Ol’ Beady eyes has never been a particular fan of the Jewish State.
It’s too bad, it looks like he’s eligible for residency:
A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.
A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.
The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.
The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad’s birthplace, and the name derives from “weaver of the Sabour”, the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran’s Ministry of the Interior.
Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad’s track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.
It’s a strange world.
Chilling innit, that the Iranian MOI has a compiled list of reserved names for Iranian Jewry?
Funny, he doesn’t look Jewish.
I suspected something like that, the most vehement anti-semites have always been the ones with the deep buried Jewish roots…
How quaint, a head of state showing the public his actual original credentials. That must be one open society over there!!
BT: Jimmy T Sends.
J’yoo too, Ahmadinejad?
Oooooooooo! I assume you’ve been close friends with Mr. Babancourt this afternoon. That would the only acceptable excuse for a pun that bad.
Unless you are guest starring on the Muppet Show.
Under Israel’s Law of Return, Jews who convert to another religion are not eligible for citizenship.
Of course they have lists. Not chilling, not even surprising. If they can get a nuke, I expect they will use it on Israel. Rationality and self interest be damned, this is religious fervor.
It isn’t 1937 we really need to look at though, it’s 1914. We have a little simmering war in a couple of places and everyone’s choosing up sides. It’s a big war looking for it’s Archduke Ferdinand. We continue to downplay the threats to our future peril.
There are a number of places one can go to find claims that ol’ Mean Mister Mustache was part-Jewish himself. These claims, along with this one, throw me for a real loop.
Judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity or race or other method of classifying our genetics. Thus, even if Hitler’s mother was Jewish or Ahmadinejad’s grandparents were named Sabourjian, in my mind that has as little bearing on present-day circumstances as my ancestors sacking the Monastery and Library of Lindisfarne in Britain back in 793 does on my view of England, or how my Lutheran tendencies affects my behavior towards my Catholic neighbors, or even that my family name was once changed upon entering the United States some generations ago.
I fear this is a difference that cannot be overcome. Where I see individuals, others see historical family ties, faith, and grievances that render individualism immaterial.
There is an old saying about not allowing my son to suffer the sins of his fathers, but is that not exactly what this sort of thought requires?
Upon reflection I don’t think I could hate Ahmadinejad for anything his ancestors did, or for that matter what form of worship they preferred to their God. He has so many personal reasons to be disliked, why waste them on appeals to history?
– Max
Ahmadinejad = Persian for “Hitler”. Based on IAEA’s latest report, tagged with Israel’s revelation of a list of Russians helping the Iranians, I tned to agree with ASM – this is a war just looking for a match.