The Mujahedin Cult
The right to choose within cults
The ideological revolution within Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, or cult of Mojahedin, has led to so many changes in terms of internal relations of MKO. Mojahedin based the survival of the organization on the necessity for institutionalizing the components of the ideological revolution; before that, it was through providing due backgrounds and taking unique approaches. These adopted approaches, according to MKO ex-members, were similar to the techniques utilized by the past and contemporary cults and were applied as leverages to coerce insiders into absolute obedience to Rajavi’s totalitarian and ideological leadership. Since the main objective behind the institution of the ideological revolution was a quantitative instillation of a new system of values, ethics and thought, then, appropriate techniques and approaches had to be implemented. Here are a number of them deduced from comments made by detached members:
1. Shock
2. Accusation
3. Doubt
4. Subversion
5. Discharge
6. Illusion
7. Commitment
8. Repetition
9. Reformation
Shock
Broaching the issue of Maryam and Massoud’s marriage in the early meetings in order to raise ethical misapprehension indicates the function of shock in destabilizing the mental and ethical balance in MKO members. Since Mojahedin considered Rajavi as the symbol of ideological and political legitimacy, the issue of Maryam and Massoud’s marriage came as a sudden strike of shock.
Accusation
Under the very impact of the sock, in an immediate reaction the members took an inevitable turn to accuse the elements of the shock. However, as the scenarists of the ideological revolution indicate, through the next phases the accusers turned to be the accused for materializing their mentality.
Doubt
The uppermost outcome intended in the mental and psychological imbalance and shock is raising doubt in ethical, ideological, and political legitimacy in the members. The significance of this phase was due to the fact that no longer in organizational relations Masoud was taken into consideration. Moreover, members showed signs of dissatisfaction and considered him as an illegitimate leader. This phase was most important in the plan for materializing members’ mentality and even detecting their contradictory views formed against leadership.
Subversion
The next phase made members believe that they are in contradiction with themselves. In this stage all members on account of the shown reaction to the early shock are accused of making compromise, incurring adversary and holding reactionary views against the leader. As a result, those who would rebuke the leadership found themselves to be in leader’s debt.
Discharge
The sole solution for the members to be released of any accusations was to come to the point that every body had to develop an internal revolution. The first step to such a revolution was that all the hidden thoughts and mentalities of members against the leadership had to be thought over. Later on, such a mechanism was applied to dig out what was lying deep in members’ mind.
Illusion
Discharge created the impression that members’ mentality concerning the revolution and leadership had not been yet thoroughly cleansed. Members developed the illusion that due to their internal contradictions, they had to challenge themselves if they were to start an internal reformation. The internal challenge led them under the illusion that up to that time not only they had been of no use but also had been impediment to any progress. Consequently, they felt a strong need to be attached to a new value system and outside element who was Massoud in this case.
Commitment
Commitment to the leader meant submission to a process that intended to draw individuals out of a nadir of wretchedness and endow them with a new identity that could only be acquired but trough absolute submission to the new atmosphere and relations that deprived members of thinking and any other quest. The major step was the acceptance of the ideological leadership. Up to this phase, the members were convinced that they could not understand what happen around them; ideological leadership was to bear the sins of members and guaranteed their salvation if they were ideologically committed to him.
Repetition (internal control)
Now members had to follow new teachings. They had to undergo another novel process called ‘current operation’ wherein psychological and ethical mentalities of the members were scrutinized in order to resolve members’ circumstantially encountered contradictions. In this phase, all the actions and thoughts of members came under strict control.
Reformation
Continuous control and scrutiny of members’ mentality led to the development of a mechanism for reconstructing a new value system. In this phase, the members, unaware of the quality of the made changes, try to get rid of their past reactionary ideas and replace them with fresh thoughts suggested by others.
Bahar Irani – Mojahedin.ws – Sep. 27, 2007
The Mujahedin Cult
Saeed Shahsavandi’s interview with the Voice of Iran recently has focused on the subject of the ideological revolution within MKO. 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 atop who exemplifies the model of a cult entrepreneur:
Mojahedin, from the higher to the lower ranks, when driven to logical discourse indeed have nothing to say and fall back on badmouthing. When man has no evidence to corroborate his claim, then, he resorts to monologue rather than dialogue. That is what their media pursue.
Shahsavandi believes that the ideological revolution was the start of denying council leadership and democratic centralism, the basic principles of organization:
Transformation of the organization’s leadership from a classic-leftist organization preferring democratic centralism to an ideologically religious organization long chanting anti-imperialism slogans violated the basic principles of council leadership and democratic centralism.
In fact, the ideological revolution completely transformed MKO to Massoud Rajavi’s organization:
From this phase on, the Mojahedine Khalq Organization was permuted to the organization of Massoud, radio of Massoud and the media of Massoud.
He also points out to the heavy pile of ostensible letters and lists of signatures published in support of the ideological revolution:
The pile of signatures targeted the minds of the lower ranks to imbue them that the ideological revolution was a serious incident. The published signed-list of the 550-member leadership council aimed at the same purpose. That is while even the China’s Communist Party has not such a big crowd at its leadership council.
However, the growing number of dissatisfied members exposed a great threat against the organization and the dissidents had to be liquidated. The organizational trial of Ali Zarkesh portended the similar destiny that awaited other dissidents. Once a trusted friend of Rajavi, he was promoted to the commander of operation inside Iran sitting next to Rajavi’s room in Auvers sur Oise. Giving evidences from Zarkesh’s videotaped trial shahsavandi explains:
He was no more the same Ali Zarkesh we knew him for long before in Auvers sur Oise decision-making meetings. He resembled a wretched man whose nose, believe me, drivelled.
Of accusations posed against Zarkesh was that his proposal of Massoud and Maryam’s marriage was much a plot to discredit Rajavi in order to repel him and succeed to the position of leadership. Quoting Rajavi accusing zarkesh, Sahsavandi said:
“It was Ali’s mischief when proposed the marriage. He intended to disparage me through my marriage with Maryam to supersede me. Rajavi even overstepped to claim that Ali had proposed the ideological revolution to dismiss him.
Zarkesh was also accused of plotting to assassinate Rajavi. All evidences being against Ali, Rajavi said nothing of his execution. But the majority of those members present at his court demanded his execution; rajavi, however, as the authoritative leadership sentenced him to life imprisonment in Camp Ashraf to intimidate the other dissidents. Zarkesh was transferred to Iraq to be held in room 7 of a building called Baqai and was under intense control to avoid possible attempts to instigate a tense atmosphere. He was finally dispatched as a veteran to Iranian borders to take part in the Operation Eternal Light, where he was destined never to return.
www.mojahedin.ws – 27/08/2007
The translated text of an article presented at the Symposium of the Link between Cults and Terrorism held in Isfahan.
MKO defined as a cult
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, usually connoting some group that is at least unfamiliar and perhaps even disliked or feared. This latter use of the term has gained such credence and momentum that it has virtually swallowed up the more neutral historical meaning. The term can be defined either sociologically, concerned with behavior, or theologically, concerned with doctrine. “Sociological definition Include consideration of such factors as authoritarian leadership patterns, loyalty and commitment mechanisms, lifestyle characteristics, [and] conformity patterns (including the use of various sanctions in connection with those members who deviate)”. [3]
Authoritarian leadership is the most domineering characteristics of a cult leader and most ex-members of a cult enumerate the hallmarks of a cult leader as follow:
– single authority
– questionable credentials
– requirement for unconditional trust
– they always claim to be in unique direct contact with God
– sexual misconduct
– grandiose promises
– they demand major ongoing financial contributions from members
– they claim that evil sinister forces attempt to subvert them [4]
Besides these characteristics of a cult leader, a cult, regarded destructive, has its own characteristics. Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s criteria for a destructive cult run as follow:
1. Authoritarian pyramid structure with authority at the top
2. Charismatic or messianic leader(s) (Messianic meaning they either say they are God or that they alone can interpret the scriptures the way God intended.
3. Deception in recruitment and/or fund raising
4. Isolation from society — not necessarily physical isolation, but this can be psychological isolation.
5. Use of mind control (Mileu Control, Mystical Manipulation, Demand for Purity, Confession, Sacred Science, Loading the Language, Doctrine Over Person, Dispensing of Existence) [5]
MKO portraits two completely different images; its relation with the world outside and its internal structure. Duped by its heavy propaganda blitz, most people in Western countries, unaware of its terrorist nature, take it for a revolutionary, freedom-seeker, and pro-democratic organization. The group ‘s internal structure, totally concealed from the eyes of the outsiders, nearly shares all of the characteristics of a destructive cult with added emphasis on the authoritarian pyramid structure and mind control techniques. Massoud Rajavi, the long self-appointed leader, is known to be the mastermind of MKO. Released from Shah’s prison after revolution, Rajavi took up the responsibility of acting as the organization’s spokesman that awarded him an opportunity to develop authority both within the organisation and in the public’s perception.
How did the Mujahideen become a cult? The principal lever for the transformation of the organization from a mass movement to a cult was Rajavi’s “ideological revolution” in January 1985. The first phase of this revolution basically involved Masoud Rajavi marrying Maryam Qajar Azdanlou, the wife of Mehdi Abrishamchi, Rajavi’s most trusted lieutenant. The marriage was an overt violation of Islamic marriage rituals and a majority of ranking members saw the whole affair as an ugly and bizarre form of cuckoldry. The event, more regarded as an internal coup d’ata, promoted the husband to the rank of a guru and the wife to the rank of the joint leader of the organization. Massoud Rajavi indoctrinated the ideological revolution as a purging process saying “Those Mojahedin members who pass through this furnace, are more steadfastness, more steel like person, and have more future in the resisting’ [6]
Masoud Rajavi was exalted as a charisma and some subservient considered the historic achievement as an outcome of an ideological genius in Massoud Rajavi. Bijan Nyabati, a devoted a partisan, in adoring Massoud Rajavi’s personal charisma states:
In the front of revolution and progressiveness, you would not find two people with the same political and organizational potentialities of Massoud Rajavi among all the opposition. [7]
Nyabati abruptly changes the position of Rajavi from a leader to that of a religious, Shi’it imam:
The main core of Mojahedin’s ideological revolution was to solve the issue of leadership. It could put an end to a problem known to be the Achilles’ heel in most contemporary revolutions and movements; only a stabilized theory of imamate inside the organization could lead the new revolution. [8]
Many of his messages imply that he has a close relationship with Imam Zaman (the last and still awaited Imam in Shiite Islam) and therefore he has direct contact with God. Under Rajavi’s instructions as an ideological leader, members began to give up Islamic practices and rituals because, as stated by their chosen ideological leader, they were no longer individually responsible; they were only responsible to Rajavi and he was responsible to God. Later on, especial prayer texts were devised to praise him and his wife, Maryam.
The ideological metamorphosis opened a new gate onto a path where, in the first place, the rationality and even the social-political understanding of individuals were targeted. In other words, individuals would be transmuted into obedient and subjugated creatures serving the wills of the ideological leader. The whole idea can be concluded as:
That is clear that such process could pursue in no rational route. The dominant element in the process is “love” and “emotion” that bypass logic and reason. The means are not those of polemics and persuasions but self-devotion. That is the point where Massoud claims Mojahedin’s heart. [9]
A wave of advertising total devotion to the ideological leader began to be imposed on the minds of the insiders to indoctrinate that the ideological leader had an ideological vision which was broader and more universal than understanding and vision of an ordinary follower. He could see things and think in a way that seemed illogical and irrational at the time but proved to be correct at the end. Hence the followers had to follow the leader not on the basis of understanding, but on the base of total trust.
The second phase of the full transition to the status of a cult started after the Iran-Iraq cease-fire in 1988. Rajavi launched thousands of his warriors on ”Operation Eternal Light” across the border to capture Iranian territory. It was a total military failure. The operation before anything was a resolution of Rajavi’s own volition, a proven suicide operation excluding the leader himself. The failure proved to be a victory for Rajavi; the made amendments to the ideological revolution after the operation guaranteed his position as a hallowed figure with the sole authority to question anybody while the members were not in the least permitted to violate the leader’s sacramental sphere. To create a compelling control atop, all the individual attachments and values had to be detached. The detachment did not include physical spectrum, but above that, psychological scopes.
In a general meeting, Rajavi announced that as the ideological leader, he had issued the divorce of all the members from their spouses and asked all to hand over their marriage rings. The physically divorce of spouses and, consequently, children was the first taken steps; the world outside with all its attractions and emotional attachments had to be cleaned of the mind and devalued. One had to replace them with an alternative that was no one but Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
Anne Singleton, a separated member of MKO in her book so describes manipulation of the members within the cult:
The psychological manipulation of members springs from Rajavi’s avid interest in using psychology as a means of controlling people. He has read voraciously from the time that he left prison, books on politics, psychology and history etc. His ideology is a mishmash of all these books, and not a single part of it derives from original thinking. Rajavi uses psychological manipulation to control people. The massuls [responsible ranks] are instructed to behave in particular ways towards individuals according to what is required of them or in response to a problem they might have. On a simple level, the warmth and affection shown to newcomers is a basic method of attracting them, fulfilling a basic need, which they lack. The person is told – and this is the ideological element – that if they look for love and affection outside Maryam they will become corrupt and ‘nothing’, they will be condemned to a life of obscurity, drudgery and meaninglessness. A picture of ordinary married life is portrayed as a hellish prison for both sexes. Children are the ultimate burden, removing the person further and further from the glorious joy and happiness that could be theirs if they give all their love to Maryam. She will return their love a hundred fold, and only inside the Mojahedin will they be able to fulfil their true potential as a human being. [10]
During the first Gulf War and the US attack to Iraq, MKO leaders enforced separation of the members’ children residing in Iraq-based camps. The children, about 800 including little babies, were sent to different Western countries for some purposes. First they could be abused as potential fundraising instruments to collect large amounts of charity money on pretext of Iranian homeless children. On the other hand, the children could be trained as the next generation of MKO soldiers. Nadereh Afshari, an ex-member of MKO and who was posted in Germany and was responsible for receiving children during the gulf war, has revealed that when the German government tried to absorb Mojahedin children into their education system, the organization refused. Many of these children were sent to Mojahedin-run schools, particularly in France. She has elaborated that Rajavi ”saw these kids as the next generation’s soldiers. They wanted to brainwash them and control them. Every morning and night, the kids, beginning as young as 1 and 2, had to stand before a poster of Massoud and Maryam, salute them and shout praises to them “. [11]
In June 2003, people in some Western cities were shocked to witness one of the most appalling cult potentialities of MKO. On 17 June 2003 more than 1.200 France police and gendarmerie forces raided 13 MKO-run offices in Paris districts and arrested 164 suspected Mojahedin cadres as well as Maryam Rajavi on charges of terrorist activities. In the next few days, to carry out premeditated missions, a number of the group’s members immolated themselves in public to protest Maryam Rajavi’s arrest. According to reports issued by the group itself, ‘œ16 people attempted to set themselves alight in three days in Paris, Berne, Rome, London, Ottawa, Athens and Nicosia’. The human tragedy ended with two deaths; two women, Sediqeh Mojaveri, 44-year-old, and Neda Hassani, 19-year-old, died because of the self-immolation injuries. [12]
Besides old members joining the organization for political causes, a large number of the members are the young Iranian people who have been deceived to join the group. These young, unaware recruits fall into the trap of the middlemen who by false promises of good job, high salary and residence in Western countries paralyze their rational minds and send them to MKO’s camps in Iraq. Undergoing brainwashing methods in the camps, they rarely dream to return to Iran because they are unnerved and intimidated by the threats of being tried and even executed for having connection and cooperating with a counter-revolutionary group.
The members who try to leave the MKO or criticize it in any form have to pay a very heavy price. In a 28-page report released by Human Rights Watch in May 2005 entitled ‘œNo Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps,’ shocking details about inhuman behaviors and control of the insiders of MKO was published for the world. The facts revealed how dissident members were tortured, beaten and held in solitary confinement for years at military camps in Iraq after they criticized the group’s policies and undemocratic practices, or indicated that they planned to leave the organization. The report is based on the direct testimonies of a dozen former MKO members, including five who were turned over to Iraqi security forces and held in notorious Abu Ghoraib prison under Saddam’s rule.
A common, routine procedure in MKO is self criticizing and confession sessions. The members have to write detailed daily reports of activities, their previous night’s dreams, their thoughts, and even love and emotional daydreams. In some cases, they are forced to read their reports before other members and suffer humiliation. Ali Qachqaoui, a separated member, reveals: ‘œThey remote controlled us, like robots. They told us, ‘If you have sexual fantasies, even a dream, you must report it in writing in order to exorcise it’. In a speech repeatedly broadcast in video, Maryam Rajavi told the Mojahedin: ‘80% of your energy should be used in the fight against your sexual instincts’. Many of the organization’s officers, who protested against this sudden authoritarian and sectarian change of course, paid a heavy price for their insubordination. They were humiliated, tortured and imprisoned. [13]
As a closed cult, the members receive any information through a biased channel. No form of news and information, movies and even the group’s own TV productions is presented unless reviewed and censured beforehand. Even the members active in Western countries are severely prohibited to have direct access to the media and have to attend periodical controlling meetings, write reports, and listen to direct or televised addresses of the high ranking members and leaders.
MKO has long been using a lexicon of its own. The terms they use inside the organization have their own connotations different with those used outside. The followings are examples of a more than 1200 terms lexicon volume:
– Alternative: meaning MKO as the sole alternative for Iran’s current ruling power
– To become ‘˜H’: used when demoting a rank
– Organizational marriage: forced inter-organizational marriages ordered by leaders
– Food echelon: a food menu that qualitatively and quantitatively is prepared according to hierarchical posts
– Ideological pride: Massoud and Maryam’s marriage known to be a glorious hallmark of the organization
– Active: a member who well accomplishes the issued orders
– Ring of connection: meaning Maryam Rajavi. Members are not capable to unite with Massoud unless through Maryam
– The host: meaning Iraq
– The guesthouse: the jail where protesting members and quitters were held
– ‘¦. And more
To determine how dangerous MKO cult might be, ‘œthe Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame’ can be a good help. As Bonewits explains, ‘œThe purpose of this evaluation tool is to help both amateur and professional observers, including current or would-be members, of various organizations (including religious, occult, psychological or political groups) to determine just how dangerous a given group is liable to be, in comparison with other groups, to the physical and mental health of its members and of other people subject to its influence’. [14]
The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame
Factors: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Low High1. INTERNAL CONTROL: Amount ofinternal political power exercisedby leader(s) over members. 1. _________________________ 2. WISDOM CLAIMED by leader(s);amount of infallibility declaredor implied about decisions or doc-trinal/scriptural interpretations. 2. __________________________ 3. WISDOM CREDITED to leader(s)by members; amount of trust indecisions or doctrinal/scripturalinterpretations made by leader(s). 3. _________________________ 4. DOGMA: Rigidity of reality con-cepts taught; amount of doctrinalinflexibility or "fundamentalism." 4. __________________________ 5. RECRUITING: Emphasis put onattracting new members; amountof proselytizing. 5. __________________________ 6. FRONT GROUPS: Number of subsid-iary groups using different namesfrom that of main group. 6. _________________________ 7. WEALTH: Amount of money and/orproperty desired or obtained by group;emphasis on members’ donations;economic lifestyle of leader(s)compared to ordinary members. 7. ________________________ 8. POLITICAL POWER: Amount ofexternal political influencedesired or obtained; emphasis ondirecting members’ secular votes. 8. ________________________ 9. SEXUAL MANIPULATION: of membersby leader(s); amount of controlexercised over sexuality of members;advancement dependent upon sexualfavors or specific lifestyle. 9. _________________________ 10. CENSORSHIP: Amount of controlover members’ access to outsideopinions on group, its doctrinesor leader(s). 10. ________________________ 11. DROPOUT CONTROL: Intensity ofefforts directed at preventing orreturning dropouts. 11. _________________________ 12. VIOLENCE: amount of approval whenused by or for the group, itsdoctrines or leader(s). 12. _________________________ 13. PARANOIA: amount of fear con-cerning real or imagined enemies;perceived power of opponents;prevalence of conspiracy theories. 13. _________________________ 14. GRIMNESS: Amount of disapprovalconcerning jokes about the group,its doctrines or its leader(s). 14. _________________________ 15. SURRENDER OF WILL: Amount ofemphasis on members not having tobe responsible for personal deci-sions; degree of individual dis-empowerment created by the group,its doctrines or its leader(s). 15. __________________________ 16. HYPOCRISY: amount of approval forother actions (not included above) which the group officially considersimmoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate group’s declared principles for political, psychological, economic,or other gain. 16. ___________________________ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Low High
A precise evaluation of MKO well crystallizes it as one of the most destructive and visible examples of a group intermingling the characteristics of a terrorist group and a cult to be nominated a terrorist cult. A terrorist cult poses a greater danger because of the growing use of mind control and cult control techniques. Most terrorist organizations actively study and use mind control and cult control techniques to indoctrinate members into committing the horrific acts of terrorism that shock our senses. The real cause of much of today’s terrorism is not what the terrorists themselves advertise and claim in their publicly stated agendas and rationalized causes. The real cause of acts of terrorism is how these agendas and ideas were implanted into the minds of the members with mind control and cult control techniques by their handlers. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of the responsible minds and elites of a society to illuminate the naïve minds and depict a clear-cut image of a destructive cult to stop any further jeopardizing the young generation’s career.
Sources:
[3]. A Guide to Cults and New Religions; ed. Ronald Enroth, Downers Grove, Ill, InterVarsity 1983, p14.
[4].www.phact.org
[5]. www.refocus.org
[6]. www.banisadr.infoideologicalChapter Five.htm
[7]. Bijan Nyabati interview with Zari Isfahani, Taliah-Sepidedaman.com
[8]. Nyabati Bijan; ‘œA distinct look at Mojahedin’s internal revolution, slightly from inside, slightly from outside’, 113.
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. Singleton Anne; Saddam’s Private Army, Iran-Interlink, 2003.
[11]. www.rickross.comThe Cult of Rajavi.htm
[12]. www.mojahedin.ws
[13]. www.mojahedin.wsbooksThe People’s Mojahedin of Iran: A struggle for what?
[14]. www.qed.net/bonewits/ABCDEF.HTML
Nejat Association – Translated by mojahedin.ws -August, 2007
The defected members of MKO are not the sole targets of the group’s sever propaganda and tongue lashing; the dissident outsiders and critics including international organizations, human rights bodies, civil foundations and individuals that for certain reasons are in contact with Mojahedin are also vulnerable to attacks. Habitually, 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. Mojahedin might be the first political current that in the course of its political and military life has never consented to negotiation and dialogue of any form. In fact, what Mojahedin claim in theory and what they do in practice are in complete contradiction. All theses totalitarian and monopolistic behaviours are rooted in Mojahedin’s ideology.
Portraying to be the most democratic opposition that respects the standards of liberalism, MKO in practice epitomizes its ideology. That is to say, Mojahedin have a fixed interpretation of the world, black and white, that works as the main criterion in the conduct of relations and dialogue. It is not a product of the group today’s political practice but is rooted in its ideological backgrounds from its very formation. In its new round of political activities after the 1979 revolution, Mojahedin delineated a red line between the political opponents; these two major poles demarcated Mojahedin and their allies with the dissidents, critics, the regime and the like. Weighing itself as the paragon at one of the poles, MKO expected all other political and social factions to regulate their activities according to the two opposite poles.
It is not too hard a task to prove that Mojahedin’s political demarcation is a product of its system of ideology and ontology. It is not a characteristic exclusively attributed to MKO and might be also applied to other ideological groups, but since MKO has transformed into a cult, it has turned into a more complicated issue. In other ideological groups, collective interests might work as a possibility of establishing joint actions and coexistence with other groups while in Mojahedin ideological circumscriptions work as strong restraints. In the organization’s main ideological handbook entitled Tabyin-e Jahan (Explaining the world), Rajavi disapproves moderation:
Moderation is some kind of polytheism. To the same extent that it distances from the truth and covers it, defends it not and keeps silent. (1)
Thus, any attempt to get to the truth is futile unless one switches to one of the two poles, of course to the one that MKO has monopolized. Contrary to the democratic principles that MKO avows to be advocating, it tolerates no criticism of any kind from the insiders and the outsiders; disobedience and opposition are beheld as taboos. Can the present modern world among which MKO live admit such undemocratic behaviours? MKO is so entwined by its destructively cult-like ideology that even the breath of democracy long whirling around it had not the least impact on it.
By dividing the world into black and white and reckoning whoever is not with MKO is its enemy, the organization offends the public senses of logic and political conscience and claims to be the main source for recognition of the truth and its criterion. For sure, no dissident and critics might escape the group’s slanders and libels until it strongly holds at its dogmatically Machiavellian ideology. A separated member of MKO giving reasons for her separation states:
Massoud Rajavi calls all those who condemn his Machiavellian conducts as the supporters of the clerical regime. He brands and stigmatizes all parties, organizations and political groups from the Communist Party to monarchists, liberals, Fidayan, Nationalists, and pro-Marxism as well as religious groups. (2)
In the past two decades and coinciding with its internal ideological revolution, MKO has remained obdurate in dogmatism. The ever-increasing separation of the NCRI members, confrontation of challenges by human right organizations, and the State Department’s report describing MKO and its alias as a cult of personality all indicate that MKO is an exclusively closed cult that conducts a completely different and dual demeanour in its internal and external relations.
Tabyin-e Jahan (Explaining the world),a handbook published by MKO.
Mahnaz Monirzadeh; the bitter Experience of Dictatorship, Nimrooz Magazine, May 1996.
Bahar Irani – Mojahedin.ws – August 20, 2007
The Cult of Rajavi
Mojahedin-e Khalq’s internal revolutions, known as ideological revolutions, surfaced the group’s latent capacity to transform into a cult. Gradually and through cleverly developed phases, the Rajavies established a cult of personality that shared characteristics with other previously established similar cults. In the same way, the Mojahedin cult is manipulating cult techniques and undemocratic modus operandi to exploit the insiders under the pretext of campaign for the accomplishment of freedom and democracy in Iran. Forced marriages within the organization resulted in inescapable birth of children although some recruits were spouses with children.
1- Mojahedin have exploited children for collecting money under the disguise of charity work in European countries and many charity institutions were duped by the group’s sham-charity activities.
2- Children have been forcefully separated from their parents and deprived of the warm bosom of the family.
3- Children have been abused by Mojahedin-run propaganda machine to win political and social support.
4- The children of dissatisfied members have been taken as hostages within the organization to prevent the parents’ detachment.
5- Children have gone through hideous cult techniques and brainwashing methods and inspired with hate and enmity as well as receiving military training and ideological teachings.
6- Children have been imprisoned along with their parents who were accused of vague organizational allegations.
There are much more instances of child abuse to discuss, all of which disclose the variety of manipulated cult techniques. Amazingly, the techniques are nearly shared in most cults; children are sent into the public places in organized teams to collect funds under the guise of charities and foundations that foster homeless, orphan and abandoned children. Elaborating on one of the instances of exploiting children for illegal fund-raising activities Thaler Singer, the author of Cults in Our Midst, states:
In another case, a woman objected to her fund-raising team leader that it would be lying to people to say cult members were collecting money for a children’s home when they knew the money went to the leader’s headquarters. She was told, "That’s evidence of your degraded mentality. You are restoring to our leader what’s rightfully his, that’s all! [1]
Those who are familiar with MKO to some scale are shocked to see the awful similarity in justifying the abuses. The difference is that while the leaders of some cults are brought before the tribunal for harsh maltreatment of children and forced cult abuses that are plain violation of their rights, MKO’s leader have so far escaped trial for political causes:
In 1986, William A. Lewis, sixty-three-year-old leader of the Black Hebrew House of Judah in Michigan, was convicted of conspiracy to enslave children and causing the 1983 beating death of twelve-year-old John Yarbough in an act of discipline. In 1988, fifty-three children were removed by law enforcement officials from a group called Ecclesia Athletic Association, following the beating death of eight-year-old Dayna Lorae Broussard. The children raised in the group could not read and but knew the Book of Romans by heart. Children aged three to eighteen were forced to run long distances and perform drills and exercises to earn money. The dead girl’s father, who was the group’s leader, and seven other members pleaded guilty to a federal charge of a conspiracy to deny civil rights. Earlier, four Ecclesia followers were convicted of manslaughter in the case of the young girl’s death. [2]
Many defectors are unanimous that victimization of children by the parents was enforced on the members following the ideological revolution. Elaborating on the process of dehumanizing the members Shams-e Haeri writes:
Rajavi’s thesis for emancipation of women codified the spouses’ divorce and annihilation of family foundation and human fleeing. The women not only were enforced by Rajavi to divorce the husbands, but also deserted their children and killed their love in their hearts and committed them to the foster-houses run in Western countries to be disciplined enough to be recruited into the leadership council. [3]
In many instances, when the parents rejected to surrender their children, the children’s daily needs such as milk and nutriment rations were halted to force parents submit to the wills of the leadership:
They had allocated one of POW’s camps in Iraq to defected members. It was called Debs and located near Kirkuk. At the time the number of defectors reached 600 or so among whom were families and children. To torment and harass them, the organization cut the food ration into half and cut off the children’s milk. [4]
Furthermore, as one of the defectors claims, Rajavi’s crimes done against families and children cannot be categorized as political but rather as social:
Rajavi’s crimes are not political in essence. Because of displacing children and separating them from their parents for illegal political abuse, force divorces, imprisonment and psychological-physical tortures, plotting to destabilize familial relations, employing club-wielders, and outraging human values, Rajavi is a felon. [5]
And what the organization sought when its agents battered the parents before the eyes of children:
For instance, Mohssen Rezai severely battered a father called Farhang before the eyes of his two five and seven children in hostel E; the children cried “oh, daddy, daddy” while a number of other families were watching the scene. [6]
In some cases, the children of dissatisfied members were taken as hostages within the organization as a leverage of pressure on the parents to submit:
None of the recruits were told from the beginning that if they joined, their familial independence would be violated, or had to write daily reports of what they did and dreamed, or had to divorce their wives. They were never told that if one day they decided to leave the organization, their children would be taken as hostages and they were deprived of seeing them. [7]
Referring to different dimensions of child abuse in MKO, Anne Singleton writes:
In Germany, the government uncovered the Mojahedin’s financial activities. After a two year investigation, the German High Court on 21st December 2001 closed the Mojahedin ‘shop’ – twenty-five houses and bases – after evidence was found of misuse of Social Security and fraud. Disturbingly, the Mojahedin had used the members’ children who had been evacuated during the Gulf War of 1991. These children, whilst they lived in the Mojahedin’s bases in Germany, were required to undertake work in the base and take part in fund-raising activities, collecting money in the street. At the same time, the Mojahedin were abusing every possible avenue of Social Security in Germany in order to claim benefits for these children. Documents in Germany showed that ten to twelve million Marks had been used by the Mojahedin to buy weapons. Considering that a Social Security claim of 130 – 260 Marks could be made per child per day, this is a conservative figure of the amount that the Mojahedin collected on account of these children. [8]
The children in MKO are deprived of their slightest rights. They suffer institutional child abuse and are exposed to imminent danger through the most harsh and pitiless trainings they underwent in unsuitable conditions:
In Mojahedin’s ideology, the children are the most neglected individuals since they fail to be regarded as the appropriate means to help fulfilment of Rajavi’s power-seeking ambitions. They have no clear future and are deprived of their most natural rights of living with warm-hearted parents. The Camp Ashraf’s school much resembled that of a foster-house rather than an ordinary school while the organization, availing big sums of funds, could provide the best educational and fun facilities for the children. Unlike other child-care centres, headmasters and preceptors in charge had no pedagogical experiences and their appointment was the result of a punishment because of their organizational inefficiency. The children reaching the age of thirteen were immediately pulled out of the school and drafted into the organization. They were exploited physically and were not cognizant of their rights. [9]
Shams-e Haeri sees a very close resemblance between the cult relations of MKO in the contemporary political milieu and that of Stalin’s Communist reign over the Soviet Union:
Under the manipulation of Stalinist and psychological methods as well as creating an atmosphere of intimidation and offense, the members were afraid of receiving degrading labels and thus the mothers were silenced. At the present, hundreds of children are kept under the state-run foster-houses or the guardianship of Iranian families residing in European countries for five years apart from their parents; they are suffering emotional and mental pressures and have no memory of their parents. They are so drawn and depressed that one is shocked by so much imposed brutality. In Germany alone hundreds of these children are exploited in a variety of illegal fashions. They are brought into the streets as demonstrating mobs or as fund collecting orphans. The older ones have to sit up till late and do laborious tasks of the organization and, consequently most of them are sleepy at the classes in the school. Their cloths are in poor condition and they have no fun, even not permitted to watch the German TV. The girls above twelve have to wear scarves and are thus depressed and in a permanent argument with the ranks in charge. Two of these girls have deliberately burned themselves by hot irons and some other have escaped to live with their relatives residing in other countries or sought protection of German government and were granted separate lodgings. [10]
Primary health care, providing provision of adequate nutritious foods and clothing as well an atmosphere of love and happiness are the least essentialities that the guardians have to take into consideration to foster children. As described by defectors, children lived in exceptionally difficult conditions in MKO’s prison-like child care houses:
The hostels where the children are lodged are too cramped and dark and like prisons; 10 children have to sleep close to each other in a single room. The children have to abide in two culturally different milieus; the German schools and the organization’s training abodes. The incompatibility of the two contexts had caused children develop dual personality. At least two children have died of the custodian’s maltreatment in France and Netherland and a girl has been sexually abused by her American foster parent. Some are addicts to drugs. Rajavi in one of his speeches announced that “a Mojahed woman is not the mother of her child as a Mojahed man is not the father, and a Mojahed woman is not her husband’s wife”. He called upon all members to submit to him and abandon all life and human attachments. [11]
The mentioned instances that disclose blatant ignorance of children rights in MKO and their exposure to perils of oppression, exploitation and abuse, makes it an urgent responsibility for the organizations protecting human and child rights to investigate children’s violated rights within MKO. Mojahedin leaders for certain have to stand trial for the terrible crimes done against children and their deprivation of being grown up in the family environment. Instead, we see that Maryam Rajavi announced her group’s preparedness to take care of 1000 Iraqi orphans. The described condition of MKO’s children might be the horrendous destiny awaiting Iraqi children if the global community continues to turn a blind eye to the plights of Iraqi orphans.
Sources:
1- Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, 68.
2- Ibid, 87.
3- Shams-e Haeri, Hdi; Mordab (originally in Persian), 55.
4- Ibid, 59.
5- Ibid, 60.
6- Ibid, 62.
7- Ibid, 66.
8- Singleton, Anne; Saddam’s Private Army, Iran-Interlink, 2003.
9- Shams-e Haeri, Hdi; Mordab (originally in Persian), 71.
10- Ibid, 71.
11- Ibid, 74.
Bahar Irani – Mojahedin.ws – August 12, 2007
The translated text of Dr. Massoudinia’s speech made at the Symposium of the Link between Cults and Terrorism held in Isfahan.
5. Control of Relations within MKO: a Review of Banisader’s ‘Memories of an Iranian Rebel’
The book “memories of an Iranian Rebel” written by Mas’ud Banisadr, is one of the significant documents in inter-organizational relations of MKO. As it was pointed out, the third index of cults is brainwashing and mental control of cultists. This book is an amazing document in this regard. The final section of the present article is a review of this book in order to actualize professional indices of relations of MKO. 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!
Internal controlling system of MKO in contrast with traditional cultist system focuses on some complex and unbelievable dimensions. Traditional system controlled members mentally using middle ages strategies. Classic cultist strategies exert security control directly toward the extent of inclination and submission of members. MKO make use of modern sciences for controlling members and even the slightest degree of members’ disobedience. Mas’ud Banisadr quotes an instance of behavior of MKO leader (Rajavi) with executive members, i.e. the highest inter-organizational assembly. This case reveals some points about the nature of such relations. He writes:
In an assembly of executive officials, Rajavi said: ‘Doctor told me that your urine is foamy, while it is not so in ordinary members’. We were shocked. He added: ‘Do not look at me as such. It seems that you do not understand what I say. It means that you cannot control your sexual tendencies yet and seminal fluid results in your urine be foamy while other members have not such a problem.’ Then a number of members started to confirm his comments and even one of them said: ‘We are not executive officials, we are heys (a word said to donkeys while carrying load). Then they all imitated him saying the word hey. (57)
Comparing sexual relations of ideological revolution of MKO with historical cases such as exoteric sect of Isma’ili under the leadership of Hassan Sabbah which emasculated members shows that the former results in more severe mental consequences. Emasculation of exoteric members has been physical while that of MKO id psychological and life-long and makes members subject to public scandal. In addition, such a process is a kind of mental emasculation. Those involved in such process, prefer methods used by Hassan Sabbah. Banisadr says:
I can not accept that physical emasculation is more difficult. It consists of a surgery with a period of convalescence while mental emasculation involves severe life-long pain. (58)
Debriefing strategies in MKO are a mixture of traditional, modern and even religious methods in middle ages and contemporary period. One of such controlling strategies of preventing any disobedience is the principle of confession. It forces members to confess to all their internal conflicts, whether mental, emotional, or sexual.
In this process, the member has to explain all his past and present events openly.
What follow is the comments of Banisadr of his memory in childhood. He has to explain it publicly to prove his capacity for transferring to the next stage of ideological revolution.
My most annoying memory is a sexual rape which happened in my childhood. I had never spoken about it .In fact I had forgotten it. But there I had to explain it. It was very difficult for me to speak about it since in Iranian culture and even in the world it is a kind of disgrace and shame. (59)
Another principle of ideological revolution is called ‘cutting all past attachments’. In this phase, members have to cut all their emotional relations of the past and form new ones based on new criteria. So they have to sacrifice all their emotions and even kill their relatives. Banisadr describes this phase of ideological revolution as follows:
The session was titled ‘cutting all past attachments’. A man had to leave his girlfriend to pass this phase. He told me crying that he loved her so much but could not marry her because of his beliefs. Another member had to leave his brother who was a council employee and even had to promise that he would kill him if necessary. (60)
Passing this phase required the destruction of whatever belonged to the past. Maybe the most difficult phase of this process for me was burning all my family photos. The members had to not only forget their past but also deny all their relations. Banisadr this process as follows:
I cut all my family photos into pieces since I had to deny all my relatives and even my parents. Maybe my father is responsible for my bourgeois tendencies and I have inherited my calm nature from my mother. Ann (my wife) asked me crying not to do so because they were not just mine. But I had to do so. After that I was welcomed to the organization. (61)
The points of similarity between these comments and studies about cultist relations which cut members from their past is amazing. It is even more interesting that such an action is considered as a holy one. Such a strategy considers cutting emotional relations as a religious action. Singer refers to this point in his cultist studies:
As part of the process of inducing guilt, all the recruit’s former personal connections are deemed satanic or evil by the cult and are shown to be "against the chosen way. Since nonbelievers are bad, all relations with parents, friends, and other nonmembers are supposed to be halted. Any weakness in this area is considered bad. The consequent impact is that recruits feel deep guilt about their pasts. Besides having their families and personal relationships condemned, recruits are also led to believe that they themselves were "bad people" before joining the group. (62)
Singer refers to a case in which MKO prevented a woman to meet her brother. How can we justify such an action? And why such an ordinary meeting is considered so significant? Singer answers as follows:
In another example, a woman’s brother, who lived out of town, came to the cult house to visit her while she was working her shift in the cult-run factory. For this reason she missed seeing him, but cult officials told her, "See, the Divine Plan willed it that you must not see your brother. (63)
Singer describes psychological aspects of such a process as follows:
Brainwashing is not experienced as a fever or a pain might be; it is an invisible social adaptation. When you are the subject of it, you are unaware of the running procedures and, moreover, the changes that form inside you. (64)
Members are convinced that they can not live without cultist relations and without which they would be subject to banality, passivity, etc. Singer describes this aspect of cultist relations as follows:
The recruits are also imbrued that if they leave, they will be damned or they themselves will die a pitiful death or become losers or lost souls. In this way, anxiety is heaped upon the guilt. Just as the initial love bombing awakened feelings of warmth, acceptance, and worthiness, now group condemnation leaves recruits full of self-doubt, guilt, and anxiety. Through this kind of manipulation, they are convinced that they can be saved only if they stay within the group. (65)
The mechanisms of cults make members believe in leadership to the point that they even kneel down to the leader and pronounce the articles of faith. Hossein Abrishamchi writes to Rajavi:
I wish to come to you, who are the leader of this great revolution, and kneel down and profess my devotion …. (66)
Abu-al-Ghasem Rezaei, another member of MKO asks Rajavi to intercede on his behalf in the hereafter. (67)
Mas’ud Banisadr refers to the long time of sessions during the ideological revolution and points out its mental consequences. He says that some sessions lasted three days. He says:
This session (with Abrishamchi) took three days and nobody slept. (68)
Banisadr describes the reaction of one of members who wanted to resist against the revolution as follows:
Suddenly, one of officials called Behnam knocked his head to the wall so strongly that it bled. (69)
Terrorism is a threat against security and peace. It exploits people in organizational relations. The findings of recent studies show that as technology and science develop, the strategies used for the exploitation of members in terrorist groups and cults get more complex. MKO is one of such cases. The disaster caused by the group in contemporary world is unprecedented in terms of the extent of the aggression imposed on citizens. Global consensus and unbiased judgment is the best way of controlling such a phenomenon. Western countries should not repeat their mistakes concerning Al-Qaede in the case of MKO. Such organizations do not regard terror and aggression as an instrument but as a worldview. Rajavi says: “viper does not give birth to dove". This is his most truthful comment. As such, terrorism would never give birth to democracy and freedom. According to Oscar Wild, it is too difficult to shake hands with blood-stained hands even in exchange for freedom.
Endnotes
57. Banisadr, Mas’ud,. Memories of an Iranian Rebel, 2005, Khavaran Publication.
58. ibid.
59. ibid.
60. ibid.
61. ibid.
62. Singer, Margaret Thaler. Cults in our midst, 118.
63. ibid.
64. ibid, 61.
65. ibid, 119.
66. Mojahed journal. No.247. p.27.
67. ibid.
68. Banisadr, Mas’ud; Memories of an Iranian Rebel, 2005.
69. ibid
Nejat Association May 2007
Translated by mojahedin.ws
July, 2007