![The Religious Branch of MKO[1]](pic/post/581.jpg)
While I was still thinking about the 3rd way (?!), Iraj gave me the codes and signs of the Religious Branch to examine the 2nd suggested way by MKO. I made an appointment with one of them through Iraj somewhere around Lashkar Crossroads.
When the Religious Branch member came there, I saw he was my friend Farhad Safa[2]. I knew him from Qezel Hesar Prison. In the prison, he was a rational moderate Muslim and he would not show any radicalism.
Farhad got closer and said: “Ahmad! Is that you?!” Then we hugged each other and walked and chatted together. Farhad said: “Ahmad! By this statement (Ideology Change) we have been beaten from two sides; MKO and the Muslims. Muslims will not help us and we have to take care of ourselves. At the time being Mohsen Tariqat, Mohammad Akbari and I have accepted to keep the Religious Branch. However, our team leader is a Marxist girl.” (!)
I found out what the hell MKO was doing to them. They had chosen a young veil-less girl as their leader to destroy their logic, thoughts, believes and religion gradually.
Farhad said: “… this is the way that we put behind and now we stuck in it. If you join us, our conditions may get better and there would possibly a way out…” I said: “No, Farhad. I cannot decide now. I should think and then answer you.” Their situation was not acceptable to me particularly considering that Marxist girl beside them.
MKO that had separated men and women in team-houses before, now in a new policy was mixing them together. By choosing this strategy MKO was creating a kind of mental engagement and thinking evolution. It was about the last days of living in Gorgan Street house that one day we were doing morning warm-up exercises Iraj called Shapourzadeh and said: “Shapourzadeh! Come and join us in warm-up!” I got surprised and angrily asked: “What do you mean?...What for? Here we have only two side by side rooms; how can she exercise?” Then Iraj answered in a mellow position: “Why do you get angry? We are brothers and sisters!” I angrily answered: “No way!” Fatima also did not show any interest. As a matter of fact, I should say there were team-houses that girls and boys would live together without obeying the Islamic rules or being married or having the same parents.
Now for creating thinking evolution and passing this crisis, they wanted to use the same method for few young Muslims. I knew being with a young beautiful unveiled Marxist girl can ruin all the thinking foundations of a young Muslim man. So, I decided not to join Farhad’s group but to help them come out of this dilemma as much as I could.
In the days after Mohsen Tariqat, another member of this branch was permanently in contact with me and we had many sessions together. Contacts with him brought about some events.
[1] Marxist Mujahedin wanted to keep relations with Muslims and as it was possible by creating “Religious Branch” in MKO. They believed: “By creating religious branch we can reach to two goals; first, we can prove for people that we are not anti-religion and second we prove proletariat should lead any movement.” Following such goals MKO after issuing a statement helped group of Muslims inside MKO to create “Religious Branch of MKO”. This branch was shaped by the late Mohammad Hussein Akbari and Farhad Safa with the cooperation of Mohammad Sadegh and Mohsen Tariqat who had been in prison between the years of 1971 and 1974. Its establishment goes back to January or February of 1976. Marxist Mujahedin would deliver arms and Muslim people to this branch to prove their dependency to themselves. (Pamphlet of Groups’ Positions in Prison)
[2] Farhad Safa was arrested after the great defeat of MKO in 1971 and sentenced to three years in prison. After freedom he continued to his activities in MKO. After the ideology change in MKO, he created the Religious Branch of MKO and gathered religious members around himself. His dead body was found on March 9th 1976 in a street. His death is in ambiguity. We about him in MKO Newsletter, dated June 13th 1977:
“In a street fight with SAVAK and Anti-Sabotage Committee agents in a blind street, possibly Tarjoman Street, the late revolutionary comrade Farhad Safa committed suicide not to be entrapped by the agents and got martyred.
The late revolutionary comrade Farhad Safa was one of ex-members of MKO who continued his activities in a religious revolutionary group after being freed and ideological evolution in MKO…”
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