User:MarioGom/sandbox/MEK characterization proposal

This space is a sandbox by MarioGom to prepare a new proposal to replace Talk:People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran/Archive 57#RFC, 15 December 2022.

Draft RFC

The lede currently states It is also Iran's largest and most active political opposition group., and it recently stated It is Iran's largest and most active armed dissident group.. What should be done with this statement?

• Option A (current): Keep the previous text: largest and most active political opposition group
• Option B (previous): Keep the current text: largest and most active armed dissident group
• Option C (remove): Remove this claim from the lede.

Summary

Ref.	Main/largest?	Main/largest past?
Abrahamian 1989	—	"main foe"
Mackey 1998	No	—
Katzman 2001	most active
Kazemzadeh 2002	"reduced to a strange cult"	"mass movement"
Alaedini, Namazi & Potter 2006	No	"most cohesive [...] opposition group in exile"
Dyer 2008	Yes	—
Rozenberg 2008	Yes	—
Cohen 2009	No	"largest opposition movement"
Cimment 2011	largest and most active [...] dissident group	—
Rubin 2011	irrelevant	—
Ramsey 2011	No	—
Shane 2011	"fringe"	—
McGreal 2012	Partial	—
Cordesman, Gold & Coughlin-Schulte 2014	No	—
Rezai 2014	Partial	—
Dehghan 2014	No	—
Bozorgmehr & Manson 2018	No	—
Torbati 2017	Partial	—
Erlich 2018	No	"significant base of support"
Uskowi 2018	Yes	—
Merat 2018	No	—
Jannessari & Loucaides 2019	No	—
Rezaian 2019	Partial no	—
Broder 2019	Yes	—
Hudson 2019	No	—
Ainsley, Lehren & Schapiro 2019	"fringe"	—
Pressly & Kasapi 2019	"one of"	—
Lansford 2020	Partial	"largest guerrilla group"
Friedman 2020	—	—
Campbell 2021	Yes	—
HRW 2022	largest [...] armed opposition group	—

Independent sources

• Abrahamian, Ervand (1989). Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin. I.B. Tauris. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-85043-077-3. [...] And many foreign diplomats considered it to be by far the largest, the best disciplined, and the most heavily armed of all the opposition organizations. As the main foe of the Islamic Republic [...]
• Mackey, Sandra (1998). The Iranians. p. 372. While the Mujahedin remains the most widely feared opposition group because of period raids across the Shatt al-Arab, it is also the most discredited among the Iranian people who have not forgotten the Mujahedin's support of Iraq in the war against Iran.
• Katzman, Kenneth (2001). "Iran: The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran". In Benliot, Albert V. (ed.). Iran: Outlaw, Outcast, Or Normal Country?. Nova. ISBN 978-1-56072-954-9. [...] Iran's most active opposition group [...] (TBD: quote not verified)
• Kazemzadeh, Masoud (2002). Islamic Fundamentalism, Feminism, and Gender Inequality in Iran Under Khomeini. University Press of America. p. 58. From 1985, Rajavi transformed the PMOI from a mass movement into a cult with himself as its guru. [...] From 1985, however, under the terrible leadership of Rajavi, the PMOI had been reduced to a strange cult.
• Alaedini, Pooya; Namazi, Siamak; Potter, Lawrence G. (2006). "Iran". In Schlager, Neil; Weisblatt, Jayne (eds.). World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties (4 ed.). Facts on File. p. 626. ISBN 978-0-8160-5953-9. [...] Mojahedin has become the most cohesive Iranian opposition group in exile [...] The Mojahedin was a respected organization in Iran because of its long guerrilla struggle against the shah. Its ideology, emphasizing Shiite Islam, socialism, and Iranian nationalism, proved to have strong appeal to the lower classes, who carried out the revolution. However, this appeal has been seriously compromised because of disillusionment with the group's leaders who have built personality cults around themselves, its violent tactics that kill civilians, its ties with Iraq, and the apparent lack of a viable platform.
• Dyer, Clare (18 February 2008). "Government fights to keep ban on main Iranian opposition group". The Guardian. [...] the People's Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI), the main Iranian opposition organisation [...]
• Rozenberg, Joshua (23 October 2008). "Ban on Iran opposition should be lifted, says EU court". The Telegraph. Iran's main opposition group [...]
• Cimment, James (2011). World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, 2nd Edition. Routledge. pp. 276, 859. doi:10.4324/9781315697994. ISBN 978-0765682840. The strength of the movement inside Iran is uncertain [...] MEK is the largest and most active Iranian dissident group; its membership includes several thousand well-armed and highly disciplined fighters.
• Cohen, Ronen (2009). The Rise and Fall of the Mojahedin Khalq, 1987-1997: Their Survival After the Islamic Revolution and Resistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-1-84519-270-9. The Mojahedin organization was the largest opposition movement that the Islamic Republic had to cope with even when it was still operating in Iran [...] since 1981 until the mid 1980s, the organization lost its social hold in Iran. It was no longer considered a political alternative.
• Rubin, Elizabeth (13 August 2011). "An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends". The New York Times. Mrs. Clinton should ignore their P.R. campaign. Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran's democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.
  • Cited by: Khanlari, Sam (7 July 2018). "Western signs of support for Iranian dissident group will only deepen the divide with Tehran". CBC. As New York Times reporter Elizabeth Rubin, who has profiled the group extensively, wrote in 2011, the MEK "is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran's democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us."
• Ramsey, Jasmin (30 August 2011). "Facts vs. Fiction and the MEK's PR Campaign". [...] More recently, the MEK's attempts to paint itself as Iran's "main opposition" [...]
• Shane, Scott (26 November 2011). "For Obscure Iranian Exile Group, Broad Support in U.S." New York Times. [...] a fringe Iranian opposition group, long an ally of Saddam Hussein, that is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law and described by State Department officials as a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis. [...] The M.E.K. advocacy campaign has included full-page newspaper advertisements identifying the group as "Iran's Main Opposition" — an absurd distortion in the view of most Iran specialists; leaders of Iran's broad opposition, known as the Green Movement, have denounced the group. The M.E.K. has hired high-priced lobbyists like the Washington firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Its lawyers in Europe won a long fight to persuade the European Union to drop its own listing of the M.E.K. as a terrorist group in 2009.
• McGreal, Chris (28 September 2012). "MEK supporters push for recognition by US as official Iranian opposition". The Guardian. A Texas congressman, Bob Filner, who has been among the most vigorous proponents of delisting the MEK, has described it as "Iran's main opposition" and a US "ally" against the Tehran government. Filner was the author of a pro-MEK resolution in Congress in favour of unbanning the organisation. [...] However, there is likely to be strong resistance from within the state department and US intelligence services – mindful of the experience of dealing with Ahmed Chalabi, who portrayed his Iraqi National Congress as having far more support than it had – to working with the MEK because it is seen by many US officials as a fringe organisation, even a cult, with little support on the ground in Iran. If anything, opinion in Iran is broadly hostile to the MEK in large part because it allied itself with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
• Cordesman, Anthony H.; Gold, Bryan; Coughlin-Schulte, Chloe (2014). Iran: Sanctions, Energy, Arms Control, and Regime Change. Rowman & Littlefield / Center for Strategic and International Studies. p. 145. When [MEK] lost, it became the tool of Saddam Hussein until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and is now little more than a Rajavi cult with little influence in Iran and even less popularity.
• Rezai, Hamid (2014). "Mujāhidīn-i Khalq". In Shahin, Emad (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press. The group has strong support in the European Parliament and US Congress, which both played key roles in removing the MEK from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations both in the European Union and, most recently, in the US. Although it is still the largest well-organized group in exile among the opposition to the Islamic Republic, the organization has not been able to launch noteworthy activities in the country due to the strict measures of the regime.
• Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (22 April 2014). "Iranian prisoners allegedly forced to run gauntlet of armed guards". The Guardian. The MEK, which is based in Paris, remains unpopular in Iran because of its support for the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
• Torbati, Yeganeh (16 January 2017). "Former U.S. officials urge Trump to talk with Iranian MEK group". Reuters. The MEK's supporters present the group as a viable alternative to Iran's theocracy, though analysts say it is unpopular among Iranians for its past alignment with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and attacks on Iranian soldiers and civilians.
• Bozorgmehr, Najmeh; Manson, Katrina (2 April 2018). "John Bolton support for Iranian opposition spooks Tehran". Financial Times. Analysts say it has little support inside Iran today, where it is regarded as a terrorist organisation and has been accused of assassinating senior politicians and targeting civilians.
• Erlich, Reese (2018). The Iran Agenda Today: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and What's Wrong with U.S. Policy. p. 85. MEK developed a significant base of support in Iran immediately after the revolution, but [...] [its] alliance with the hated Saddam Hussein embitered most Iranians and largely eliminated whatever respect the MEK may have won from its earlier resistance.
• Uskowi, Nader (2018). Temperature Rising Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Wars in the Middle East. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 174. [...]MEK, the largest Iranian opposition group[...]
• Merat, Arron (9 November 2018). "Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK". The Guardian. [...] the MEK lost nearly all the support it had retained inside Iran. Members were now widely regarded as traitors.
• Jannessari, Sohail; Loucaides, Darren (27 April 2019). "Spain's Vox Party Hates Muslims—Except the Ones Who Fund It". Foreign Policy. Since that moment, the group has been widely seen as a pariah among the Iranian public.
• Rezaian, Jason (11 June 2019). "Opinion | Why does the U.S. need trolls to make its Iran case?". The Washington Post. That didn't stop Forbes, the Hill, Daily Caller and even the Voice of America from amplifying Alavi's platform as a voice on Iran policy. [Note: Forbes and Voice of America have since removed "Alavi's" pieces from their websites.] All of these outlets, and several more, have published articles by Alavi that claimed the MEK is the main opposition to the current Iranian regime.
• Broder, Jonathan (27 August 2019). "Iran's Opposition Groups are Preparing for the Regime's Collapse. Is Anyone Ready?". Newsweek. [...] The MEK, whose name means the "People's Holy Warriors," is the oldest, best organized and best known of several Iranian opposition movements waiting in the wings. But there are others. [...] The MEK has been the leading opposition voice against the Islamic Republic for years. [...]
• Hudson, John (23 September 2019). "Trump, Iran's Rouhani descend on same corner of New York but remain far apart". The Washington Post. Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution said in a statement to The Washington Post that she "would never knowingly engage with the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a cultlike terrorist organization that is despised by many Iranians."
• Ainsley, Julia; Lehren, Andrew W.; Schapiro, Rich (17 October 2019). "Giuliani's work for Iranian group with bloody past could lead to more legal woes". NBC News. Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described the organization as a fringe group with mysterious benefactors that garners scant support in its home country. "Their population in Iran hovers between negligible and nill," Sadjadpour said.
• Pressly, Linda; Kasapi, Albana (11 November 2019). "The Iranian opposition fighters who mustn't think about sex". BBC. one of Iran's main opposition groups, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK.
• Lansford, Tom (2020). "Iran". Political Handbook of the World 2020-2021. Vol. 1. CQ Press. p. 775. ISBN 978-1-5443-8471-9. The largest guerrilla group—which at one time claimed some 100,000 members but is now considered to have much less support— is the Mujaheddin-e Khalq
• Friedman, Matt (10 June 2020). "Patrick Kennedy's ties to Iranian exile group becomes campaign issue in South Jersey". Politico. [...] a controversial group that opposes the current regime in Iran but was considered a terrorist organization by the United States until 2012 [...]
• Campbell, Matthew (22 August 2021). "People's Mujahidin Seeking Regime Change in Tehran". The Times. the biggest and most resilient Iranian opposition group
• "Iran's 1988 Mass Executions". Human Rights Watch. 8 June 2022. On July 18, 1988, the Iranian government accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, calling for a cease-fire in the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq. On July 25, the largest Iranian armed opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK), based in Iraq since 1986, launched an incursion named "Eternal Light" into Iran in an attempt to topple the government.

Excluded sources

Some of these sources have been brought up in previous discussions but I have excluded them from the main source list:

• "As protests rage in Iran, Trumps Iran policy faces sanctions test". Tribune India. Reuters. 3 January 2018.
  • Rationale: The text Peoples Mojahedin Organisation, Iran’s main opposition appears in an image caption by Tribune India. It is not an aspect discussed in the body of the article, and it does not appear in the original Reuters piece [1].
• "Fire breaks out near London offices of Iran opposition group". Times of Israel. Associated Press. 6 December 2022.
  • Rationale: This comes from the Associated Press newswire. While the text main opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) appears in the caption of an image of Times of Israel (not by AP), this hardly constitutes serious political analysis or reliable, given that it is not an aspect discussed in the text by the Associated Press.

Non-independent sources

Possibly usable

• "Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997", United States Department of State, 1 April 1998, [...] the regime's main opposition groups, including the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). [...]
• "Joint Experts' Statement on the Mujahedin-e Khalq". Financial Times. 2 August 2011. We the undersigned would like to convey our concern regarding the potential delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, and its false claims to be "Iran's main opposition" with a base of popular support in Iran.
• Masters, Jonathan (28 July 2014). "Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK)". Council on Foreign Relations. [...] The MEK has long been led jointly by husband-and-wife team Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, and is reputedly the largest militant Iranian opposition group committed to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. [...]
• Stevenson, Struan (23 May 2022). "Mike Pompeo offers momentous support for Iranian opposition". United Press International. [...] the main democratic Iranian opposition movement, the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) [...] (politician and pro-MEK advocacy)
• Sheehan, Ivan Sascha (12 December 2018). "Iran's Heightened Fears of MEK Dissidents Are a Sign of Changing Times". The theocratic regime's new onslaught against its opponents, most notably against the principal opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran or Mujahedin-e-Khalq (PMOI/MEK) [...] (regular NCRI speaker and guest)
• Berman, Ilan (4 July 2019). "Making Sense of The MeK". National Interest. In exile, the MeK underwent a political evolution of sorts, forming an umbrella organization known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). But it also continued its anti-regime activities within Iran, where it had emerged as the clerical regime's most potent and capable foe—the "public enemy number one" of Iran's ayatollahs.
• Phares, Walid (2010). The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East. Threshold Editions. p. 173. A powerful account of the history of Iran's preparation for its own "invasion" of Iraq is outlined in The Hidden Invasion of Iraq, by Paulo Casaca, a European Parliament member from the Socialist Party. Casaca was the chairman of the European Parliament delegation to NATO and a leading activist on behalf of democracy in Iraq and the region. According to his findings, the main opposition organization in Iran, the PMOI (known also as Mujahideen Khalq), presented to U.S. authorities comprehensive and exhaustive infor mation on Iran's organization in Iraq
  • Rationale: Not in the voice of the author, but of Paulo Casaca, who was a politician lobbying for the NCRI as chair of the Friends of Free Iran [2].

MEK-connected sources

• Freeh, Louis; Lord Corbett of Castle Vale; Lord Waddington (12 September 2011). "Take Iran opponent MEK off terror list". CNN. [...] Iran's main opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran [...]
• Safavi, Ali (29 May 2019). "Iranian crackdown on MEK shows the activist group has popular support". Lima Charlie News. [...] the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) [...]
• Stone, Pooya (11 November 2019). "BBC's Distorted Report on the Iranian Opposition Mek". [...] the main Iranian opposition [...]
• Aslani, Mostafa (5 January 2020). "Qassem Soleimani, and His Crimes Against the MEK, Iran's Main Opposition Group". Iran News Update. [...] Iran's main opposition group the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK) [...]
• Safavi, Ali (24 February 2020). "Iran Regime's Anti-MEK Smear, Parroted by NY Times, Debunked". National Council of Resistance of Iran. [...] the main Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK). [...] the main opposition.
• Safavi, Ali (22 August 2021). "Rehashing the Iran regime's propaganda". Arab News. [...] the MEK, its main opposition [...]
• Abrishamchi, Mehdi (7 September 2021). "The resilient MEK: How two regimes failed to destroy Iran's main opposition movement". People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. [...] the most organized and influential democratic opposition to the mullahs' regime in Iran [...] the most potent opposition and an existential threat to the mullahs' regime

This isn't just connected; it's a self-published source and totally worthless. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:52, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

I agree. I'm just being exhaustive in the sandbox, probably this will need a lot of trimming for a proposal. However, I think it is interesting to note that the repetitive claims about "the main opposition group" is almost a ritual for the MEK. MarioGom (talk) 13:01, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

• Hakamian, Mahmoud (25 January 2021). "State-Run Media Warns of Iran's Regime Main Opposition Group, the MEK". National Council of Resistance of Iran.
• Hakam, Mahmoud (25 April 2022). "Iran Regime Dreads MEK's Resistance Units". Iran News Update. [...] Iran's main opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) [...]
• Agha, Hassan Nayeb (11 December 2022). "In Iran Today, Everything Is Eclipsed By The Nationwide Uprising. Soccer Is No Exception". International Business Times. The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the MEK, the country's leading pro-democracy opposition group [...]
• Vidal-Quadras, Alejo (29 December 2022). "Iran's influence peddling at the European Parliament". NE Global. [...] the main opposition to the clerical regime, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) [...]
• Shahrokhi, Sedighe (7 March 2023). "Why Did Reza Pahlavi Regurgitate Iran's Regime Allegations Against MEK". National Council of Resistance of Iran. [...] country's main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) [...] Iran's principal opposition [...]

Unsorted

• http://www.esisc.org/publications/analyses/15870
• https://www.eureporter.co/world/albania/2022/08/03/iran-agents-source-of-misinformation-against-opposition-interrogated-expelled-from-albania/
• https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/OXAN-DB277958/full/html
• https://iran-freedom.org/index.php/bpcif-in-the-media
• https://sot.com.al/english/bota/irani-paralajmeron-serish-trazira-ne-manez-te-durresit-ja-kercenim-nga-tehe-i528945
• https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/saudi-arabia-not-prepared-play-nice-iran-95091
• The World Almanac of Islamism: 2014. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2014. p. 172. The Mek is the most prominent and well-organized opposition group to the ruling Iranian government in existence today. (TBD: quote not verified, page not verified)
• Hassaniyan, Allan (2021). Kurdish Politics in Iran: Crossborder Interactions and Mobilisation since 1947. Cambridge University Press. p. 172. [...] Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Iran's major armed opposition group [...] (TBD: quote not verified, page not verified)
• Tarock, Adam (1998). The Superpowers' Involvement in the Iran-Iraq War. Nova Science Publisher. p. 197. [...]In early January 1993 President-elect Clinton wrote a private letter to the leader of Iran's main opposition group[...] (TBD: minimal footnote)