The Kinder, Gentler Islam of Iran

While I am one of the first to say that the MEK (Mojaheddin-e Khalgh) has turned into a cult to worship Mariam Rajavi and husband Massoud Rajavi, as "supreme beings", their information sources are usually pretty accurate. Why? Because they ARE the populace or a common part of it! And have shoes and boots on the ground inside Iran. They ARE the common man in the street inside Iran - except that they have Marxist philosophies and want to rule - potentially almost as ruthlessly as the Mullahs - if how they handle their own members is any indication. One major difference, since they have their "queen Mariam" may be that women's rights could flourish and the Islamic aspects put in place by the Mullahs be greatly reduced to allowing music and Western films etc. and perhaps relaxing or making the Islamic dress code more voluntary. The Mullahs hate and fear them. As do all suporters of the Mullahs or Iranians who went through the Iran-Iraq war for 8-years inside Iran and were constantly told by the Mullahs, to deflect blame from themselves, that the MEK was the cause of all the deaths and thus the "bad guys". The populace - as spoken for by the Mullahs - is deemed to hate them for helping Iraq attack Iran in the 8-year war. In fact, the populace and the MEK are virtually indistinguishable - except by the MEK's ardent desire to kill Mullahs. Mostly to avenge the 30,000 to 40,000 Mojaheddin the Mullas admit to executing while holding them in prison. The real number is probably higher. Another reason the Mullahs fear the MEK is that they are the only opposition "group" with a potential sting of armed and trained fighters who HATE the clerics. And reportedly some 100,000 members inside Iran. After being classified as a "terrorist group" by the Clinton administration to try to mollify the ruling clerics in Iran, followed in kind by Europe, France, which has some 30,000 of the MEK cult members on their soil , has now withdrawn the terrorist label AND has returned to them all the money confiscated from them by the French government. Do the French know something we don't? Or are they playing their usual game of being friends with everyone - "just in case". Regardless of the above, here is some statistical information OFFICIALLy announced by the Islamic Regime of Iran and relayed by the website link shown below, quoting MEK political operations. Islamic republic sentences 'at least 2,600 people every DAY, = 1 million a year in Iran: 600,000 jailed since start of this year. (Unclear whether this means the year 2006 or the Iranian calendar year ending March 20th, 2007) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3343931,00.html Yaakov Lappin - 12.24.06 Well over half a million Iranians have been imprisoned by their regime since the start of the year, Director-General of the Cultural and Disciplinary Committee of the Iranian Prisons Organization Mansour Moqareh-Abed told Iranian newspaper Jomhouri Islami. The interview was cited by the website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella organization for Iranian opposition groups in exile. According to the NCRI, Moraqeh-Abed added in the interview that "it is not possible to accommodate 'the cultural and disciplinary' needs of this many prisoners." The NCRI noted that "every day 2,600 people are sent to prison; thus, in a year the figure grows to 1 million," a figure described as an "unprecedented world record." The NCRI added in its statement: "Obviously, the actual number of detainees in Iran is much higher than the official figure since it does not take into account various unofficial penitentiaries and prisons. Alan note: The same Islamic Regime official for prisons, recently indicated that there were well over 100 "unofficial" prisons operated by the various "special security" forces such as anti-demonstration Bassiji (for example) or special intelligence organizations. Thus indicating the statistics were much higher than he could quote. "In particular, the regime has stepped up suppression to an unprecedented level and street arrests have increased in order to combat the rising number of popular demonstrations and uprisings." Calling for human rights organizations to take up the plight of Iranian prisoners, the NCRI drew special attention to political prisoners jailed for their opposition to the Iranian regime. In 2002, the offices of the NCRI were shut down in Washington DC, after the State Department said the organization was a front for the People's Mujahedin of Iran, a militant Iranian opposition group dedicated to toppling the Iranian government. Since then, a number of politicians and analysts in the West have said that the NCRI should be made legal again, as it was a crucial representative of Iranian groups working to overthrow the government of Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadi-Nejad. On Saturday, a British member of the House of Lords, Lord Fraser, called on the British government to take the NCRI off the list of banned groups. Fraser was reported by the NCRI as saying that he had been threatened by what appeared to be Iranian government agents, due to his support for the NCRI. NCRI President-Elect ("queen") Maryam Rajavi said Saturday that she "welcomed the adoption of a resolution by the UN Security Council against the mullahs' regime," saying it was "the first necessary step towards preventing the ruling religious fascism in Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb." Alan Note: In my view, the only reason to entertain the notion of providing any kind of support to the MEK is to use them to excise the Mullahs from Iran - and then remove the MEK in one way or another. Broad notions more easily said than done but not without merit for consideration.