Muslim Mojahedin
Muslim Mojahedin (or Islamic Mojahedin) were a faction within the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) that refused to abandon Islam in 1975 and accused the rival Marxist faction of orchestrating a "coup d'état" in the group. They were subsequently involved in an intragroup conflict with the former which tried to purge the group in order to make it purely Marxist.
By 1979, the remnants of this faction became the sole claimants of the MEK's name as a result of the rival Marxists leaving to create offshoots such as Peykar and Worker's Way.
History[edit]
After the schism, the faction continued activity and used different aliases nationwide. The cell active in Isfahan, which adopted the label Goruh-e Mahdaviyan (lit. Mahdaviyan Group), not only distributed pamphlets but also attacked police stations several times and in one occasion lost two members.[1] In Hamadan, the cell committed bank robbery and assassinated four SAVAK agents going by the name Goruh-e Shi'iyan-e Rastin (lit. Group of True Shīʿītes).[1] Regional offices of the royalist Resurgence Party in Tabriz was bombed, using Faryad-e Khalq Khamush Nashodani Ast (lit. The People's Cry will not be Silenced) as their the name.[1] In Mashhad and Zanjan, the faction kept using the original name. In the former city, they bombed multiple buildings including the Iranian-American Cultural Society and the British diplomatic mission while in the latter the they harassed local authorities until their safe house was discovered.[1]
According to the information compiled by Ervand Abrahamian, the total number of Muslim Mojahedin guerillas who died was 73, of whom 36 were killed in action while 15 others were executed. One member committed suicide, 18 was tortured to death, two died in costudy and the other was missing. The members of the rival Marxist faction who died were 30.[2]
Membership[edit]
The leading figure in the faction was Majid Sharif-Vaghefi, one of the three Central Cadre members, and his right-hand man was Morteza Samadieh-Labaf. Following arrest of Vahid Afrakhteh and his subsequent collaboration with SAVAK, many members of the Muslim faction weere identified and arrested. Among them were Abdorreza Moniri-Javid, Morteza Labbafinejad and Mehdi Ghayuran.[3]
The Muslim faction claimed that only 20% of the members had sided with the rival faction. According to Maziar Behrooz, many prominent members had become Marxists and "it seems that the Marxist Mojahedin managed to gain control of bulk of the organization".[4]
Legacy[edit]
Amidst the Iranian Revolution, while the Marxist faction ceased claiming the MEK and created new offshoot organizations, the MEK soon turned out under firm control of Massoud Rajavi and members of his commune in Qasr Prison.[5] Senior members in the group included figures such as Mousa Khiabani, Mohammad-Reza Saadati, Mehdi Abrishamchi, Ali Zarkesh and Abbas Davari.[6] After release in 1979, Rajavi's entourage initially named themselves the 'National Movement of Mojahedin' (Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Mojahedin) but in less than a year, they started to claim the original MEK and its name.[7]
In c. 1976–77, a group of the Muslim faction who were also imprisoned at the time but did not side with Rajavi and began using the title People's Mojahedin Movement of Iran (Nehzat-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran). This group was led by Lotfollah Meisami and Mehdi Qani was among its prominent members.[8] According to Ervand Abrahamian, Rajavi's group denounced Meisami's group as "revisionists" and "right-wing deviators" who "under the cover of 'pragmatism', were scheming to transform the organization into an 'apolitical discussion group' tied to the arch-conservative clerics".[1]
A number of MEK associates who had turned against the Marxist faction split ways with the MEK completely and assumed top government positions after 1979. They included Mohammad Ali Rajai, Behzad Nabavi, Abbas Duzduzani, Mohammad Montazeri and Morteza Alviri among others.[9] Many members of the Khomeinist group the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization which was founded in 1979, had some prior relationship with the MEK but were staunchly hostile to the MEK led by Rajavi. They subsequently used the term 'Mojahed' to challenge the MEK's "near trademark" association with the word.[9]
See also[edit]
Other articles of the topic Iran : IRIB TV5, Persian carpet(The Iranian Art Company )
Other articles of the topic Politics : Ewald Max Hoyer, Social Activist, Anan Foundation, Frank Blackburn, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, Incumbent
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- People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (est. 1965)
- Marxist faction (1975–1979)
- Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class (est. c. 1979)
- Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran – The Worker’s Way (est. c. 1979)
- United Campaign for Fulfillment of the Working Class Aspirations (est. c. 1979)
- Group for the Combat for Emancipation of the Working Class (est. c. 1979)
- Muslim faction (1975–1979)
- People's Mohajerin Organization of Iran (est. 1975)
- People's Mojahedin Movement of Iran (est. c. 1976/77)
- National Movement of Mojahedin (1979) → People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
- Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (est. 1979)
- Marxist faction (1975–1979)
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Abrahamian 1989, p. 165
- ↑ Abrahamian 1982, pp. 480–481
- ↑ Iran Almanac and Book of Facts 1976, p. 106
- ↑ Behrooz 1999, p. 71
- ↑ Abrahamian 1989, p. 172
- ↑ Abrahamian 1989, p. 174
- ↑ Boroujerdi & Rahimkhani 2018, p. 344
- ↑ Boroujerdi & Rahimkhani 2018, p. 345
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ostovar 2016, p. 52
Sources[edit]
- Haqshenas, Torab (27 October 2011) [15 December 1992]. "COMMUNISM iii. In Persia after 1953". In Yarshater, Ehsan. Encyclopædia Iranica. Fasc. 1. VI. New York City: Bibliotheca Persica Press. pp. 105–112. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
- Abrahamian, Ervand (1982), Iran Between Two Revolutions, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-10134-5
- Abrahamian, Ervand (1989), Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin, I.B. Tauris, Yale University Press, ISBN 9781850430773
- Vahabzadeh, Peyman (2010), Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 9780815651475
- Behrooz, Maziar (1999), Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran, Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN 9781860643811
- Moss, Robert (1978), The Campaign to Destabilize Iran (101), Institute for the Study of Conflict, ISSN 0069-8792
- Boroujerdi, Mehrzad; Rahimkhani, Kourosh (2018). Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook. Syracuse University Press. p. 345. ISBN 9780815654322. Search this book on
- Ostovar, Afshin (2016). Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190491703. Search this book on
- Iran Almanac and Book of Facts. 15. Echo Institute. 1976. Search this book on
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