Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: J. J. G. Jansen, The Neglected Duty: The 

Creed of Sadat’s Assassins and Islamic Resurgence in the 

Middle East (New York: Macmillan, 1986); Gilles Kepel, 

Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Translated by Anthony 

Roberts (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 

2002); Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, eds. Anti-

American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary 

Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Mujahidin-i Khalq

 

(The People’s Religious 

Warriors, or People’s Mujahidin; also 

Mojahedin-e Khalq; acronym: MEK)

Officially known as the Sazman-i Mujahidin-i 

Khalq-i Iran (People’s Mujahidin Organization of 

Iran, acronym PMOI), the MEK is a group of Shii 

Muslim-Marxist revolutionaries that arose during 

the 1960s to oppose the regime of m

Uhammad

r

eza

  s

hah

  p

ahlavi

 of i

ran

 (r. 1953–79). It was 

one of several anti-shah movements that objected 

to his authoritarian rule and his strong pro-Ameri-

can stance. The real catalyst for this opposition 

was the White Revolution, launched in 1963, 

which imposed modernization from the top down 

in the country with significant support from the 

U

nited

 s

tates

. The MEK’s membership consisted 

of many college-educated young men recruited 

from the urban middle class. It conducted several 

attacks against the government in the 1970s, but 

declined in strength as a result of internal feuding 

and successful government countermeasures.

The movement was revitalized in the aftermath 

of the i

ranian

 r

evolUtion

 

oF

 1978–79, when the 

new Islamic Republic of Ayatollah r

Uhollah

 k

ho

-

meini

 (r. 1979–89) was being created. Its leader 

was Masud Rajavi (b. 1947), a former student 

who had been imprisoned by the shah, and who 

subsequently was denied the right to run for the 

presidency of the Islamic Republic by Khomeini. 

As a consequence, the group organized antigov-

ernment demonstrations, followed by a campaign 

of bombing attacks against Khomeini’s allies, kill-

ing dozens of people, including the Iranian presi-

dent, prime minister, chief justice, and members 

of parliament. Khomeini’s government responded 

with force, killing and executing nearly 10,000 of 

its members between 1981 and 1985. Surviving 

members fled to France and then to i

raq

, which 

was engaged in a bloody war of attrition against 

Iran at the time. s

addam

  h

Usayn

 (r. 1979–2003) 

gave Rajavi and his MEK sanctuary and supported 

its armed terrorist operations against Iran, even 

after the war’s end in 1988. Indeed, in 1997 it was 

designated a terrorist organization by the United 

States, as well as by Canada and several European 

countries. Masud Rajavi has been superceded 

by his wife Miryam Rajavi (b. 1953), one of the 

founding members of the movement. She was 

elected to share joint leadership with her husband 

in 1985, and then became its secretary general in 

1989. After the fall of Husayn’s regime in 2003, 

MEK came under the control of U.S. armed forces