An article published against the Iranian regime’s main opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), in the insert publication in the German Weekly Die Zeit on October 27, 2021, has revived suspicions about the mullahs’ recurring attempts to penetrate Western press. The motives are clear. Drowning under a heap of existential crises, the ruling theocracy is growing increasingly desperate, deliriously pursuing options to silence the most organized opposition by trying to discredit it.
The regime’s mass murdering president, Ebrahim Raisi, has come under unprecedented international scrutiny for his role in the massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, 90% of whom were supporters of the MEK. The mullahs are desperate to extricate Raisi from the blood-drenched cloud of mass murder. So, understandably, in their despairingly futile PR campaign against the MEK, the regime has turned to a number of journalists, who are oblivious to the integrity of their profession, to echo its preferred narratives in the Western press.
Previously, on October 16, 2021, more than a week before the article’s publication, the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) shared its views in the form of a letter to Die Zeit’s editors. No attention was paid to this letter, which raises further suspicions about the political motives behind the latest article. The text of ISJ’s letter is publicly available on the Internet. Although the Die Zeit article is replete with unfounded and fabricated allegations, we deem fit to reiterate several points below, while also attaching the text of the above-mentioned letter.
The author of the article, Luisa Hommerich, completed “Islamic studies” in Tehran recently. Perhaps that is where, her self-admitted mingling with the regime’s paramilitary Bassij Force culminated in a crowning moment of unmitigated journalistic inspiration spurred by the wisdom of the fascist mullahs’ Goebbelsian spin doctors. Perhaps after that experience, she resurrected herself as a zealous crusader with a mission to bring to light the “cultish” behaviors of the mullahs’ arch nemesis, the MEK, in a way that makes The Handmaid’s Tale look like a children’s book. Hommerich thus begins a campaign to cause mass hysteria and moral panic, not about the mass murdering regime, but against its primary opponents.
Some may interpret her unfair and deceptive stunts as having a sinister and palpable air of creepiness, even conjuring up images of witch hunts and Medieval inquisitions.
In the 15th century, Joan of Arc led French forces to a historic victory and attained almost mythical stature as an enduring symbol of French nationalism. But, in the midst of political feuds at the time, she was put on “trial” and ordered to answer to approximately 70 accusations against her, including witchcraft, heresy and dressing like a man. In 1431, she was tried as a witch and burned at the stake at the age of 19, but later canonized as a saint by the Church. This was the dark era dominated by the likes of grand inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada.
Fast forward almost 560 years later, to the summer of 1988 in Iran. On the basis of a religious decree issued by the Torquemada of Iran, Khomeini, all those who did not believe in the grand inquisitor’s reading of Islam were ordered to be executed. Khomeini wrote to his “judges”: “MEK members who insist on their position in prisons across Iran must be executed, regardless of the (legal) status of their cases. Annihilate the enemies of Islam at once.” Authorities then rounded up tens of thousands of political prisoners across Iran and ordered them to answer to accusations about their affiliation with the MEK. Those who defended the MEK and defied Khomeini’s extremist ideology were hanged and their bodies buried in secret mass graves. Iran’s versions of the Joan of Arc, teenage heroines, were among the victims of the regime’s brutality. And, Raisi was a key member of the “Death Committees” that put these brave souls to death simply because they refused to surrender to the regime’s pathological rule.
Fast forward, again, to 33 years later. The MEK is the target of another witch-hunt.
Can one claim that the same attitude that animated the grand inquisitor’s sinister intentions and inhumane misconduct in the Middle Ages effectively colors Luisa Hommerich’s modern-day modus operandi?
The manner of her questioning, inquiries and methodology strongly suggest that her verdict was issued against the MEK long before she grabbed the quill. Still, in keeping with modern-day formalities, a series of “questions” masquerading as journalistic inquiry were begrudgingly assembled together to legitimize that very foregone conclusion. In her eyes, and those of the regime, the MEK is guilty unless proven innocent.
Behind the scenes, Hommerich’s indictment was already sealed. In this poorly disguised witch-hunt, the only objective of sending dozens of questions to MEK officials days before the publication of the inflammatory article, is to give the superficial impression that the procedural technicalities of the journalistic duty were adhered to since the “journalist” sought answers from the accused before publishing her already-drafted hit piece.
Hommerich’s drab accusations of political heresy cover the gamut and, of course, unapologetically draw inspiration from the book of anti-MEK misinformation written by the mullahs’ version of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of Inquisition. She repeatedly makes reference to her “research,” as if to cover up something. But in practice, she shows that she has simply copied and pasted from the Iranian regime’s intelligence services.
According to her profile in Der Spiegel, where she has worked, “Hommerich watched how deep the structures of the regime are anchored in society.” In her spare time when she is done lecturing on the “deep roots” of one of the world’s most misogynist and ruthless regimes in Iranian society, Hommerich shares other enlightening theories: “In the West, people often think that the regime will crash soon when many people take to the streets. It’s not that easy.”
A fair and modern trial in Hommerich’s native Germany ruled in 2019 that it has a different judgment with respect to the MEK compared to the Medieval tribunals in Iran that Hommerich has so enthusiastically “studied.” After her abysmal defeat and disgrace in court, Hommerich has once again come to the regime’s rescue at a time the theocracy needs it the most. The MEK is in the headlines because the mullahs’ President, Ebrahim Raisi, was instrumental in the 1988 massacre against the organization’s supporters. The regime needs to score any political points it can against the MEK in order to discredit and tarnish the organization’s image abroad. Enter pseudo-journalists like Hommerich.
The simple and undeniable fact that underscores the unfounded and baseless nature of this pseudo-journalist’s allegations is that I, as Vice-President of the European Parliament, chaired a delegation comprised of members of the European Parliament and other national parliaments, including André Brie from Germany, on a trip to the MEK’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq in 2008. During this visit, I met with hundreds of members of the MEK, both in a group setting and also privately, especially with young people of the same generation as the hero of Hommerich’s fictional tale.
I was very interested to know what motivated them to give up an affluent and comfortable life that was full of the same pleasures that the so-called hero of Hommerich’ story craves. What motivated them to abandon such lives and instead go to Ashraf in the scorching heat of Iraq and in the face of all kinds of dangers threatening them from the regime? What motivated them to want to pay the highest price for the freedom of their oppressed compatriots? Alas, after my final visit with them, some of them were senselessly murdered execution-style by the Iranian regime’s paramilitary mercenaries in Iraq.
The upshot of my conversations with those young people was essentially what I told them during my farewell address: Ashraf City is a smile behind tears. Ashraf City is a shelter in the storm. Ashraf City is a shade under the summer sun. Ashraf City is a flower in the desert. Ashraf city is the ship of hope breaking the waves of despair. Ashraf City is a moral standard, a moral reference point, and an example for the whole world. Ashraf city is a symbol of hope, of democracy, of freedom, of dignity, and of justice for the people of Iran and for all the peoples of this planet.
This is the sentiment or emotion that has gripped me every time I talk to the residents of Ashraf or MEK activists in various countries around the world. Twelve years ago, when the MEK was removed from the EU terrorism list, I said at a press conference as the European Parliament’s Vice President that I have learned so much from the MEK; but I have been genuinely inspired by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi because I fid her to be someone that simply is incapable of lying.
Of course, I am not alone in this assessment of Ashraf and its residents. Dozens of professional and impartial journalists and prominent European, American, and Middle Eastern political dignitaries who have visited Ashraf in Iraq during the same period have made similar observations; observations that completely and diametrically contradict the horrifying portrayal of Hommerich about Ashraf. The Rt. Hon. Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord of Appeal in the Ordinary, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), who visited Ashraf several times, including in July 2003, returned from one of these visits and delivered a speech to the European Parliament, where he offered his own assessment of Ashraf and the MEK.
Lord Slynn said: “What is to be found in Ashraf is a way of life with a commitment to democracy and to peace. Here is a city created with a system of higher education at times at university levels. The world of culture, creativity and music and literature which will be the envy of many countries. If you go there you come away with a clear feeling that Ashraf is not the world of a militant mob or a terrorist gang. It is a world of dedicated people lead by a woman of great commitment and great distinction who has explained, expounded the ideals for which they seek to work, for which they have worked and for which they do work.“
The influential American journalist Walter Lippmann once said: “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” Hommerich seems to be doing the opposite. Instead of shaming Raisi for the brutal 1988 massacre, she has opted to cover up the truth and target the victims of Raisi’s unspeakable crimes.
There are countless journalists imprisoned in Tehran simply for trying to tell a narrative that is inconsistent with the state’s official propaganda. At the very least, in support of those imprisoned journalists, responsible reporters in the West should scrutinize Hommerich’s Tehran-inspired escapades and expose them for what they are: Inexcusable displays of propaganda masquerading as journalism to target victims of genocide purely in the service of one of the world’s most malicious enemies of the press.
ISJ President
Alejo Vidal-Quadras
Letter-to-Die-Zeit