Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a self-loathing Jew?

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a self-loathing Jew?

Posted on October 5th, 2009 by Daniel Kalder

Over the weekend the Daily Telegraph published a very amusing story about Mahmoud ‘there are no gays in Iran’ Ahmadinejad. According to the paper:

“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.”

Ah, the ironies. So the world’s most notorious anti-Semite is himself a member of the tribe? Suddenly all that frothing Jew-hatred and holocaust denial appears in a new context: beady- eyed Li’l Mahmoud, consumed with self-loathing and fear of discovery, is straining extra-hard to make himself acceptable to his masters in the country’s religious-political hierarchy! Perhaps this is why he locks himself away from time to time in his presidential office to commune with the Mahdi— to plead: Oh Imam, don’t let me be found out!

Blogging in the Telegraph the day the story broke, Damian Thompson combined gloating with speculation:

“I mean, think about it: this venomous anti-Semite and Holocaust denier will never be able to play the anti-Israel card again without members of his audience sniggering. “How can you attack your own cousins?” they’ll ask. And as for Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic political enemies, both in Iran and the Arab world, I can tell you exactly how they will refer to him in future:

THE JEW AHMADINEJAD.”

I expected this to blow up all over the US media at the weekend but nothing much happened. A post here and there and that’s it. Today however the Guardian trotted out its own roster of experts to dispute the report. If they are to be believed then Ahmadinejad is descended from a family of ‘proud Shias’, while the name Sabourjian indicates not Jewishness but rather lowly origin, which became an embarrassment when the family moved to Tehran. The Guardian explains:

“Their surname was related to carpet-making, an industry that conjures up images of sweatshops. They changed it to Ahmadinejad in order to help them fit in. The new name was also chosen because it means from the race of Ahmad, one of the names given to Muhammad.”

Thus Ahmadinejad’s father changed his name mainly for class reasons.

So whose experts to believe: the Telegraph’s or the Guardian’s? In fact, a little sniffing around reveals that the claim has been knocking around for a while. Regardless of its truth or falsehood, we can rest assured that it will now attain a healthy life online, possibly fusing with such lunacy as the 9/11 Truth movement. Actually, how about this: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Manchurian candidate for Israel, vomiting out his Jew-hatred at every opportunity to give Netanyahu a pretext for bombing Iran. There, see how easy that was? Nutjobs are going to have a field day with this.

Ultimately however it makes little difference. Whether he is a self-loathing Jew or a pureblood Persian prince descended from Cyrus the Great (himself a friend to the Jews), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains a monumental wanker on a cosmic scale.

In the words of that great Jew Stanley Lieber – ‘Nuff said.

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Daniel Kalder

Daniel Kalder is an author and journalist originally from Scotland, who currently resides in Texas after a ten year stint in the former USSR. Visit him online at www.danielkalder.com