۱۳۹۶ مرداد ۸, یکشنبه

Maryam Rajavi’s Message on the Anniversary of the 1988 Massacre

#Maryam Rajavi’s Message on the Anniversary of the #1988 Massacre

http://justice.iran-hrm.com/index.php/2017/07/30/maryam-rajavis-message-anniversary-1988-massacre/ 

 

 

 

On the 29th anniversary of one of the most hideous crimes against humanity since the Second World War, Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the president elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI) sent a message urging the UN High Commissioner on human rights to immediately set up an independent committee to investigate the 1988 massacre and subsequently put those in charge before justice
Fellow compatriots, 29 years ago on these days, Khomeini, the century’s most ruthless murderer, launched the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners affiliated with the PMOI and other dissident groups.
He sought to uproot the resistance movement in a bid to preserve his own rule. He wanted to do something that no one would ever again think of change and of freedom. He found his answer in the hasty annihilation of the PMOI and all those who persisted on the ideal of freedom.
In the face of such unprecedented brutality, the PMOI prisoners took pride in going to the gallows in the thousands. They registered themselves in the historical conscience of their nation as symbols of dedication and loyalty to the cause of freedom. And the history of Iran was blessed with the light and hope of their unwavering resistance.
Throughout the years, their blood has continued to run in the veins of society, provoking the spirit of rebellion and protest in the struggle against the tyrannical clerical regime.
Our endless salutes to all the prisoners massacred in 1988 who persisted on their positions against the Velayat-e Faqih under interrogation and stood up for freedom. Their struggle and resistance has been battering the regime since then until now.
Khomeini concealed their names, but they are the most famous men and women of Iran’s modern history. The regime hid their graves, but they have remained the most spirited and obvious members of the nation fighting in the field. Long years pass since they kissed the gallows, but they continue to sing the crimson anthem of freedom.

My fellow compatriots and courageous youths,


Last year, on July 28, 2016, the families of martyrs and political prisoners issued a statement announcing a campaign commemorating the victims of the 1988 massacre. The movement demanding justice for the victims of the massacre is now one-year-old. During this period, the campaign energized by the victims’ sacrifice and our nation’s will to achieve freedom has time and again shaken up the clerical regime that relies on massacre.
It has brought about broad-based knowledge in Iranian society particularly among the youth about the dreadful crimes committed by the Velayat-e Faqih regime. It shattered the mullahs’ conspiracy of silence to cover up the 1988 massacre and compelled the ruling clerics to confess to their involvement in this crime against humanity.
The justice seeking movement dealt a heavy setback to Khamenei who had nominated a death-commission member for presidency. It defeated the regime in its totality in the elections sham, as the nation embraced the movement’s slogan of “no to the executioner, no to the charlatan.” The campaign also resuscitated this case internationally while it had been silenced by the western governments’ policy of appeasement.
These efforts led to the point where the UN Secretary General noted the 1988 massacre in his annual report this year.
This year-long campaign proved that the Velayat-e Faqih regime is extremely vulnerable with regards to the slaughter on which the pillars of its rule rest. As a result, every effort by the mullahs to incriminate the PMOI immerses them even further in a quagmire of disgrace.
Since the outset, when the news of this massacre began to leak out of prisons, the Iranian Resistance has endeavored to expose this crime on the international level. In a letter to the UN Secretary General at the time, Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, wrote, “The international community must compel the regime to answer questions about the identities of all those executed, the date, place and manner of executions and their place of burial. It must introduce those in charge and those who carried out this major crime.”
In the past year, too, supporters of the Iranian Resistance risked their own lives to collect the previously unannounced names of victims of the massacre and addresses of their graves, as well as information about members of the death commissions in the provinces.
I thank all of them and everyone who joined the justice seeking movement over the past year. I thank all the youths and students who voiced their demand for justice for victims of the 1988 massacre at any opportunity, and the prisoners who supported the movement under the most difficult circumstances.
Nevertheless, everything done so far has been only the first step. The Iranian people and Resistance will not relent until those in charge of the massacre of political prisoners, namely those who hold the highest positions of authority in this regime, face justice.
In the start of the second year of the movement calling for justice, I urge everyone to help further expand the movement. This is part and parcel with the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and the overthrow of the regime in its entirety. Accordingly,
1. I call on all the courageous youths of this land to stage protests to compel the regime’s leaders to publish a complete list of names of those massacred, addresses of their graves, and names of those in charge of the slaughter.
2. I call on the families of martyrs and political prisoners to gather at the gravesides of their martyrs and in this way force the clerical regime to recognize their trampled right to hold memorial ceremonies for their heroic children.
3. I call on my fellow compatriots to actively participate in the national campaign to collect the information of the martyrs, find their tombs and expose the mullahs and murderers involved in this crime.
4. I call on young seminary students and the clergy who have distanced themselves from the ominous regime of the velayat-e faqih to openly condemn the massacre and distance themselves from Khomeini and the inhuman and anti-Islamic velayat-e faqih regime.
5. I call on parliaments, political parties, human rights organizations, religious leaders, political and social personalities in various countries to strongly condemn the massacre of political prisoners in Iran in an act of solidarity with the Iranian people. They should urge their governments to make their continued political and commercial relations with the mullahs’ religious dictatorship contingent on end to executions and torture in Iran.
6. I urge the UN High Commissioner on human rights to immediately set up an independent committee to investigate the 1988 massacre and subsequently put those in charge before justice. I urge the UN Security Council to make the arrangements for prosecution of the regime’s leaders for committing crime against humanity.
All the major cases of carnage and repression in the past quarter of a century in Iran are linked to the person of Khamenei and his corrupt offices. He earned succession to Khomeini by actively participating in the 1988 massacre, and must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity before all the other leaders of the regime.
Dear compatriots, the main target of the massacre in 1988 was the PMOI. Khomeini taught his successors that to preserve power, they must annihilate the group that persists on its positions. In the past three decades, Khamenei and his accomplice, have put this lesson into practice.
In contrast, the PMOI and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as the democratic alternative to the regime, are the force of victory and freedom. They will realize their glorious goal by relying on the people of Iran. On that day, the victims of the 1988 massacre and all the 120,000 martyrs fallen for Iran’s freedom will live in the determination of Iran’s youths, in 1000 bastions of rebellion, 1000 Ashrafs, and in the army of freedom. They will thus start a blessed era of freedom, democracy and equality.
Endless salutes to the shining stars of the Iranian Resistance, the proud martyrs of 1988.
And hail to the pioneers who have risen to call for justice for the victims and continue their path and cause on a higher level for Iran’s freedom.
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US Senate and Congress targeted IRGC and passed new sanctions on Iran





the new sanctions have sparked a wave of fear and concerns within the regime. Both media and agents of both factions of the regime are writing about the terrible consequences of adopting these sanctions. And it is true that the sanctions will have terrible consequences for the regime but the sanctions will be a blessing for the Iranian people and all the neighboring countries Iran is currently at war with.
The big question this time is, the Iranian regime have been able to work their way around sanctions in the past, will they be able to work through the wave this time?
I don’t think so, not this time first of all the regime has not really been able to work around the previous sanctions, this we know because if they had they would never have come to the negotiation table and given up their most important protective shield, a nuclear weapon. 
Secondly, the sanctions that were put on Iran this time will have much more serious consequences especially since these sanctions will be followed by a changing US policy towards Iran.
One thing that will be interesting to see is how the regime will respond to the sanctions. They have already expressed that they think these sanctions are a violation of the spirit of the JCPOA deal. Inside the regime, they are discussing how to face this new situation. They are indirectly talking about revenge. Like one of the lower clerics said «makes us annoyed by new sanctions and its misbehavior about JCPOA, «we should reciprocate by creating» a list of areas and issues that cause Americans to be disturbed.» a Rouhani faction newspaper warns with great fear about this option that Tehran - Washington move expeditiously toward a dangerous accident.
The Iranian resistance, on the other hand, welcomes the sanctions and that they designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity. This is an essential step in rectifying the damaging policy of the appeasement that needs to be completed by evicting the IRGC and its affiliated militia particularly from Syria and Iraq as well as the recognition of the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the clerical regime. «Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017» the Act underscored that 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall impose the sanctions, with respect to the IRGC and foreign persons that are officials, agents or affiliates of the IRGC. All property and interests in possession of designated individuals or entities that are or come within the United States. In fact, all transactions in any shape, size or form with Iran will be illegal. 
The designation of the IRGC as terrorists is a good first step towards a regime change in Iran, the Iranian people have been telling the world about the necessity of a regime change to secure peace and democracy in Iran and its neighboring countries. The only way to secure that is to support the Iranian resistance in their work to overthrow the Islamic regime. And these sanctions will weaken the already weak regime and a regime change is one step closer
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Iranian Opposition Welcomes New US Sanctions Against IRGC

    Iranian Opposition Welcomes New US Sanctions Against #IRGC  



New sanctions on Iran are a step towards taking power away from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, but there is much more the US and its allies can do.
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to rally major new sanctions on Iran, parallel to measures on North Korea and Russia. To impose additional sanctions on Iran’s defense sector, The House voted 419-3, moving the bill forward to be signed by President Trump. Coming after three weeks of negotiations, this bill “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries,” explained House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The bill sanctions anyone associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or anyone whom the US determines is complicit in Iranian human rights violations. Anyone sanctioned under the act may later have sanctions removed after a five-year review.
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi welcome the US House of Reps’ new sanctions and terrorist designation of IRGC as essential to rectifying the policy of appeasement and described the act as a “step in line with the Iranian people’s desires and peace in the region,” especially as it turns up the heat on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The new administration coming to Washington has promised many things, not least of which includes a reexamination of US policies towards Iran. Though the Obama administration did all it could to sell the nuclear deal as a victory, at best it has deferred the ultimate questions about how to deal with the regime in Iran, and at worst it has emboldened their belligerence in the region.
A successful policy vis-a-vis the regime in Tehran has seemingly eluded Republicans and Democrats for the last 16 years. It may be time to try something new.
Middle Eastern states when confronted with intense instability can result in the spread of insecurity across the globe. This includes the threat of terrorism in Europe and the US, and the increase of sectarian conflicts abroad.
Yet there are no easy solutions to these issues. The prospects of being dragged into another war are not appealing to anyone, yet neither can we afford to sit back and watch radical terror spread throughout the Middle East.
Unfortunately, the appeasement policy by the West for the past two decades has exacerbated this problem, directly or indirectly supporting or engaging Islamic fundamentalists at the expense of their main secular and progressive opposition. The cold war policies of arming jihadists and undermining democratic groups is a direct example of this. It is time to employ a reversal of this policy.
A common denominator underlying the rise of ISIS, and the spread of instability and fundamentalism, is none other than the regime in Tehran. No one can deny this. Yet at every turn, we are told that the only solution is one which engages the mullahs and strengthens their grip on power. The time for such thinking is at an end.
The regime has been reluctant to make good on promises of change and thus far has continued its brutal repression of dissidents while maintaining an aggressive policy in the region.
The question of how to guarantee a long term shift in the behavior of the Iranian regime remains unanswered by Iranian regime apologists.
The only long term policy which can guarantee a fundamental change of behavior in Iran, and sets an example for hope and change abroad, is one which recognizes the legitimate rights of the Iranian people to bring about democratic change and topple the theocratic fascist state in Iran.
It is the time that the United States firmly aligned itself with the Iranian opposition which embraces democratic change, freedom and liberty, and secular governance. The Iranian people and their organized resistance should be the primary negotiation partners and allies, not the ruling mullahs.
The principal opposition to the Iranian theocracy, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its main pillar, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is one such organization.
“In history, the name of your president elect, Maryam Rajavi, will go down in the same tradition of fighters for freedom as Washington, Lafayette, and Garibaldi,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a speech at the annual NCRI convention held this year on July 1st in Paris.
Rajavi advocates a new future of Iran. This includes a ten-point plan for a democratic secular republic in Iran, free of nuclear weapons, capital punishment, and tolerant to all religions, ethnicities, and ideas.
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Two Years after Nuclear Deal, Iran Seeking Regional Dominance

Two Years after Nuclear Deal, #Iran Seeking Regional Dominance


New York – July marks the second anniversary of the controversial nuclear deal between Iran and P5+1, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).A deal which not only did not stop Iran’s nuclear program, but it only delayed it and at the same time provided billions of dollars to the regime to pursue its destructive policies in the region.
The Obama Administration and other advocates of the appeasement policy claimed that this agreement would bring serious changes to Iran’s behavior, including its actions in the Middle East. Two years on, it is increasingly evident that these claims, hollow and baseless on some levels, have fallen short.
The deal and the misguided policy that it influenced have emboldened Iran in many areas, especially its malign regional activities. The agreement not only failed to improve the Iranian people’s economic status, but it actually granted the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) billions of dollars to pursue its destructive policies in the region.
After spending the billions in windfall from the nuclear deal, Iran has begun meddling with its neighboring countries. Superficially, Iran has become a regional power, but what is the reality? Is Iran truly a regional powerhouse, and is there an ulterior motive behind the involvement in other countries’ affairs?
A quick look at Iran’s modern history suggests that its current actions in the region might actually signal that it possesses less power than is thought. Since the start of their rule, the mullahs based their regime on two pillars: crushing any domestic opposition and creating crises abroad. The adoption of such polices embodies the very nature of this regime. The mullahs’ regime is a backward-minded regime belonging to the Middle Ages which opposes social liberties and developments.
The system is based on Velayat-e Faqih (custodianship of the clergy) and it places all religious and legal authority in the hands of the Supreme Leader. What this means, in both theory and in practice, is that the Ali Khamenei (like Ruhollah Khomeini before him) plays a direct role in all the country’s affairs; and no individual, group, or committee in the country has the right to question or hold him accountable.
By contrast, Iranian society is a sizable demographic of young, highly educated citizens seeking increased development and more social liberties. This regime cannot match the contemporary society’s needs and considers force and suppression to be the only methods of maintaining their grip on power.
To perpetuate the systematic and widespread suppression inside the country, the mullahs rely on external crises to divert public attention. As a result, the “export of revolution”—more precisely the “export of terrorism”—and “creating crises outside of Iran” became Tehran’s official policy. There are numerous examples of the consequences of this policy.
The Iran-Iraq war, for example, lasted eight years, leaving millions on both sides  either dead or injured, and many more displaced. Hundreds of cities and villages were destroyed, and damages were estimated at $1 trillion for Iran alone. It also contributed to the establishment of Hezbollah and general interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs, the rise of Houthis in Yemen, the ascendancy of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and the subsequent Syrian Civil War.
Former regime Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini described the war as “God’s blessing.” During the war, Tehran brutally crushed its opposition through mass executions; in the summer of 1988 alone, 30,000 political prisoners were massacred across the country. The victims were mainly members and supporters of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK).
Other international crises have served the regime in the same way. Tehran has brought carnage and suffering to thousands of innocent people in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and other Arab countries with their attempts to maintain their power.
Senior Iranian officials argue, “One reason we have been in Syria… and  Iraq, and carried out these measures, is that instead of fighting the enemy in the streets of Tehran, Kermanshah, Arak, Qum, Sanandaj and Tabriz, we have taken the fight to Deir ez-Zur, Raqqa, Aleppo, Homs and Mosul….”
Iran’s tactics and daliances in other countries affairs are not due to the nation’s inherent strength. supporting regime change is the only real policy to stand against their export of terrorism.
Change to: Iran is not a regional power and its meddling in other countries affairs is not a sign of their  dominance, but on the contrary it’s a smoke screen to hide their internal instability and weakness. As a result, the only real policy to stop Iran’s export of terrorism is a change in the government and regime in Iran.
The annual Iranian Resistance gathering on July 1 clearly demonstrated how regime change is within reach. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was the keynote speaker of the conference. She emphasized that the only way to liberate the Iranian people from religious tyranny and to establish peace and tranquility in the region is to overthrow the Velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule).
The overthrow of this regime is necessary, feasible and within reach, and that a democratic alternative  and an organized resistance exists to topple it, she underscored.
The parties behind the democratic alternative are working to establish freedom and democracy in Iran. Their plans will bring harmony to various ethnic groups, end discord and divide between Shiites and Sunnis, and eliminate tensions between Iran and its neighbors, Mrs. Rajavi concluded.
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"The Events of the '80s and 88 Will Uproot the Regime," Say Confidant of Iran's Supreme Leader

"The Events of the '80s and 88 Will Uproot the Regime," Say Confidant of #Iran's Supreme Leader



London, 29 Jul - During the summer of 1988 a fatwa was issued that resulted in massive executions within Iran’s prisons. Estimates place the number of victims at around 30,000, most of whom had affiliations with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
The proposed successor of Khomeini, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, was dismissed and sentenced to house arrest because of his objections to this massacre. Last year, an audio tape was published by Montazeri’s son. On it, you can hear the late Ayatollah Montazeri addressing members of the committee of executioners (commonly known by Iranians as The Death Committee). He describes this massacre as the worst crime in the history of the Islamic Republic, and named Ibrahim Raisi, Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, Hossein Ali Nayeri and other coordinators as criminals.
Ali Fallahian, who was the minister of intelligence during the Rafsanjani government, said in a recent  television interview, “The view of Mr. Montazeri, who disagreed with Imam (Khomeini), was that these executions will ultimately cause a “historical judgment” against us, a judgement against Islam, so it is to our benefit not to conduct these executions, but Imam said that you must perform your religious duty and don’t wait for the judgment of history.”
Thanks to the Iranian opposition, a call for justice was started last year, and families of the victims of the 1988 massacre are seeking justice for their loved ones. The mass executions were carried out in secret and the dead were buried in mass graves at night.
During the presidential elections a challenge for both of the regime’s factions was created by this call for justice. The divide between regime’s factions became so great that Khamenei was forced to comment in a recent speech that “no one should be allowed to change the place of martyr and henchman in relation to the executions of the 1980s.” He was referring to the fact that many of the heads of this government took part in the 1988 massacre, and the Iranian people are aware of this. He feared that this would create internal and international consequences that he sought to avoid.
State-run media also released Khamenei’s praises of the movie, “Nimrooz,” the production of which was funded by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The movie demonized the opposition movement, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The regime believed that the film would prevent another uprising similar to the one in 2009, in which the MEK played a pivotal role in organizing protests against the regime. Instead, after its release, former political prisoners and families of executed prisoners condemned the events showed in the film, and called it a distortion of the reality in history.
Additionally, the regime staged a tour of Evin Prison for an international delegation. Fifty ambassadors of different countries were welcomed to the prison on July 5th. Amnesty International called this tour a “crude PR Stunt” and gave a statement saying that Evin prison is known by the world as a symbol of wide political oppression in Iran.
Besides the MEK, executed prisoners of the 1980s were members and supporters of other opposition groups such as Marxists and Kurds. However, MEK members and supporters accounted for more than 90 percent of the victims.
The MEK sought safety in Iraq, first at Camp Ashraf, and later at Camp Liberty. Still, the MEK experienced a very difficult and dangerous situation, with several attacks over the last decade. MEK members have now been safely resettled in Europe, mostly in Albania.
Even under such dire circumstances, this movement has attracted public sympathy. The Iranians and the International communities are curious about this movement. The MEK is finding a fast-growing following among the youth of Iran, who want to know the truth about what happened in the 1980s. Even the children of regime officials seek the history of the movement and want to know what message it conveys for them. Sympathy for the victims of the 1988 massacre and their families has taken root in Iranian society.
Khamenei’s confidant, Rahimpour Azghadi, recently said, “The events of the ‘80s and 88 will uproot the regime, even if we have the largest missile in store.”
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Iran's Fear of Regime Change by Iranian People and Their Resistance (PMOI/MEK)


Lethal international, economic and social crises that has plunged the Iranian regime into the dilemma it is currently facing on one hand, and the expanding support for the Iranian opposition MEK that can realize regime change in Iran on the other, have all injected utter fear amongst Tehran’s mullahs.
US policymakers are coming closer to the necessary solution of regime change to confront Tehran as the leading sponsor of terrorism and human rights violator, as a regime that oppresses its own people and threatens neighboring nations.
However, this regime change is different from previous examples through military action and foreign war. In Iran, considering the existence of an organized opposition with deep social roots and a social base inside Iran, symbolized in the MEK, is able to realize this objective of toppling the mullahs’ regime.
Ahmad Jannati, head of Iran’s so-called Assembly of Experts admitted the most important issue for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the threat of this regime being overthrown.
“The enemy is thinking of toppling the establishment and seeks to begin from within as they have not reached any results from the outside,” he added.
Regime change by MEK?
On July 1st a major rally was held by supporters of the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and MEK in Paris. Tens of thousands of MEK supporters from all over the globe participated in this rally and heard the speech of NCRI President Maryam Rajavi.
Well-known international dignitaries such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Governor Ed Rendell and a delegation from the US Congress also participated.
Dozens of other speakers also attended from all four corners of the globe, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. All participants acknowledged the necessity of regime change in Iran. This time there is no need for a foreign war, they emphasized in their words.
The MEK and Iran’s organized opposition is able to realize this change with the Iranian people that are currently under suppression. All that is needed is for the MEK’s struggle for freedom to be acknowledged by the international community.
Therefore, as the necessity for regime change in Iran becomes further evident, this change is being at reach and the existence of an organized alternative has left the Iranian regime frightened more than anything else. Now more than ever before the possibility of having this regime overthrown is at reach and the Iranian regime is at its weakest status in years.
The adoption of a recent bill by the US Congress against the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is a correct step in realizing change. However, what this resolution can materialize is these articles being implemented to their fullest reach and evicting IRGC from Syria and Iraq. This will send a major signal to Tehran about regime change. The call to blacklist the IRGC was made years ago by the MEK and Mrs. Rajavi. Many wars crimes in the Middle East, and especially Syria, could have been prevented if this measure had been taken without being delayed for years.
MEK has a history of struggling against Iran’s former Shah Regime. However, due to the arrest of many MEK leaders and senior ranks and 90% of the MEK leadership being executed, the 1979 revolution was hijacked by the mullahs led by Khomeini.
During the 1979 revolution the limited number of remaining MEK members were released from prison by the people. However, as Khomeini’s vicious crackdown and killings began, the MEK was forced to continue its struggle against the religious dictatorship under Khomeini’s rule. In the summer of 1988 Khomeini issued a decree to have all MEK members in prison massacred without any due process. MEK members loyal to their beliefs were mass executed and buried in mass graves.
More about the People’s Mojahdin Organization of Iran (PMOI/ MEK)
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (Also known as MEK, or Mujahedin-e-Khalq / Mujahedeen-e-Khalq), was founded on September 6, 1965, by Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen, and Ali-Asghar Badizadgan. All engineers, they had earlier been members of the Freedom Movement (also known as the Liberation Movement), created by Medhi Bazargan in May 1961.1
The MEK’s quest culminated in a true interpretation of Islam, which is inherently tolerant and democratic, and fully compatible with the values of modern-day civilization. It took six years for the MEK to formulate its view of Islam and develop a strategy to replace Iran’s dictatorial monarchy with a democratic government.
MEK’s interpretation of Islam
The theocratic mullah regime in Iran believe interpreting Islam is their exclusive domain. The MEK reject this view and the cleric’s reactionary vision of Islam. The MEK’s comprehensive interpretation of Islam proved to be more persuasive and appealing to the Iranian youth.
MEK’s founders and new members studied the various schools of thought, the Iranian history and those of other countries, enabling them to analyze other philosophies and ideologies with considerable knowledge and to present their own ideology, based on Islam, as the answer to Iran’s problems.
MEK’s leadership’s arrest during the 70s.
The Shah’s notorious secret police, SAVAK, arrested all MEK leaders and most of its member’s in1971. On May 1972, the founders of the MEK, Mohammad Hanifnejad , Saeed Mohsen and Ali Asghar Badizadegan, along with two members of the MEK leadership, Mahmoud Askarizadeh and Rasoul Meshkinfam, were put before death squads and were executed after long months of imprisonment and torture. They were the true vanguards, who stood against the dictatorial regime of Shah. However, they are also recognized for their opposition to what is today known as Islamic fundamentalism.
The death sentence of Massoud Rajavi, a member of MEK’s central committee, was commuted to life imprisonment as a result of an international campaign by his Geneva based brother, Dr. Kazem Rajavi (assassinated in April 1990 in Geneva by mullahs’ agents) and the personal intervention of the French President Georges Pompidou and Francois Mitterrand. He was the only survivor of the MEK original leadership.
Massoud Rajavi’s critical role in characterizing religious extremism
From 1975 to 1979, while incarcerated in different prisons, Massoud Rajavi led the MEK’s struggle while constantly under torture for his leading position.
Massoud Rajavi stressed the need to continue the struggle against the shah’s dictatorship. At the same time, he characterized religious fanaticism as the primary internal threat to the popular opposition, and warned against the emergence and growth of religious fanaticism and autocracy. He also played a crucial role when some splinter used the vacuum in the MEK leadership who were all executed or imprisoned at the time, to claim a change of ideology and policy. Massoud Rajavi as the MEK leader condemn these individual’s misuse of MEK’s name while continuing to stress the struggle against dictatorship. His efforts while still in prison forced these individuals to no longer operating under the name of MEK and adopting a different name for their group. These positions remained the MEK’s manifesto until the overthrow of the shah’s regime.
Release of Political Prisoners on the last days of the Shah
A month before the 1979 revolution in Iran, the Shah was forced to flee Iran, never to return. All democratic opposition leaders had by then either been executed by the Shah’s SAVAK or imprisoned, and could exert little influence on the trend of events. Khomeini and his network of mullahs across the country, who had by and large been spared the wrath of SAVAK, were the only force that remained unharmed and could take advantage of the political vacuum. In France, Khomeini received maximum exposure to the world media. With the aid of his clerical followers, he hijacked a revolution that began with calls for democracy and freedom and diverted it towards his fundamentalist goals. Through an exceptional combination of historical events, Shiite clerics assumed power in Iran.
Khomeini’s gradual crackdown on MEK in fear of their popular support
In internal discourses, Rajavi the remaining leader of the MEK, argued that Khomeini represented the  reactionary sector of society and preached religious fascism. Later, in the early days after the 1979 revolution, the mullahs, specifically Rafsanjani, pointed to these statements in inciting the hezbollahi club-wielders to attack the MEK.
Following the revolution, the MEK became Iran’s largest organized political party. It had hundreds of thousands of members who operated from MEK offices all over the country. MEK publication, ‘Mojahed’ was circulated in 500,000 copies.
Khomeini set up an Assembly of Experts comprised of sixty of his closest mullahs and loyalists to ratify the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute supremacy of clerical rule) as a pillar of the Constitution. The MEK launched a nationwide campaign in opposition to this move, which enjoyed enormous popular support. Subsequently, the MEK refused to approve the new constitution based on the concept of velayat-e faqih, while stressing its observance of the law of the country to deny the mullahs any excuse for further suppression of MEK supporters who were regularly targeted by the regime’s official and unofficial thugs.
Khomeini sanctioned the occupation of the United States embassy in 1979 in order to create an anti-American frenzy, which facilitated the holding of a referendum to approve his Constitution, which the MEK rejected.
MEK’s endeavors to participate in the political process avoiding an unwanted conflict with government repressive forces
The MEK actively participated in the political process, fielding candidates for the parliamentary and presidential elections. The MEK also entered avidly into the national debate on the structure of the new Islamic regime, though was unsuccessful in seeking an elected constituent assembly to draft a constitution.
The MEK similarly made an attempt at political participation when [then] Massoud Rajavi ran for the  presidency in January 1980. MEK’s leader was forced to withdraw when Khomeini ruled that only candidates who had supported the constitution in the December referendum – which the MEK had boycotted- were eligible. Rajavi’s withdrawal statement emphasized the MEK’s efforts to conform to election regulations and reiterated the MEK’s intention to advance its political aims within the new legal system”. (Unclassified report on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/ MEK) by the Department of State to the United States House of Representatives, December 1984.)
However, the MEK soon found itself in a direct struggle against the forces of the regime’s Supreme leader. The MEK’s differences with Khomeini dated back to the 1970s, and stem from its opposition to what is known today as Islamic extremism. Angry at the position taken by the MEK against his regime and worried about the MEK’s growing popularity, Khomeini ordered a brutal crackdown against the MEK and its supporters. Between 1979 and 1981, some 70 MEK members and sympathizers were killed and several thousand more were imprisoned by the Iranian regime.
June 20, 1981- Khomeini’s order to open fire on peaceful demonstration of half-a-million supporters of MEK
The turning point came on 20th June 1981, when the MEK called a demonstration to protest at the regime’s crackdown, and to call for political freedom which half-a-million supporters participated at. Khomeini ordered the Revolutionary Guards to open fire on the swelling crowd, fearing that without absolute repression the democratic opposition (MEK) would force him to engage in serious reforms – an anathema as far as he was concerned; he ordered the mass and summary executions of those arrested.
Since then, MEK activists have been the prime victims of human rights violations in Iran. Over 120,000 of its members and supporters have been executed by the Iranian regime, 30,000 of which, were executed in a few months in the summer of 1988, on a direct fatwa by Khomeini, which stated any prisoners who remain loyal to the MEK must be executed.
Having been denied its fundamental rights and having come under extensive attack at the time that millions of its members, supporters and sympathizers had no protection against the brutal onslaught of the Iranian regime, the MEK had no choice but to resist against the mullahs’ reign of terror.
“Towards the end of 1981, many of the members of the MEK and supporters went into exile. Their principal refuge was in France. But in 1986, after negotiations between the French and the Iranian authorities, the French government effectively treated them as undesirable aliens, and the leadership of the MEK with several thousand followers relocated to Iraq.” (Judgment of the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission, November 30, 2007.)
MEK Today
The MEK today is the oldest and largest anti-fundamentalist Muslim group in the Middle East. It has been active for more than a half century, battling two dictatorships and a wide range of issues. The MEK supports:
• Universal suffrage as the sole criterion for legitimacy
• Pluralistic system of governance
• Respect for individual freedoms
• Ban on the death penalty
• Separation of religion and state
• Full gender equality
• Equal participation of women in political leadership. MEK is actually led by its central committee consist of 1000 women.
• Modern judicial system that emphasizes the principle of innocence, a right to a defense, and due process
• Free markets
• Relations with all countries in the world
• Commitment to a non-nuclear Iran
The MEK remains a strong and cohesive organization, with a broad reach both worldwide and deep within Iran. MEK is the leading voice for democracy in Iran, supported by its interpretation of Islam that discredits the fundamentalist mullahs’ regime.
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