Muslim Mojahedin

Muslim Mojahedin (or Islamic Mojahedin) were a faction within the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) that refused to abandon Islam in 1975 and accused the rival Marxist faction of orchestrating a "coup d'état" in the group. They were subsequently involved in an intragroup conflict with the former which tried to purge the group in order to make it purely Marxist.
By 1979, the remnants of this faction became the sole claimants of the MEK's name as a result of the rival Marxists leaving to create offshoots such as Peykar and Worker's Way.
History
After the schism, the faction continued activity and used different aliases nationwide. The cell active in Isfahan, which adopted the label Goruh-e Mahdaviyan (), not only distributed pamphlets but also attacked police stations several times and in one occasion lost two members. In Hamadan, the cell committed bank robbery and assassinated four SAVAK agents going by the name Goruh-e Shi'iyan-e Rastin ().
Membership
The leading figure in the faction was Majid Sharif-Vaghefi, one of the three Central Cadre members, and his right-hand man was Morteza Samadieh-Labaf. Following arrest of Vahid Afrakhteh and his subsequent collaboration with SAVAK, many members of the Muslim faction weere identified and arrested. Among them were Abdorreza Moniri-Javid, Morteza Labbafinejad and Mehdi Ghayuran.
The Muslim faction claimed that only 20% of the members had sided with the rival faction. According to Maziar Behrooz, many prominent members had become Marxists and "it seems that the Marxist Mojahedin managed to gain control of bulk of the organization".
Legacy
Amidst the Iranian Revolution, while the Marxist faction ceased claiming the MEK and created new offshoot organizations, the MEK soon turned out under firm control of Massoud Rajavi and members of his commune in Qasr Prison. Senior members in the group included figures such as Mousa Khiabani, Mohammad-Reza Saadati, Mehdi Abrishamchi, Ali Zarkesh and Abbas Davari. After release in 1979, Rajavi's entourage initially named themselves the 'National Movement of Mojahedin' (Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Mojahedin) but in less than a year, they started to claim the original MEK and its name.
In 1976-77, a group of the Muslim faction who were also imprisoned at the time but did not side with Rajavi and began using the title People's Mojahedin Movement of Iran (Nehzat-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran). This group was led by Lotfollah Meisami and Mehdi Qani was among its prominent members. According to Ervand Abrahamian, Rajavi's group denounced Meisami's group as "revisionists" and "right-wing deviators" who "under the cover of 'pragmatism', were scheming to transform the organization into an 'apolitical discussion group' tied to the arch-conservative clerics". Many members of the Khomeinist group the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization which was founded in 1979, had some prior relationship with the MEK but were staunchly hostile to the MEK led by Rajavi. They subsequently used the term 'Mojahed' to challenge the MEK's "near trademark" association with the word.<ref name="Ostovar"/>

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