{"id":333986,"date":"2025-07-09T10:06:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T09:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=333986"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:34:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T13:34:32","slug":"shadowboxing-with-reality-michael-rubins-schoolyard-polemics-against-the-mek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/demonization-articles-analyses\/shadowboxing-with-reality-michael-rubins-schoolyard-polemics-against-the-mek\/","title":{"rendered":"Ali Safavi: Michael Rubin\u2019s MEK Critique Reveals More About Him Than Iran’s Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael
Michael Rubin’s articles and interviews featured prominently in multiple Iranian state-run newspapers, echoing the regime\u2019s propaganda narratives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a sharply worded rebuttal, Ali Safavi dismantles Michael Rubin\u2019s long-running campaign against Iran\u2019s main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK\/PMOI). Safavi argues that Rubin\u2019s obsessive attacks expose not MEK\u2019s supposed flaws, but rather his own ideological biases and reliance on regime disinformation.<\/p>\n

Responding to Rubin\u2019s claims that the MEK is irrelevant or a cult, Safavi points to the group\u2019s documented support: visits from global dignitaries to Ashraf-3 in Albania, endorsements from lawmakers in 41 countries, and the Iranian regime\u2019s own repressive measures that specifically target MEK members. He notes that Rubin recycles his own claims and sources, often citing Revolutionary Guard archives or regime-linked narratives.<\/p>\n

Safavi defends MEK\u2019s nuclear revelations and dismisses a widely debunked claim Rubin promotes involving a supposed defector. He contrasts Rubin\u2019s work with that of credible nuclear experts and challenges Rubin\u2019s moral authority, pointing to his own ties to disinformation operations in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The article concludes that Rubin\u2019s narratives align with Tehran\u2019s propaganda and serve to distract from the MEK\u2019s real role in opposing Iran\u2019s clerical dictatorship.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Ali Safavi’s Substack<\/a>. Below is a republication of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shadowboxing with Reality: Michael Rubin\u2019s Schoolyard Polemics Against the MEK<\/h1>\n

For more than four decades, the Iranian people\u2019s struggle for freedom has played out not just in the streets, but also in the contested arena of international discourse. As Tehran\u2019s rulers confront a deepening crisis of legitimacy, their defenders and enablers in the West increasingly resort to distortion, invective, distraction, and outright lies. Nowhere is this clearer than in a disingenuous campaign of vilification by Michael Rubin, whose pernicious attacks on the principal Iranian opposition,\u00a0Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI\/MEK)<\/a>, say far more about his own obsessions than about the realities of Iran\u2019s democratic resistance.<\/p>\n

If MEK were truly \u201cirrelevant,\u201d as Michael Rubin ridiculously claims, his keyboard would have fallen silent long ago. Instead, like Ahab chasing Moby Dick, this week he\u2019s churned out not one, but two 1,000-word jeremiads in less than 24 hours (one wonders if the AEI top brass is actually underwriting this drivel)\u2014proof positive that the only thing shrinking faster than Tehran\u2019s legitimacy is Rubin\u2019s thesaurus. Not that I\u2019m ungrateful; his latest tirades\u2014the 22nd and 23rd so far, each as pathetic as the last\u2014have certainly helped me sharpen my writing skills and enrich my vocabulary.<\/p>\n

His latest claim that the MEK is destined for \u201coblivion\u201d collapses under the weight of simple arithmetic: a movement with\u00a0over 100,000<\/a>\u00a0of its members and supporters (including my older brother) having been executed, many from different generations, currently in prison enduring torture, and\u00a0some awaiting execution<\/a>; a movement that is the prime target of the regime\u2019s\u00a0suppression<\/a>,\u00a0terrorism<\/a>, and\u00a0disinformation<\/a>\u00a0campaigns; and a movement capable of\u00a0attracting delegations<\/a>\u00a0from 47 countries to\u00a0Ashraf-3<\/a>, Albania\u2019s \u201cbastion of freedom,\u201d as well as the endorsement of\u00a04,000 lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0from 41 countries\u2014including 34 majority legislatures, among them\u00a0227 bipartisan members<\/a>\u00a0of Congress\u2014130 former world leaders, and 80 Nobel Laureates, for its Ten-point Plan for a democratic, secular, non-nuclear republic in Iran, commands far more real-world traction than a self-proclaimed think-tank fellow recycling his own blog posts as footnotes.<\/p>\n

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My latest commentary: "Grasping at Straws" https:\/\/t.co\/F9fMxJPi2C<\/a> #IranRevolution2023<\/a> #No2ShahNo2Mullahs<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KYhBlHDr0c<\/a><\/p>\n

— Ali Safavi (@amsafavi) April 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n