June 24, 2003
ANOTHER LOOK
Last week I wrote about a picture in The New York Sun that
showed a man immolating himself to protest French police actions
against an Iranian opposition group [see
href="http://lexiphane.com/lex/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1
44">AGONY, 4/19/03]. A piece in today's Wall Street
Journal op/ed page by Amir Taheri [unavailable online at this time]
describes how this group is actually the Iranian's Mujahedin Khalq
(MEK), or "People's Combatants", an Islamic-Marxist sect. The group
has been looking to overthrow the mullahs in Iran since they
participated in that country's revolution to overthrow the shah, but
then felt the Ayatollah Khomeini was not radical enough, and
have since waged a campaign of terror against the theocracy.
"The MEK was founded in 1965 after a split in a
Marxist-Leninist movement that had waged a guerilla action in northern
Iran. Its ideology emerged as a mix of Islam and Marx, with
ingredients from the Iranian religious sociologist Ali Shariati, who
advocated an "Islam without a clergy." The MEK, with KGB help, engaged
in a campaign against the Shah, and sent cadres to Cuba, East Germany,
South Yemen and Palestinian camps in Lebanon to train as
guerillas."
The MEK has since worked closely with Saddam Hussein to wage war
and post-war insurrection against Iran. It's consistently taken action
to undermine U.S. influence in the region, including the murder of U.S.
citizens. They also cooperated with Hussein to massacre Kurds and
Shiite Iraqis. If there's one thing I hate more than Islamist
terrorist organizations, it would be a commie Islamist terrorist
organization. Taheri points out that France's current crackdown after
years of hospitality to the MEK is probably just an effort to curry
favor with one of the dwindling number of middle-eastern nations that
are countering U.S. efforts in the region. That doesn't mean that
taking action against Islamist-Marxist terrorist groups is a bad idea.
Posted by Lexiphane at June 24, 2003 9:25 AM
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