Ahmadinejad secretly Jewish....oi vey!! LOL!

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. - The Telegraph, Oct 3 2009

Not so, says Iranian-born Israeli Middle East analyst Meir Javedanfar: "As someone who wrote his biography, I can tell you that this claim is inaccurate and would be happy to go on the record to say so. Saborjiyan are people who paint carpet threads. Also, in Iran many Muslims and Jews share the same surname." Psy-ops? - Politico.com Oct 3 2009

Professor David Yeroshalmi, author of The Jews of Iran in the 19th century and an expert on Iranian Jewish communities, disputes the validity of this argument. "There is no such meaning for the word 'sabour' in any of the Persian Jewish dialects, nor does it mean Jewish prayer shawl in Persian. Also, the name Sabourjian is not a well-known Jewish name," he stated in a recent interview. - Guardian Oct 5 2009

The name Saborjhian derives from thread painter -- sabor in Farsi -- a once common and humble occupation in the carpet industry in Semnan Province, where Aradan is situated. - The Guardian, Saturday 2 July 2005

Ahmadinejdad: 'Some people think if they accuse me of being anti-Jew they can solve the problem. No, I am not anti-Jew,' he said. 'I respect them very much.'   - BBC News, 21 Sep 2006 

As if the Telegraph wasn't already a joke having repeately promoted total bullshit about Iran's nuclear program that the IAEA has debunked, and being the home of (Neo-)Con Coughlin, today they fell to new lows with a story claiming essenially that Ahmadinejad is secretly a self-hating Jew which of course is more of the "Ahmadinejad-is-Hitler" theme promoted by the pro-Israeli Right which the Telegraph represents. (It is widely claimed that Hitler had Jewish ancestors, and this was the cause of his antipathy towards Jews.) 

The really funny part of the claim in the Telegraph is that "-jian" is a name suffix that is exclusively preserved for Jews. I wonder if someone explained that to former California governor George Deukmajian, who is of Armenian extraction, along with all the other Armenians who ahve lived in Iran for centuries with -jian last names.

I have to wonder why the Telegraph decided that today was a good time to promote this claim about Ahmadinejad secretly being a Jew when the whole story goes back about a  year ago when one of his detractor's sons posted it onto his blog (posted, incidentally, as a way of discrediting AN. See? You people who are promoting this lie are relying on the word of someone who thinks being Jewish is a taint.) Perhaps the Telegraph wants to undermine Ahmadinejad's appeal to the anti-Zionist elements and the Arab street? I can't help but notice that Mohammad Mossadegh, the Iranian prime minister who was ousted by a CIA-coup in 1953, was similarly accuse of secretly being Jewish (and Bahai, and Communist, and a homosexual.) Supposedly a "close up" of his Iranian identity card "proved" that his name had been changed from Sabourjian -- which is exactly what every biographer has written about his family, and so hardly a secret that requires close-up shots of his identity papers.

But apart from having a chuckle at the rubbish that makes into the news, this would be a good opprotunity to remind all that Ahmadinejad does himself come from a poor, solidly working-class and devout background,  who rose up from that background and got a PhD in a very competitive environment at Tehran University (only a very small percentage of applicants can make it into tehran U) and became the mayor of tehran etc etc, and so it is really no wonder that, much to the chagrin of his detractors, yes, he does have social and political backing of a very substantial portion of Iranians who look up to him, like it or not, as polls have shown -- even though the media in the US like to portray him as some crazy madman.

Here are some facts from a Fasi-speaker about the rubbish written in the Telegraph:

First of all, Iranian Jews have been around longer than there have been Jews in most of Europe. There are really no such things as "Jewish-only" names --Sarah, David, Abraham are all pretty common names in Iran. Moslems believe Judaism and Christinianity to be valid religions and precursors of Islam, and they believe in the divinity of the Torah and the Bible and all the prophets in there. 

 In fact, much of Judaism was deeply affected by Iran and Persian cultures and religions, such as Zoroastrianism (though I've run into some "purists" Jews who are offended by this idea that Judaism, like any other religion, evolved and adopted things from other cultures.) So the idea that somehow Iranians would hate to have Jewish roots is quite funny. Iran isn't racist Germany under Hitler with ideas of "blood purity." 

Ahmadinejad's FATHER changed his family's last name when they migrated from the provinces to Tehran. See, until about 1900, people weren't required to have last names so people were referred to by their profession (Just like in the West -- "Smith", "Porter" etc.) Sabourjian -- the original "last name" of the Ahmadinejad family -- simply means "producer of painted cloths" which is a trade in Iran's vast and ancient carpet weaving industry. The sufix "-jian" is not exclusively reserved for Jews, as the Telegraph article claims. It simlply means "maker" or "producer" (or the son of the maker or producer)

Ahmadinejad's father actually worked as a barber and a grocer in the village of Ardalan. When Ahamadinejad's father moved to the big city of Tehran in pursuit of economic opporunities, he wanted to disassociate himself from his peasant roots, and so he changed his name to Ahmadinejad and started working as an ironmonger. By all accounts, his father was a very devout person and a regular attendant at the mosque in the impovrished Narmak district of south Tehran.

While Ahmadinejad is certainly an opponent of Israel and Zionism, he doesn't particularly "hate Jews" despite the views attributed to him by the far-right pro-Israeli lobbyists who have made monopolization of victim-status and the use of the "Anti-Semite" accusation as their stock-in-trade.

Comments

[Mark]

'Iran isn't racist Germany under Hitler with ideas of "blood purity."'

Well, nothing could be like Germany. But Iranians in the US (and elsewhere) do bristle at anyone who confuses them with Arabs - I've heard more than once: "We are not Arabs. We are white. We are Aryans." So I'm not convinced that "blood purity" is irrelevant.

[When Iranians bristle at being confused with Arabs they talking about ethnic/cultural difference not "racial" or "blood" difference. There is no real conception of "of pure Iranian blood." Iranians recognize full well that Iran is a multiethnic society and has been for millenia. Even the original Persians were a mixed lot. The ones who attach themselves to Aryan-ness are just silly exiles with self-image problems. ( Sort of like the Lebanese who insist they're "Phoenicians".) But even they will conceed that while they may speak an Aryan language, lots of Mongols, Arabs, Greeks and what-have-you slept with their ancestors! The greater point is that no Iranian will be particularly dismayed to discover his ancestors converted to Islam because that was widely the case. There is no stigma attached to that because there's no concept of "polluting pure blood" involved. So Ahmadinejad wouldn't be particularly sensitive to having Jewish/Assyrian/Azeri/Armenian/Arab/Mongol/Kurdish/Lur/Gilaki (all ethnic minorities in Iran, pretty well mixed with Persians) roots, assuming he ever did. But the promoters of this story about him being Jewish think that must be a bad thing amongst Iranians since they're applying conceptions of Nazism to Iran in equating AN with Hitler.]

[Ralph]

Constant Gina: There is no such "Fact" that Ahmadinejad was/is Jewish. And the insistance on trying to misspell/pronounce his name is childish nonsense to be expected of a Rush-Limbaugh "ditto head".

[Constant Gina]

I'm torn. On one hand, I want to adhere to principle, take the high road, and say that the fact that Immadinnerjacket was once Jewish is of no political consequence. It's something for the psychologists to mull over, but otherwise a footnote in the life of this mad man. On the other hand, I'm tempted to play into the idea of a mass Jewish conspiracy and try to convince the Iranian hardliners that he's actually a Jewish sleeper agent, and should be dealt with post haste.

[alex]

I remember a similar news appearing in the pro-Green media during the post-election days.
I know that some Iranians, while not antisemites or racists, have a chauvinistic view of their nationality, and so this might be a way to undermine him as a "non Persian" agent.

[Cyrus Reponds: While it is true that Persian "chauvinism" is very alive and well, they're not particularly sensitive to people's alleged former religions. They're nationalists, not religion-ists. Incidentally, chauvinism is also known as "patriotism" when its your own side doing it!]

[Ray]

Next they will tell us of homosexual relationship between Ahmadinejad and Netanyaho! Actually I am surprised of Telegraph for printing such rubbish, particularly given their thorough and excellent job with the revelation of corruption amongst the members of British parliament. For a while the atmosphere around the Westminster was so intense that some MPs became close to feeling suicidal, even though they bounced back up again. The best revelation was the purchase of £10 worth of TV porn which amazingly found it’s way on Jaqui Smith’s “ home secretary “ expenses list. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5996716.ece#
I can only endorse your description of Mr Ahmadinejad's background, in fact I can honestly say that he has, more than any other top official of Iran, protected Iran's sovereignty with heart and soul, if only people in Iran could see through all the propaganda garbage being fed through by CIA and MI5 funded media broadcasters.

[Pirouz]

Hilarious.

How low will the Western MSM go? It appears ever lower indeed.

Want more craziness? Read this advocacy piece in MESH for an economic war to be waged against Iran:

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2009/09/how-to-beat-irans-pipeline-strategy/

At the end, the author, an ex-IDF officer now US-Zionist think-tanker insinuates that the historical figure Nebuchadnezzar was a Persian!

It's all too much.