrorists”.

Iran Interlink,

May 10, 2016 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

I was lucky that I didn’t get back to the MKO!

Hanif Bali was only three years old when he was separated from his parents in Camp Ashraf and was sent to Sweden. The 29-year-old Hanif is now a member of parliament for Sweden’s Moderate Party.

“I was lucky that I didn’t get back to Iraq”, he said in a documentary that was filmed from a day of his life by Manoto TV. When in 1991, Massoud Rajavi ordered his rank and file to leave their children under the pretext of the Gulf War, Hanif and many other children were transferred to Europe where they were kept in the MKO’s team houses or by Swedish families or Iranian sympathizers of the MKO.

“I have had seven to eight mother,” Hanif said about his childhood as an immigrant. His biological mother was not allowed to call him except once a year on his birthday. “About my father I have very few memoires,” he said with a regretful look.

A large number of children of the MKO members were then brought back to the MKO’s camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf. Some of them were eventually killed. Hanif was determined not to get back to the unpleasant life of the group in Iraq although the group recruiters tried to convince him to join the group when he was eighteen. The recruiter showed him a film of his father. In the film, Hanif’s father tried to indoctrinate him to go to Iraq and to allegedly fight just like his childhood friends who had gone to Ashraf and had been killed for the group’s cause. “I was shocked by the film because it was the first time to see my father,” he stated. He was lucky that his aunt was with him in that recruitment meeting. ”We won’t discuss it now”, she said. So, Hanif who felt angry with his father went home. He was very angry with him that after long years of no call and no contact, his father was just asking him to join the group. “Today, when I think of that day, I still get angry”, he told Manoto.

“This was a hard decision for a young boy to take”, he asserted. ”If I had accepted to join the group at that day, I would have been in a camp in the midst of war, in the midst of misery.”

Hanif was grown up in a democracy far from the cult-like totalitarian system that brainwashed parents to leave their beloved children behind for their leaders’ ambitions. He defines the big gap between his life and that of his parents, “The big difference between me and my parents is that I don’t see the world as black and white”.

April 20, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Elimination projects in the MKO – Alan Mohammadi

Alan was 14 years old when she was brought to Camp Ashraf to visit her parents who were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization. She had been sent to Europe after the so-called ideological revolution in the MKO that forced couples to divorce and eventually to leave their children. Alan and her peers had been sent to Germany where they were kept in pensions or by Iranian families who were sympathizers of the MKO.

Alan who was supposed to come to Camp Ashraf to visit her parents could not accept that she would not be allowed to leave the Camp anymore. Ms. Nasrin Ebrahimi former member of the MKO writes about Alan’s sad story inside the MKO,” As I knew the group’s reality, I realized that Alan and other children like her would never get back to Europe and the group would force them to stay in Ashraf, Iraq.” The teenagers were first told by the leaders to stay in the Camp to get to know more about the “Organization”. They were treated friendly and given present. High-ranking officials used to receive them in private meetings.

“This tactic was effective. Some of the children were deceived by the group and stayed in Camp Ashraf,” writes Ms. Ebrahimi.”Some others including Alan still insisted on leaving Iraq.”

But, one crucial sentence was repeated by the MKO leaders on various occasions: “Entry doors of Camp Ashraf are open but exit doors are closed.”

Consequently, children were forced to attend indoctrination meetings. ”I remember what happened to Alan during the meetings,”Ebrahimi writes. “I remember her with her innocent face and her small body that had become the topic of their so-called ideological arguments.” Alan was ordered to divorce her parents, her friends and her normal life in Europe! She was told not to think of the opposite sex. The MKO leaders tried to indoctrinate her to admit their main cult jargon: “Long Life Divorce”!

After dozens of brainwashing sessions, Alan still asked to let her leave the camp. She resisted against the indoctrination process. So, she endured the most severe psychological tortures. Commandants abused her verbally and humiliated her before her peers in the meetings but Alan did not obey Massoud Rajavi’s mind controlling system. Thus, she was no more tolerated by the system.

One day in 2001, the group announced her death. There are different accounts about Alan’s tragic fate. The group’s propaganda told that Alan had shot herself by a machinegun unintentionally. Nasrin Ebrahimi wonders,” How that little girl could shoot herself by such heavy weapon?” Another version says that Alan committed suicide. Given that the second version is true, it shows the extremely brutal atmosphere ruling the MKO.

“Yes, a lot of people committed suicide in Camp Ashraf including me but I’m sure that the 16-year-old Alan was murdered by the MKO”, asserts Nasrin Ebrahimi.

April 17, 2016 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Defector of the MKO reopen the black Box of Camp Ashraf Massacre

Ali Ardalani left the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in 2013 after 25 years of membership in the group. He is an eyewitness of the deadly clashes in Camp Ashraf on April 8th, 2011. He writes his memoires of that specific day:

Before April 8th, the Iraqi Government had several times warned the MKO to allow Iraqi security forces to enter Camp Ashraf in order to settle a police station there but the MKO did not cooperate with the police at all.

In the morning of April 8th, Iraqi security forces began their run to penetrate the camp. During the first clashes some of male members of the group were killed but no female was killed until noon.

Women had formed a human wall against the base “forty nine” to resist Iraqi forces. (Base 49 was Rajavi’s headquarters where his high ranking commandants were located. Formerly, the base was Massoud Rajavi’s safe house. Of course on that day, Rajavi was not there. It was just a symbolic act to pretend the importance of the base.)

The human wall was formed by young women. They wanted to pretend that Rajavi was in the base ignoring his disappearance since years ago. They cried so badly that the poor rank and file would believe that Massoud Rajavi was really there. This was another fraudulent show by Rajavi to give the false impression that he was in Iraq together with his rank and file!

Among these women, certain men were placed. They had archeries and Molotov cocktails. Surprisingly, the archeries and Molotov cocktails had been prepared two days ago. They targeted Iraqi soldiers out of the female human wall. They had been previously told that Iraqi forces would not attack women so they could simply throw their fire bombs against Iraqi forces.

This way, an Iraqi young soldier was killed. The forces who had so far avoided clash with females, began attacking them…therefore, at noon of several female members of the MKO were killed. The women’s names – mostly youngsters who were newcomers or problematic members- are Saba Haftbaradaran, Marziyeh Pourtaqi, Fatemeh Masih, Mahdiyeh Madadzadeh , Ensieh Rakhshaei, Shahnaz Pahlavani, Faezeh Rajabi and Nastaran Azimi. No high-ranking member was among the killed ones.

Male members were then interrogated in the meetings that were held in the following days. They were asked why they did not resist Iraqi forces, why they escaped the clashes. When the commandants were replied that the rank and file were empty-handed, they blamed them,” you should have resisted, more people should have been killed,” I even heard that they said: “Even if 500 people had been killed on April 8th, we would have won the battle. It was worth. The martyrs we offered on April8th helped us achieve the insurance card for Camp Ashraf. Not the Iraqi State nor any other person can look down on us at Ashraf. “

However, the world witnessed the shutdown of Camp Ashraf about a year and a half later. Members were expelled from the camp, humiliated and despised. Fifty-four members including high ranking members and commandants were killed after the closure of Camp Ashraf. Consequently, Camp Ashraf turned into the dustbin of history…

April 9, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Pros and cons of the Prevent strategy (Counter-terrorism Policy)

As an ordinary Leeds lass who spent two decades embroiled in a foreign terrorist organisation in the 1980s and 90s, I was deeply disappointed by the NUT’s vote to reject the Home Office’s Prevent strategy (Report, theguardian.com, 28 March). Last week, in a presentation to the Suffolk Prevent conference, I was able to explain in detail the mechanisms behind how radicalisation takes place. That the psychological manipulation involved in radicalisation is similar to that which underlies domestic violence and child sexual exploitation. That the different belief systems espoused by various violent extremist groups are almost irrelevant because their radicalising behaviour is the same.

The audience response was overwhelmingly positive. They understood Prevent not as a political or ideological assault on their communities, but first and foremost as a safeguarding issue. They unequivocally understood that schools and colleges need to make space for challenging conversations and that through listening to explanations like the one I give as a former terrorist, everyone in the public sector can gain the confidence needed to effectively fulfil their obligations under Prevent. I can only assume that NUT members’ reaction is due to the undeniably patchy and poor Prevent training which is being delivered by people who don’t have a clear grasp of the issue. But as somebody who might have been rescued if the Prevent and Channel programmes had existed when I was radicalised, I can only say that it would be a disaster if the fallout from weak and incoherent training is allowed to blight the future of the Prevent duty.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)

Leeds

–

Congratulations to the NUT for coming out against the government’s ludicrous Prevent strategy. Prevent is a paranoid and counterproductive initiative which has traumatised innocent children in the name of “fighting terror”. In January police questioned a 10-year-old boy for writing a essay in which he mistakenly wrote he lived in a “terrorist house” instead of a “terraced house”. In March a four-year-old boy who mispronounced the word “cucumber” as “cooker-bomb” was threatened with counter-terrorism measures.

Last September a 14-year-old pupil at Islington’s Central Foundation used the term “ecoterrorism” in debate during a French lesson. A few days later he was interviewed by two adults, without his parents’ knowledge, who asked him if he was “affiliated with Isis”. The experience left the boy “scared and nervous”. The fact that he – an Asian Muslim – was singled out from the class as a potential terrorist was not lost on his white, non-Muslim colleagues who had also spoken of “ecoterrorism”. Prevent is racist nonsense which is stopping young people doing what they should be doing in school – learning about and discussing the world.

Sasha Simic

London

April 2, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO, God Father of Suicide bombers!

Recent suicide attacks in Belgium capital, a park in Pakistan and a stadium in Iraq have resulted in dramatic loss of lives. All attacks were operated by the extremist terrorist suicide bombers who left their own life behind to take the lives of a large number of innocent people.
What makes a person to commit a suicide bombing?
To understand the motives behind suicide bombing many people try to excuse or approve it. It seems easier to assume that suicide bombers are just malicious characters who hate their victims but terrorism is not a simple phenomenon with easy explanations. Actually a wide variety of motives and factors are involved. For analyzing these motives and factors the Mujahedin khalq Organization (the MKO) is a significant example of such terror acts. The group may be one of the first role models of suicide bombers for extremists through the history.
One may also think that suicide bombers are crazy or psychopathic or that they lack moral feelings but most terrorists are not psychologically deviant and do not operate outside the normal rules of behavior, but are instead ordinary people from ordinary backgrounds. A glance at personalities of current and former members of the MKO indicates that the majority of them are from average Iranian families with religious or/ and honorable backgrounds. Most of them are smart, university educated individuals with intellectual tendencies.
Nonetheless, the crucial point about them is that they believe that their violent actions, while somewhat regrettable, are justified and noble. Moreover, their emotional commitment to their cause and their comrades and particularly their leader is revealing of normal human psychology. Often their actions do not ultimately stem from hatred, but rather from love of their leader and from absolute obedience to the orders of the leader. But, how leader can convince such people to commit the most atrocious acts?
In case of the MKO, in better words “the Cult of Rajavi”, the leader Massoud Rajavi manipulated his rank and file with a very complicated methodology of indoctrination. Massoud’s followers were indoctrinated that killing the innocent is inevitable consequence of fighting for the cult’s cause. Members of the cult of Rajavi were manipulated that these missions were the only way to fight for their leader. They were then glorified as martyrs.
Although the realization that MKO terrorists view themselves as soldiers engaged in a just war does not legitimize their cause or methods, it does provide some insight into their motivation. The MKO’s history is overwhelmed with suicide bombings, self-immolations and swallowing cyanide capsules just because these acts were wisely indoctrinated in the minds of members.
After the 1979 revolution in Iran, when the MKO began to fight the newly established Islamic Republic government, the MKO suicide bombers assassinated dozens of the Iranian officials and civilians. The suicide bombers were glorified in the group’s journal as suicide martyrs.
More than two decades later, suicide was repeated in the MKO history in a much more horrifying form: self-immolation. Following the arrest of the group’s co-leader Maryam Rajavi by the French Police, a dozen of the cult followers set themselves on fire in European cities to protest the arrest of the co-leader. These horrific acts in the heart of Europe revealed one important issue: The MKO is a destructive cult of personality. Self-immolators showed that they do not follow their leaders but they worship them. This was the very consequence of Massoud Rajavi’s methodology in his modern slavery.
Today, the IS and other extremist groups should be watched and destroyed but groups like the MKO seems to be more threatening because they freely have bases in Europe with hundreds of brainwashed slaves who are ready to scarify themselves for their leaders despite the group’s propaganda for human rights and democracy.
Mazda Parsi

March 28, 2016 0 comments

UN Human Rights meeting: the MKO Cult use children in suicide missions

UN Watch; the Geneva-based NGO invited Mr. Davoud Arshad to its human rights meeting, No to terrorism & Cults website reported.

The meeting held on Tuesday March 15th, 2016 and representatives from most of the countries all over the world participated the meeting.

Mr. Davoud Baghervand Arshad who is the former high ranking member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult participated the meeting.

Mentioning the human rights abuses in the world, Mr. Arshad referred to the human rights abuses within the terrorist cults such as the MKO terror cult under the leadership of Masud and Maryam Rajavi based in Auver Sur d’Oise ; Paris.

Mr. Arshad noted the recent horrifying report published by Guardian Newspaper on how ISIS recruits, indoctrinates and trains children as prospective terrorists and stated:

“At the present time shocking news of ISIS abusing human rights especially children’s rights publishes. Still I should indicate the fact that Mujahedin- e Khalq Organization under the leadership of Masud Rajavi is the godfather of ISIS. The crimes that ISIS is committing in 2016 have already perpetrated by the MKO in 1981.” As an example Mr. Arshad stated the recruiting and brainwashing of a 13 year old girl called “Gohar Adab Awaz”. Gohar was trained by the MKO terror group as a suicide bomber of a mosque in Iran.

“Later on the MKO separated children from their parents forcibly to be grown up and indoctrinated in the cult’s orphanages in Europe and US, as it had already separated spouses. The group’s plan was to use the brainwashed children in Iraq. The MKO killed some of these children who refused to take part in the war. The cult then registered these killings as suicides. To name some I can refer to Alan Mohammadi, Yaser Akbari and Marjan Akbari. Several youngsters were transferred from Europe to Iraq without their parents to be aware of the process. For instance, Zeinab Husseinnejad who as a child was studying in Paris. She was moved to Iraq and is held hostage by the cult now for many years.”

Mr. Arshad then referred to the threat of human rights abuses committed by the terrorist cults as being global in comparison with the human rights abuses in different countries which is restricted to that specific region and its people:

“.. We are all familiar with terrorist cults such as ISIS .. The human rights abuses within the cults can transform humans to monsters who are capable of shaping incidents like that of Paris terrorist attacks or terrorist incidents we are facing with in our country for many years.

We should not compromise with this terrorism which is a global threat. Leaders of these terrorist cults shouldn’t be allowed to reside and be active freely in Europe. They should be brought to justice. They should be held accountable because of the abuses of their own members and because of the crimes and terrorist activities they have committed in their own countries and elsewhere. Like Masud and Maryam Rajavi."

“Ladies and gentlemen currently many friends of mine are held hostages by the terrorist Cult of MKO in Iraq and Albania. They are helpless.” , Mr. Arshad reiterated.

March 17, 2016 0 comments

Albania

Khodabandeh: It would be wrong to ignore the Mojahedin in Albania

Anne KhodabandehAnne Khodabandeh (Singleton) British journalist, Director of Open Minds cultandterror.com former Mojahedin Khalq activist, says their transfer poses potential risks not only for Albania.

Deutsche Welle: Ms. Khodabandeh you are of the opinion that Albania’s agreement to take a further number of Mojahedin is associated with some risk. The international media talks about another 2,000 more Mojahedin going to Albania. What risk do they pose?

Anne Khodabandeh: There are many other NATO countries where the MEK could have gone, but only Albania agreed to accept the refugees. It would have been much better to have distributed the refugees among several countries instead of leaving Albania to take the whole burden. However, the move is very welcome since these people have to be moved somewhere for their own safety. Now they have a better chance of escaping their past and starting new lives as ordinary civilians.

The actual risk to Albania will be if the MEK is not disbanded as a group. Disbanding means that each refugee should be treated as an individual. They must be de-radicalised and then integrated back into normal society as ordinary citizens with homes and jobs and families. The MEK must not be allowed to re-organise as a quasi-military group. Clearly, Albania is not as strong as western European countries in this respect and so the process will be more difficult. But if it is done, then the country can take full credit for doing something not even the USA or the European Union could achieve.

DW: In one of your articles, you write that this is the relocation of terrorist group into Europe. Do you really think that a terrorist risk to Europe could come from Albania?

AK: It is important to remember that every member of the MEK who is relocated into Albania has been radicalised to the core. They have been undergoing terrorist training for up to thirty years in Iraq. They will not suddenly change just because the MEK name is removed from a list of terrorist groups or if they physically move to another country. They are still terrorists. Many have been highly trained by Saddam Hussein’s former Republican Guards Corps in specialist activities – from bomb making and terrorist strategies, to intelligence gathering and torture. The MEK is credited with inventing the suicide mission back in the 1970s.

DW: What do you think Albania should do?

AK: It would be a mistake for the Albanian authorities to dismiss the MEK as a defunct force simply because many of its members are old or ailing. They may not be a fighting force but they certainly have transferable skills and experience in terrorist training and logistics. These could be very useful to other terrorist organisations. The MEK has people who are experts in money laundry, people trafficking, fraud and corruption.

The location of Albania in the far south east of Europe makes it attractive as a gateway country into Europe. Without scrupulous vigilance the MEK camp could become a staging post for other terrorist leaders and commanders as well as acting as a terrorist training base.

DW: After the Mojahedin was removed from the list of terrorist organisations they could be said to be seen as allies of the Americans as they fought against Saddam Hussein. Is this fact not sufficient to exclude the possibility that they may pose a risk?

AK: The MEK have never been considered as actual allies by any western government. These governments may have benefitted from the MEK’s violent anti-Iran activities and have turned a blind eye to the support given to the group by various interest groups, but the MEK has never had governmental support except from Saddam Hussein. He paid and trained the MEK in terrorism for regime change in Iran. Expert US and EU assessment still regards the MEK as a ‘potential’ threat to Western interests.

DW: It is said that the Mojahedin Khalq helped in the fight against terrorism, why doesn’t the government in Iraq want them in their country?

AK: The MEK, referred to as Saddam’s Private Army, was responsible for the deaths of 25,000 Iraqi citizens, particularly among Kurds in the north and Shia populations in the south. For this reason, the group has many enemies in the country and their safety cannot be guaranteed.

After Saddam’s ouster, the MEK declared itself a friend to the US army and was disarmed. Over several years, Iraq’s security forces have gathered information which shows that the MEK still poses a threat to peace and stability in the country through its active support and help for insurrection forces linked to both Al Qaida and more recently Daesh.

DW: In Albania until now, they have live peacefully. Why could they be a threat to Albania right now?

AK: It is known that the MEK leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are planning to establish a safe haven for themselves in Albania along with the majority of the members. They want to recreate the closed society which they have used elsewhere – in Iraq, North America and Europe – that allows them to operate outside normal legal constraints. In Albania they seek to exploit the relatively weak state of the country’s governmental, security and social institutions in order to establish an extra-judicial enclave of their own.

DW: In Albania the Mojahedin Khalq live as political refugees. As such they are included in the legal framework of the country.

AK: It is not possible to be both a political refugee and a member of a terrorist organisation. At present, because the MEK has not been disbanded, each person who arrives in Albania is still a de facto member of the MEK terrorist group, regardless of the status under which they were transferred. Their refugee status is nullified as long as they are living in MEK accommodation and obeying MEK rules. The Albanian authorities must not ignore the fact that these people are victims of cultic abuse and are living in conditions of modern slavery. No ordinary member is allowed to make independent contact with the outside world. The MEK leaders claim to represent the views and wishes of the entire membership but when they arrived in Albania about 200 of them left. This is something which humanitarian organisations, both international and local, need to urgently address. The MEK must not be allowed to close the doors against the outside world and must not prevent the people transferred from Iraq from contacting their families and the outside world.

DW: You were once a Mojahedin activist. Why did you leave them?

AK: Yes, this happened [recruitment and radicalisation] when I was in university after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. I was young and naiive. They said they were fighting for human rights in Iran, but as I got deeper inside the organisation, I saw the atmosphere of fear and secrecy. I realized they were not fighting to liberate Iran from tyranny, as they claim, but only working to save the leaders. So, I left.

British expert, Anne Khodabendeh, director of the popular online platform cultsandterror.com Open Minds, herself a former activist of the organization the Mujahedin, launched a campaign in 2001 to help the victims of the cult. In 2011 she published the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf’, named after the main Iraqi base of the Mojahedin Khalq. Today she works as part of the Prevent Strategy to prevent radicalization and violent extremism in Britain.

The original interview is Albanian which is Translated by Iran Interlink

March 15, 2016 0 comments

Albania

Open letter to the Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania

Mir Bagher Sedaghi

……………….gasse26

2500 Biel/ Bienne

Switzerland

Orthodox Cathedral of Tirana

Rruga Deshmoret e 4 Shkurtit

Tirana 1001, Albania

Your Beatitude,

My name is Mir Bagher Sedaghi, a long serving member of the Mojahedin Khalq cult (aka, MKO, MEK, PMOI, …) who has now left this organization. I have been informed that the Rajavi cult has been trying to organize a meeting in your central church in Tirana under the pretext of “defending the lost rights of women”. I was delighted to hear that due to the whistleblowing of the local media during the last month the governmental officials have intervened and the show has been cancelled.

As a victim of this anti-women and anti-family cult I am happy and thankful to the Albanian officials who have stopped this misuse of Women’s Day.

Your Beatitude,

I have spent nearly 20 years of my life with this cult in Iraq. The cult leaders have denied us the right to marry, and the right to contact our families. My brother Mir Vaghef Sedaghi, who is still trapped in Rajavi cult even though he has now been transferred from Iraq to Albania, has not had any contact with our mother or father for over 27 years.

During the time I have been with Mojahedin Khalq I have witnessed their constant encouragement of violence. Their teachings included how to carry cyanide pills and how to break them in our mouth to kill ourselves and of course trained us how to effectively and efficiently kill others. This is no more than a violent terrorist group which has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in Iran using indiscriminate bombings and mortar attacks. This is not an organization which would even remotely support the rights of women, even though it is now desperately trying to portray itself as such in your country.

Your Beatitude,

Critics and ex members of this cult know many women who have testified that they have been raped by the cult leader Massoud Rajavi. The related documents are available and many of these women are willing to testify in person in any court of law.

I would ask you to be vigilant and take care not to tarnish the reputation of the good church of Albania by letting these dirty inhuman people misuse it. This cult of course is hated by the majority of Iranians inside and outside Iran.

Other ex-members of this cult, like me, are more than happy to help should the church of Tirana like to know more or to receive documents and evidence.

Yours sincerely,

Mir Bagher Sedaghi,

Switzerland 09,03,2016

March 12, 2016 0 comments

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