Rajavi said: “The spasms of violence in Orlando, Istanbul, Bangladesh and, most recently, Saudi Arabia, are the deliberate outcomes of a frightening and aggressive world outlook that offers a twisted image of Islam. Its foot soldiers strip Quranic verses and the traditions of the Prophet of all context in a vain–and illegitimate–attempt to justify murder, conquest and subjugation.”

She cites the Quran texts which implore people to remove their neighbour’s chains, love one another and considers all human beings part of the same family.

She said: “What is essential in relations among human beings is not retribution, tyranny and exploitation, but freedom, compassion and unity. Sadly, oppressive rulers and forces have interpreted Quranic verses over time in accordance with the most reactionary schools of thought. In the course of this conflict, two diametrically opposed versions of Islam have emerged. One is based on tyranny. The other is based on freedom.”

She said that the mullah’s regime in Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Boko Haram and Daesh all espouse the same oppressive interpretation of Islam, corrupting the term Jihad for their own brutal means.

Rajavi said: “The meaning of Jihad in the Quran is to rise up against injustice, something that has even been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Quran gives permission for jihad only to those who face injustices, are being murdered or forcibly exiled from their country. Ironically, Muslims who oppose the rule of clerics or caliphs, as well as non-Muslims who refuse to surrender to them, are the primary targets of this falsely labelled jihad.”

She criticises the Regime’s unequal treatment of women; depriving them of their rights, barring them from leadership and promoting violence against them despite Islam’s role in the liberty and freedom of women.

These brutal groups attempt to discredit and malign humanitarian principles in a battle for ultimate power. She cites that before he became the leader of Iran, Khomeini wrote in his book, The Islamic State, that mass killings were permissible to maintain the state and to uproot corrupt races.

Rajavi said: “It brings me deep sorrow that extremists of all stripes portray themselves as defenders of Islamic and moral standards. In order to implement unjustified violence, which they falsely describe as “Islamic punishments,” they have amputated limbs, gouged out eyes and stoned women to death with indescribable barbarity. No one has trampled upon Islamic law more than this bunch.” 

The true followers of Islam are those standing up against these lies; like the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the main component of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who have worked hard for over 50 years to promote freedom, justice, equality and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and other matters.

She called for Muslims across the world to come together at the end of Ramadan to reject religious conflicts and work to expose the real enemies of world peace.

She said: “We must declare that the struggle is not between Shiites and Sunnis, or Muslims and Christians, or the people and culture of the Middle East against the people and culture of the West. Rather, the main struggle is between tyranny and extremism on the one hand, and democracy and freedom on the other.”