An Analysis of the Antagonistic Confrontation between the People’s Mojahedin Organization and the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the alliance among the revolutionary discourses broke apart. The producers of the political-jurisprudential discourse within the state and the revolutionary Islam of the People’s Mojahedin Organization, each defined the basis and the goal of the revolution differently, and considered themselves the leader of the revolution and the other as an obstacle in the way of the achievement of its goals. These stances inevitably pitched them against each other. With the intensification of this confrontation, violence intensified as well. The antagonistic confrontation between the political forces and the government inflicted huge damages on the Iranian revolution that was in its early stages. The question of the present research is as follows: What were the reasons for the antagonistic confrontation between the government and People’s Mojahedin Organization? In order to answer this question, Laclau and Mouffe’s theory and method of discourse analysis have been employed. The findings of the research show that each of the discourses of jurisprudential-political Islam and the revolutionary Islam of the Mujahedin considered the "other" as an “alien” and "enemy" of the revolution and sought to reject and eliminate it. Thus, an armed conflict broke out between the two enemies.

Keywords

• antagonism
• armed conflict
• jurisprudential-political islam
• discourse
• people’s mojahedin organization