From: bxm50@pars.amdahl.com (Ben Mahjoor)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: A very burning question
Date: 19 Dec 92 05:51:42 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corp.



		A Very Burning Question
		-----------------------

During and after the 1979 Iran's so called "revolution", thousands, may be
hundres of thousands, of young Iranian men and women were attracted to
the Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO). These brave and idealistic, and yet 
naive and emotional, young men and women were attracted to MKO,
not because they were in love with Mr. Masood Rajavi, but because of the 
"anti-American", "anti-Israli" and "anti-Western" principles of this 
organization. Principles that, right or wrong, they remained loyal to, to 
their heroic deaths:

	"In September 1984, a list of 10,231 names of individuals that
	 have been executed in Iran from June 1981 up to the present were
	 provided to the UN. This list included the names of 9000
	 MKO supporters that were executed during this interval by 
	 IRI government. The average age of these executees are 23 
	 years old. The MKO's report indicates that 430 individuals 
	 were less than 18 years old, 15 were children and 18 were
	 pregnant women. The same report indicates that at least
	 270 individuals were killed under the torture, 155 individuals
	 were hung and the rest were shot. The MKO has stated that 
	 from June 1984 till present 40,000 individuals have been
	 executed in Iran, and currently there are more than 120,000
	 political prisoners in various prisons."

	[Le Monde Magazine, September 9 1984. Reprinted and translated
	 from "jenAyat va MokAfAt", S.Shafa, Vol: 2, pp:984].

But is MKO really an "anti-American", "anti-Israeli", and "anti-West"
as they promised all those brave men and women ?

Let us take a look:

	"You are all mistaken ! We are not Marxists. We are deeply
	 democratic organization ! We believe both in Capitalism
	 and free market. We believe both in private investment and
	 and private ownership. We have never been a terrorist 
	 organization !! We are neither anti-American nor anti-western !!!
	 When we overthrow the Khomeini's regime, we will establish a 
	 very friendly relationship with all other countries, specially
	 with USA (!) and will create a model democratic country..."
	 
	 [ Masood Rajavi, in an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer
	   22 August 1985 ].

and I thought Iranians overthrew Pahlavi Dynasty precisely because of
the above points ! But that's not all ..


	"The US accusations that MKO is a Marxists organization and 
	 that it is anti-western or anti-Israeli are completly false (!).
	 These accusations are all based on the false propaganda left over 
	 from Pahlavi regime(!)".

	[ Masood Rajavi, in an interview with USA Today, Nov 11 1985 ]


I have lost three friends that I grew up with in Iran. They were killed
as MKO sympathisers in this wave of maddness. The burning question for me,
along with the relatives and families of all those young men and women,
is this:

	What percentage of all those young men and women would have 
	been attracted to MKO, let alone die for it, if they knew
	in advance that this organization is NOT "anti-America", 
	is NOT "anti-Israel", is NOT "anti-west", and IS in full favor
	of a "very friendly relationship specially with USA" ?


I think MKO leadership, specially Mojahede Kabir, ows an answer to all those 
idealists.  


			- Behnam

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Just A little bit of logic ..it does wonders to half-baked "revolutionary" 
ideas"  -Unknown

"vAlA AghA dorugh cherA ? az in Rajavi khAne khodemoon har chi begid bar miAd !"
   - Ghasem (of Daii Jan Napoleon)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian