India's Economic Times reports that British lawmakers have approved a court ruling which removes the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (aka Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, or MKO) from a terrorist blacklist. This decision, which takes effect next week, removes the MKO from the list of "Proscribed" organizations and will allow the group and its members to operate openly in Britain.
Although the MKO remains listed as a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, and the EU, it has made significant gains since 2003 in legitimizing itself as a pro-democracy opposition group in the eyes of powerful lawmakers and lobbyists on both sides of the Atlantic.
The MKO began as an anti-American, anti-imperialist student guerrilla organization in the mid 1960s. They adopted the ideology articulated by Iranian intellectual, Ali Shariati, which mixed thirdworldist Marxism with Shiite metaphors and beliefs. This form of Islamist-Marxism emphasized the revolutionary spirit of Islam and early Shiite heroes and criticized the clergy for its trenchant, medieval worldview.
The MKO was a powerful force during the 1979 revolution, but ultimately broke with Khomeini as the latter consolidated authority around the clergy and Islamist forces. Khomeinist forces, led by the IRGC, violently crushed the MKO resistance in Iran and forced the organization into exile in Iraq. After the start of the Iraq war, the MKO supported Saddam Hussein and worked with the Iraqi forces to topple the Khomeini regime. For supporting Iraq's war against Iran through numerous terrorist attacks (one of which permanently injured Iran's current Supreme Leader) and assassinations, the MKO gained infamy among most Iranians as traitors. After the war, the MKO underwent an "internal revolution" and transformed into something akin to a personality cult led by Maryam and Masud Rajavi.
After US forces invaded Iraq in 2003, the MKO's two main bases (including Camp Ashraf) were disarmed and their members secured by US servicemen. Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Khamenei, have accused the US of "harboring terrorists" for its protection of the MKO. Iran wants to prosecute (i.e. execute) MKO leadership for the group's role in supporting Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. However, they have also offered amnesty to MKO fighters and have worked with the US in repatriating some of these activists.
The organization is widely credited with exposing Iran's secret nuclear program and the Natanz facility and has been trying to parlay that success into increased support by Western governments as a legitimate alternative to the current Iranian regime. The MKO has a substantial network across Europe and North America and has earned the support of influential "regime-change" lobbyists.
This decision by the British courts is no doubt a major victory for the MKO. It will certainly add fodder to the organization's campaign for legitimacy in the West and may lead to a reconsideration of the MKO's official status in the US, Canada, and the EU.
(Image: "Worker beating Uncle Sam" a Mojahedin revolutionary poster commemorating May Day 1979.)
