In Chase and Escape (3)

Rereading the book "Consistent with Freedom", the Memories of Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Jafari in five episodes

Motahari-Shariati Fallout; Mojahedin Filth
Episode III: Freedom from the Prison

Serge Barseghian: In 1967, Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Jafari was freed from Ghasr Prison and stayed in Tehran. He then contacted the Mojahedin Kahlgh Organization April next year through Torab (Morteza) Haghshenas. Albeit the organization was then known as the Liberation Organization and conceivably Ayatollah Taleghani endorsed it as Iran's Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MEK) among a number of proposed titles. Nonetheless, after his release, Jafari was in close contact with Taleghani and wrote in his book, Abreast with Freedom, that: Right from his release, he (Ayatollah Taleghani) was approached by heads of the organization (Mojahedin Khalgh), seemingly via Hanifnejad, to be informed about its formation and become an organizational member of the body." Jafari's second memoir, Abreast with Freedom, is an account on the formation and developments of the organization during its early years and its allegory. Jafari was never an official MEK member but had a part in its organizational activities; in the beginning, Reza Raeisi Tousi had proposed Jafari to translate Arabic books and pamphlets into Persian which included books like the Strategic Policies of Alfath Organization, Revolution in Revolution by Reze Debreh, History of Aljazireh and Gamal Abdolnaser, and the Land of Fire and Blood. The significance of Jafari's narration of the MEK events is that it brings interviews and quotations of personages like Ayatollah Taleghani, Martyr Motahari, Bazargan on MEK formation. Mohammad Ali Rajaei was the last person who linked Jafari with the organization; however, Rajaei's capture and the organization's adverse ideological swing in 1976 axed the link. Jafari had heard from Ma'adikhah that religious detainees had boycotted MEK members in the prison which stirred up his (Jafari's) curiosity to ask Taleghani about the issue: "Of what Ayatollah Taleghani said it could be construed that Marxists in Iran have always stabbed us in the back; therefore, a betrayer Marxist whose job is nothing but daggering in the back and betraying is dirty in nature and cannot be associated with. It must not even be touched."

The book makes exciting accounts of Motahari's views on MEK, Shariati and Taleghani. According to Jafari, in the mid-1970s, some of his comrades had a feeling that Mr. Motahari was a member of the Royal Philosophy Community. "I asked him about the veracity of the fantasy."No, there is no way I am a member of that community," said Motahari. "I am a friend and colleague of Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr and am very close to him. They bring me their journals and I even write them articles sometimes, but no way am I a member of the community. I myself shun membership in a community on shah's name." In 1974, Motahari took advantage of his relationship with Nasr --Farah Diba's office manager— in a futile endeavor to prevent the closure of Enteshar Company. Jafari has quoted Dr Nasr as saying to Mr. Motahari that "Farah says she had heard that the company provides mental food for guerillas." Jafari also recalls Motahari's dispute with Shariati; Haj Ahmad Sadegh (father of martyr Naser Sadegh) was one of the Hedayat Mosque custodians. He has told Jafari that once Motahari was asked about his role in the then-ongoing intellectual current and the inclination for religion among the youth, in comparison with Dr. Shariati's; "Both I and Dr. Shariati are followers of the current," replied Motahari. "Ayatollah Taleghani and Mr. Bazargan are the forerunners of this religious-intellectual current. We both adhere to them." however, when the dispute erupted between Motahari and Shariati, Taleghani took Shariati's side and Bazargan stood by Motahari. This is why one day in the School of Theology Motahari told Jafari that "Honestly, Bazargan's fairness outweighs that Ayatollah Taleghani's."

Translated by: Abbas Hajihashemi

Source: Mehrnameh Monthly, No. 5