Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have Jewish roots

A Daily Telegraph investigation suggests the idea that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots because the name Saroujian appears on his identification card. Saroujian is often regarded as a Jewish name.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn't think the Holocaust ever happened but the Iranian leader may have a Jewish past, according to a report by the Daily Telegraph. During the March 2008 elections, Ahmadinejad waved his identification records for the general public to see and after a close-up inspection an observer can notice the name Sabourjian, which means a cloth weaver in Hebrew. A note on the card suggests his family changed their name to Ahmadinejad after they converted to Islam. The name is even on a list of Iranian Jews, which was compiled by the country’s Ministry of the Interior. The Iranian President never denied that his name was changed; however, he never confirmed what it was changed from or the reasoning behind the change. Relatives have said that it was due to religious and economic reasons that forced Ahmad, his blacksmith father, to modify the name. Ali Nourizadeh, of the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies, told the Daily Telegraph, “This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him. Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith. By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.” An Internet blogger, Mehdi Khazali, called for an investigation into the President’s background but he was later arrested last summer. In the Presidential debates, he was accused of changing his name, which the incumbent concurred but did not go any further. Haaretz, a Jewish newspaper in Israel, suggests Ahmadinejad’s resentment towards Jews is a front to hide his background