‘Do not sell the truths to Iran’s Mojahedin’s lobbying’ – Response to Martin Patzelt, member of the German Parliament

Response to Martin Patzelt, member of the German Parliament

A member of the German Federal Parliament, Mr Martin Patzelt, has recently in an article in the German weekly der Freitag (of 5 August 2020) launched a vicious attack against Mina Ahadi and our party, the Worker-communist Party of Iran. What has triggered Mr Patzelt’s diatribe is an open letter which Ms Mina Ahadi, well-known campaigner against political Islam and Iran’s Islamic Republic, and a leading member of our party, recently published, condemning Mr Patzelt’s enthusiastic support for the Iranian political Islamic sect, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI). Mr Patzelt has described Ms Ahadi’s letter a ‘shameful’ attack by the Worker-communist Party of Iran on the ‘German friends of the Iranian resistance’. However, what indeed is shameful is this tirade against Mina Ahadi and our party, instead of responding to the truths that Ms Ahadi has detailed in her open letter.

It seems Mr Patzelt has a problem with the correct usage of names. He should, first of all, be reminded that a response to a letter by an individual should be directed to the same individual, and not to the party to which he or she belongs. Secondly, the sect he has been embracing is not the ‘Iranian resistance’, but the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran – a group that has little connection with the resistance – more precisely, the struggle – of the people of Iran against the Islamic Republic. Mr Patzelt should, finally, be reminded that the name of the Iranian regime is not “mullahs’ regime” (a term he has no doubt borrowed from his Mojahedin friends), but the Islamic Republic. Mojahedin deliberately avoid calling the Islamic Republic by its real name in order to shield the Islamic character of that regime, given their own Islamic character.

The issue, however, is more than just a wrong usage of terms. Expressions such as ‘Iranian resistance’ and “mullahs’ regime” are not the normal language of a German diplomat; they are the special language of the Mojahedin sect. It seems Mr Patzelt’s friendship with Mojahedin is so close that they have written an article on his behalf, for him just to sign.

Martin Patzelt is furious that Mina Ahadi has called PMOI a sect. Let us then ask him: Is an organisation which has kept the private lives and relationships of its members under control in the name of ‘ideological revolution’; that has isolated its members abroad from society and social relations and placed them in special camps; an organisation whose members and supporters turn up everywhere in identical uniforms, including with the obligatory Islamic hijab for the women; an organisation whose organisational relations, the process of selection of its officers and its hierarchy are not known to anyone; and, finally, an organisation whose supreme leader (Mr Masoud Rajavi) no-one knows is alive or dead – is such an organisation anything other than a sect? We think the answer for anyone who has remained unexposed to Mojahedin’s lobbying poison is patently clear.

We will not respond to the other points in Mr Patzelt’s statement. Mina Ahadi has responded to those in detail. We will only advise Mr Patzelt not to sell the truths to the lobbyists of an Islamic sect that has no place among the people of Iran.

Central Office of the

Worker-communist Party of Iran

14 August 2020