PCG Mentioning the Mojahedin-e-Khalq

In 1994 Gerald Flurry, leader of the Philadelphia Church of God, proclaimed Iran to be the King of the South. Ever since PCG has continuously demonized Iran. But PCG has been so hostile to Iran that they have failed to alert their readers about the controversies and disturbing authoritarian behavior of one group opposed to the current governmental in Iran, namely the Mojahedin-e-Khalq.

The Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) was established in Iran as a left wing party dedicated to overthrowing the Shah in 1965. But following the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini to power the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, led by Masoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam Rajavi, proceeded to wage an armed insurgency against Iran from 1981 onward. According to Iran's Press TV the Mojahedin-e-Khalq killed 12,000 people during the course of their armed insurgency to overthrow the government.

Over time the organization also became well known for authoritarian behavior imposed upon their members causing many observers to describe them as being like a cult. Noted anti-cult author Steven Hassan mentions the Mojahedin-e-Khalq on his website. According to one ex-member in 1990 Masoud Rajavi ordered MEK members to divorce their spouses.

The US State Department regarded the Mojahedin-e-Khalq as a terrorist organization from October 8, 1997 till September 28, 2012.

These unsavory facts about MEK are not to be found in PCG's writings aside from one vague reference to them as a "radical group" dating from 2014 that does not mention any of the specific troubling facts surrounding MEK.

Below we see PCG mentioning the Mojahedin-e-Khalq. It is described as an "opposition party". In one September 13, 2008 article it is even mentioned that Iran regards MEK as a terrorist organization and it is not mentioned that at that time the US State Department also listed MEK as a terrorist organization. With just one unusual exception MEK tends to be portrayed quite favorably by PCG's leaders.

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Reports confirm that Iraqi agents of Iran have received millions of dollars to facilitate terrorist attacks and that the now-infamous Shiite death squads are being financed by Iran. And now, Mojahedin-e-Khalq, the Iranian opposition party, is accusing Iran of sponsoring fully 132,000 of its own agents in Iraq, including “numerous Iraqi Shiite officials and politicians” (Middle East Newsline, February 6). (Iran’s Presence in Iraq Continues to Expand, February 9, 2007.)

Last month, the Solidarity Congress of the Iraqi Peoples held an annual meeting hosted by the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (PMOI). A petition reportedly signed by over 3 million Iraqis presented at the meeting called for the expulsion of the Iranian regime and its agents from Iraq, as well as the removal of restrictions on the PMOI in Iraq. Tehran reacted by insisting that the Iraqi government take action against the PMOI; Baghdad obliged by demanding that members of the Iranian opposition group leave Iraq within six months or face expulsion, prohibiting any dealings with the PMOI, and calling for the arrest of a Sunni member of parliament because of his relations with the group. (The Week in Review, July 12, 2008.)

An Iranian opposition group that has sought refuge in Iraq for more than 20 years has been ordered by the Iraqi government to leave the country.
The Shiite-dominated Iraqi Interior Ministry announced September 1 that members of the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) has six months to leave Camp Ashraf, the U.S. camp in Iraq where approximately 3,360 members of the group are currently being held. The Saudi daily al Riyadh reported September 3 that the United States and Iran had agreed to hand over members of the MEK (also known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran) to Iraqi authorities. (Iraq Expels Anti-Iranian Group, September 12, 2008.)

The United States and Iran agreed to hand over members of the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) to Iraqi authorities, the Saudi daily al Riyadh reported September 3. Approximately 3,360 members of the group are currently being held in a U.S. camp in Iraq. The Shiite-dominated Iraqi Interior Ministry announced September 1 that the MEK had six months to leave Camp Ashraf. While Iraq wants this group out of the country, it is Iran that is behind the move to expel the MEK from Iraq. Tehran considers the MEK—whose goal is to replace Iran’s Islamist theocracy with a secular regime—to be a terrorist group. The U.S.’s protection of the group has been a major obstacle in U.S.-Iranian negotiations over Iraq, and America—which has been a longtime ally of the MEK—has now caved in to Iran’s demands.  (The Week in Review, September 13, 2008.)

The U.S. and Iran agreed to hand over members of the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) to Iraqi authorities, the Saudi daily al Riyadh reported September 3. Approximately 3,360 members of the group are currently being held in a U.S. camp in Iraq. Iraq has given the MEK six months to leave. Tehran considers the MEK—whose goal is to replace Iran’s Islamist theocracy with a secular regime—to be a terrorist group. The U.S.’s protection of the group has been a major obstacle in U.S.-Iranian negotiations over Iraq. (Worldwatch, November-December 2008.)

Earlier this week, Iraq’s security forces acted alone in raiding Camp Ashraf, a small village located northeast of Baghdad, not far from the Iranian border. The camp was established during the 1980s as a base for Iranian exiles, known as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), to operate against the mullocracy in Tehran. About 3,000 Iranian dissidents live in the village. ...
That may soon change now that the United States has handed over the area to Iraq. On Tuesday, in response to MEK members protesting the establishment of an Iraqi base inside Ashraf, Iraq sent in 1,000 troops to squash the rebellion. For two days, Iraqi policemen forcibly pounded MEK members into submission, killing seven civilians and wounding dozens more. CBS News and the BBC both captured video of the early stages of the assault. (Stephen Flurry, Iraq’s New Puppet Master, July 31, 2009.)

On September 28, 2012 US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton removed the US State Department's designation of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq as a terrorist organization. Since then the Mojahedin-e-Khalq is no longer viewed by the US State Department in that way. But PCG has never mentioned that it was ever viewed that way by the US government in their writings. 

The Kurdish media network Rudaw reported: “the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq has warned of the growing number of Iran’s Quds forces in Iraq, saying that Tehran uses the fight against [the Islamic State] to assert itself in Iraq.” (Anthony Chibarirwe, The Message Iran Sent Following the Death of Its General in Iraq, January 12, 2015.)

But while PCG tended to portray the Mojahedin-e-Khalq sympathetically and sometimes even as an authority that can be trusted regarding Iran's alleged moves in August 2014 PCG's Robert Morley mentioned MEK in an unflattering way as a "radical group" and compared them with "Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Tamil Tigers [and] Babbar Khalsa". He mentioned them while scare mongering about protests in Canada concerning the war in Gaza in 2014.

How long before Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Tamil Tigers, Babbar Khalsa, Mojahedin-e-Khalq and other radical groups’ family members introduce jihad to Canada? (Robert Morley, ‘Kill the Jews’ in Canada, August 7, 2014.)

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And so it may be seen that PCG has tended to portray the Mojahedin-e-Khalq quite favorably. PCG's readers are ill served by not being informed of the facts surrounding this organization.