They subsequently started an intragroup conflict with other MEK members who refused to join it (on the grounds that they still believed in Islam) and tried to purge the group in to make it purely Marxist.

[13] At the time the schism happened suddenly in October 1975, the MEK was operating with a clandestine cell system in three branches wholly separated from each other, each headed by a Central Cadre (CC) member.

[14] Nonetheless, Peykar failed to dominate the MEK and the Muslim faction survived, partly in the provinces, in Tehran bazaar and mainly among jailed members.

[17] From 1975 to 1979, Peykar was known as "the Marxist Mojahedin", before assuming the title Bakhsh-e Marksisti-Leninisti-ye Sazeman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran (lit.

[19] They called each other by the title Rafiq (comrade) instead of Baradar (brother), stopped performing prayers and dropped 'In the Name of God' from their publications.

[24] According to Ervand Abrahamian, the schism between the opposing Marxist and Muslim factions of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran was complicated and lasted more than a year.

[31] According to Iranian scholar Parvin Paidar, The split between the two groups strengthened the Islamic identity of the original People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

[6] Abolhassan Banisadr, who was exiled in France at the time, slammed Peykar and labeled them as "fascists" in a tract named monafeqin az didgah-e ma (lit.

The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (which was on friendly terms with the MEK) was very concerned about the issue and Hamid Ashraf had strongly reacted against the assassination of Sharif-Vaghefi.

[17] According to the information compiled by Ervand Abrahamian, the total number of members who lost their lives was 30, of whom 16 were killed in action while 10 others were executed.

[36] In the summer of 1978, a council of representatives met in order to reorganize the group[6] and came to the conclusion that they should abandon armed struggle and concentrate on agitating the working class against the establishment.

He ran for Majles candidate in Tehran, and caused a major scandal in 1980 by divulging for the first time secret PMoI negotiations with Ayatollah Khomeini.

In May 1982 he appeared on television as one of the first of numerous opponents of the regime to recant their opposition in what is widely thought to have been the work of prison torture.

Ruhani denounced his membership in Peykar, praised "the Imam" Khomeini and proclaimed that he felt freer in prison than "in the outside world.

[40] Among participants in the conference were the Organization of Working-class Freedom Fighters, two other Peykar offshoots who had refused to join it,[6] Komala and the newly-reorganized Communist League of Iran.

[40] As a result of Peykar's policy to place unity under its leadership, no agreement was achieved though it managed to co-opt two small cells without offering full-membership to them.

While accepting the OIPFG as the largest Iranian Marxist group, Peykar criticized it for being made up of the petite bourgeoisie rather than the proletariat.

[6] Due to preaching secular opposition to the ruling clergy, Peykar became a principal target of suppression by the Iranian government.

[48] On 14 April 1982, Peykar assailants attacked Iranian consulate in Geneva, damaged the property and took 6 people inside as hostages.

[49] The crackdown of Peykar led many members of the group flee the country, while those who remained inside Iran were imprisoned or executed.

[36] Other leading members of the group included Torab Haghsehnas, Pouran Bazargan, Mohsen Fazel, Qassem Abedini, Ebrahim Nazari and Morteza Aladpoush.

[36] According to Maziar Behrooz, the group was "staunchly Stalinist–Maoist from its inception" and their understanding of Marxism was "at best, infantile, superficial and shallow" in comparison to the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas.

It stated that "in honest efforts to resolve the most basic problems of the revolution, we arrived at the truth of Marxism-Leninism", adding that "In spite of all the innovations that our Organization introduced to religious thought and in spite of all the efforts it made to revive and revitalize its [i.e., Islam's] historical content and upgrade its archaic principles and methods to the latest scientific contributions [to the study] of society".

If you examine carefully the Koran and the other Islamic texts, you will see that they are somewhat ambiguous on this issue and recommend resistance only in dire situations; i.e. when one has actually been physically expelled from one's town or territory...