Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Jewish?

[dac]

Interesting, to say the least. How far back is the connection, if there really is one?

Article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6256173/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-revealed-to-have-Jewish-past.html)

What implications would this have in the region?




Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past

By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat
Published: 7:30AM BST 03 Oct 2009

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.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: "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."

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that "jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

"He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had," said the Iranian-born Jew living in London. "Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran."

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said it would not be drawn on Mr Ahmadinejad's background. "It's not something we'd talk about," said Ron Gidor, a spokesman.

The Iranian leader has not denied his name was changed when his family moved to Tehran in the 1950s. But he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.

Relatives have previously said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four.

The Iranian president grew up to be a qualified engineer with a doctorate in traffic management. He served in the Revolutionary Guards militia before going on to make his name in hardline politics in the capital.

During this year's presidential debate on television he was goaded to admit that his name had changed but he ignored the jibe.

However Mehdi Khazali, an internet blogger, who called for an investigation of Mr Ahmadinejad's roots was arrested this summer.

Mr Ahmadinejad has regularly levelled bitter criticism at Israel, questioned its right to exist and denied the Holocaust. British diplomats walked out of a UN meeting last month after the Iranian president denounced Israel's 'genocide, barbarism and racism.'

Benjamin Netanyahu made an impassioned denunciation of the Iranian leader at the same UN summit. "Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium," he said. "A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of six million Jews while promising to wipe out the State of Israel, the State of the Jews. What a disgrace. What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations."

Mr Ahmadinejad has been consistently outspoken about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the Jewish race. "They have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets," he declared at a conference on the holocaust staged in Tehran in 2006.

[The Reaper]

Hmm.

Short, intense, charismatic man, seeking leadership role and possible global domination, targets Jewish people for his anger, prone to verbal exaggerations and fiery rhetoric, of possible Jewish background.

Could he be compared to....?

Naaah, too easy.

TR

[The antihero]

This is a rumor that has been going around for a few years already. Heaven knows how it was started and by whom.

[HOLLiS]

A little humor on the topic;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWjcHryH8zo&fmt=18

[Richard]

'On Rumors'
Cass Sunstein

Reviewed by David Walton, The Dallas Morning News, 4 Oct 2009

Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein's succinct and cogent little book On Rumors proves to be both timely and prophetic. Written before the current debate on health care reform, it throws light on the way public perceptions of the proposed reforms have become tainted with misunderstanding, misinformation and outright lies. It also shows how public debate has become increasingly polarized and vehement.

Sunstein writes for the general reader, and this is the kind of book you wish everyone would read. In plain, simple prose, Sunstein sets out two goals: to explain why we accept rumors, even false, destructive and bizarre ones, and to offer ways we can protect ourselves against false rumors in the rapid-fire era of Internet dissemination.

We believe a rumor, not too surprisingly, because we are predisposed to believe it. "The false rumor that Governor Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a nation rather than a continent gave her critics pleasure. Those who disapproved of her undoubtedly enjoyed believing that she had made such an absurd blunder."

On a similar note, a World War II rumor that soldiers over 35 were about to be discharged was spread exclusively among soldiers over 35.

Less predictably, it turns out that attempts to counter a rumor with fact or logic are often counterproductive, serving to entrench the rumor and make those who believe it more passionate and intractable.

"Even more troublesome," says Sunstein, "is the finding that the correction of false perceptions can increase our commitments to those perceptions. ... This phenomenon comes with an unlovely label: biased assimilation."

The traditional belief has been that any regulation of free speech must inevitably have a chilling effect on necessary dissent: "If they fear lawsuits, whistleblowers, experts, journalists, and bloggers might keep their judgments and opinions to themselves," Sunstein says.

Sunstein, however, argues for a judicious application of that chilling effect to Internet postings. He proposes three "modest ideas": a general right to demand retraction if a statement is both false and damaging, a right to "notice and take down" and a cap on damages awarded.

Based on legal history and precedent, Sunstein's arguments are compelling and persuasive.

"We hardly need to imagine a world," he writes, "in which people and institutions are being harmed by the rapid spread of damaging falsehoods via the Internet. We live in that world."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_rumors_1004gd.ART.State.Edition1.4bb16a2.html

[The antihero]

'On Rumors'
Cass Sunstein

Reviewed by David Walton, The Dallas Morning News, 4 Oct 2009

Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein's succinct and cogent little book On Rumors proves to be both timely and prophetic. Written before the current debate on health care reform, it throws light on the way public perceptions of the proposed reforms have become tainted with misunderstanding, misinformation and outright lies. It also shows how public debate has become increasingly polarized and vehement.

Sunstein writes for the general reader, and this is the kind of book you wish everyone would read. In plain, simple prose, Sunstein sets out two goals: to explain why we accept rumors, even false, destructive and bizarre ones, and to offer ways we can protect ourselves against false rumors in the rapid-fire era of Internet dissemination.

We believe a rumor, not too surprisingly, because we are predisposed to believe it. "The false rumor that Governor Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a nation rather than a continent gave her critics pleasure. Those who disapproved of her undoubtedly enjoyed believing that she had made such an absurd blunder."

On a similar note, a World War II rumor that soldiers over 35 were about to be discharged was spread exclusively among soldiers over 35.

Less predictably, it turns out that attempts to counter a rumor with fact or logic are often counterproductive, serving to entrench the rumor and make those who believe it more passionate and intractable.

"Even more troublesome," says Sunstein, "is the finding that the correction of false perceptions can increase our commitments to those perceptions. ... This phenomenon comes with an unlovely label: biased assimilation."

The traditional belief has been that any regulation of free speech must inevitably have a chilling effect on necessary dissent: "If they fear lawsuits, whistleblowers, experts, journalists, and bloggers might keep their judgments and opinions to themselves," Sunstein says.

Sunstein, however, argues for a judicious application of that chilling effect to Internet postings. He proposes three "modest ideas": a general right to demand retraction if a statement is both false and damaging, a right to "notice and take down" and a cap on damages awarded.

Based on legal history and precedent, Sunstein's arguments are compelling and persuasive.

"We hardly need to imagine a world," he writes, "in which people and institutions are being harmed by the rapid spread of damaging falsehoods via the Internet. We live in that world."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_rumors_1004gd.ART.State.Edition1.4bb16a2.html

I agree with the arcticle. In a nutshell pretty much what I think myself on the subject. Looks like an interesting book too. Thank you Sir.

[Red Flag 1]

Hmm.

Short, intense, charismatic man, seeking leadership role and possible global domination, targets Jewish people for his anger, prone to verbal exaggerations and fiery rhetoric, of possible Jewish background.

Could he be compared to....?

Naaah, too easy.

TR


My first thought.

RF 1

[Paslode]

Hmm.

Short, intense, charismatic man, seeking leadership role and possible global domination, targets Jewish people for his anger, prone to verbal exaggerations and fiery rhetoric, of possible Jewish background.

Could he be compared to....?

Naaah, too easy.

TR


Wasn't it 1933 the last time someone like that entered power?

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

Wasn't it 1933 the last time someone like that entered power?
I believe the last time was 8 months ago...:eek:

[Richard]

A humble beginning helped to form Iran's new hard man
Robert Tait in Aradan, Guardian, 2 Jul 2005

<snip>

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.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/02/iran.roberttait

And so it goes...;)

Richard