One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s top aides has called The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) a cult, which is something similar to what the regime says about the MEK.
As it stands any organization like the MEK that is the largest opposition force to the regime cannot be accurately called a cult. This is disinformation and these words are spoken to discredit the MEK as a leading force for democratic change in Iran.
Parroting Iran Regime’s Propaganda Against the MEK
By Dr. Ali Safavihttps://t.co/lWsnSUcyOT via @IranPanoramaNew #Iran #MEK #PMOI #Fakenews— Iran Panorama News (@IranPanoramaNew) November 17, 2020
Despite misinformation about the MEK being spread far and wide, more and more young people are committing to supporting the movement. To try and dissuade potential followers, the regime referred to the MEK as a “terror cult.” Meanwhile, it is so afraid of losing control that it decided to arrest two important university students for supporting the MEK. It is not just this type of domestic repression that has emerged to put people off supporting the MEK, but the regime has taken its misinformation overseas as well.
It is easy to counter disinformation by reminding people of a report written after the U.S. delegation’s visit to Ashraf-3 in Albania. Anyone who comes face to face with MEK members in Ashraf-3 discovers that the MEK is not a cult, but a resistance movement which is seeking democratic change in Iran for the good of its people. Journalists have visited Ashraf-3, including journalists from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, Reuters, Belgium’s VRT, Scotland’s National, Euro News, and many others. It is only by doing this that visitors see the true colors of the MEK. Otherwise, they have to live with hearsay. One thing that is certainly true about the MEK is that the regime hates it and the only method it has been able to use to counter its popularity is by murdering more than 120,000 of its members. This was in 1988 when these murders took place and Amnesty International called them a crime against humanity.
International attention has been brought to the regime’s treatment of protesters and Amnesty International recently published a report entitled “Trampling Humanity: Mass arrests, disappearances, and torture since Iran’s November 2019 protests”.#WeStand4FreeIran #MEK #FreeIran2020 pic.twitter.com/FB4vw104Wt
— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 1, 2020
In the 1990s, as the MEK’s influence grew Tehran begged the U.S. and Europe to name the MEK as a “terrorist organization” so the West complied. However, the MEK contested this politically-motivated designation and it won its case in the courts, forcing executive branch officials to remove this wrongful designation.
Apart from being arrested and charged for politically motivated activity the MEK members rarely if ever are confronted for taking part in a crime.
The MEK was the first one to expose the regime’s undercover nuclear program in August 2002. It also has the capacity to plan successful nationwide protests. In January 2020, an angry Ali Khamenei, the regime’s Supreme Leader, caused a diplomatic argument with Europe when he attacked Albania, describing it as a “small evil European country,” for hosting the MEK. In December 2018, Albania had expelled the regime’s ambassador for plotting to kill MEK dissidents.
The regime showed how much it fears the MEK by getting one of its acting “diplomats” to totally destroy the Free Iran Rally in the Paris suburbs on June 30, 2018. The regime’s diplomat, along with accomplices, is now waiting for a trial in Belgium for the terror plot.
Clearly, the regime’s erratic behavior and propaganda demonstrate that the MEK is having a meaningful and enduring impact on Iran’s political future.
https://t.co/fDw1tKXyUQ: On June 30, 2018, a sophisticated bomb should have exploded during a meeting of the #NCRI a coalition of movements opposed to the authorities in Tehran. The attack plan had been foiled by extremists. #MEK #Iran https://t.co/Vihck8lA6j
— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 10, 2020
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “Eradicating the clerical regime’s nuclear and terrorist threats means getting rid of the regime in its entirety. A regime based on the principle of Velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of the clergy) cannot exist without terrorism, suppression, and weapons of mass destruction.”
and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube
