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http://www.detiknews.com/read/2009/10/04/093951/1214709/10/ahmadinejad-ternyata-keturunan-yahudi-taat?991101605 Minggu, 04/10/2009 09:39 WIB Terungkap dari Paspor Ahmadinejad Ternyata Keturunan Yahudi Taat Eddi Santosa - detikNews Den Haag - Presiden Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ternyata keturunan Yahudi yang sudah masuk Islam. Nama keluarganya yang asli adalah Sabourjian, nama Yahudi yang artinya 'Penenun Kain'. Asal-usul itu terungkap dari foto hasil jepretan staf kepresidenan saat Ahmadinejad berpose mengangkat paspornya pada pemilu Maret lalu. "Close up dari paspor itu mengungkap dia sebelumnya dikenal sebagai Sabourijan," demikian dikutip detikcom dari The Daily Telegraph edisi Sabtu (3/10/2009). Catatan singkat yang tertera pada paspor itu menunjukkan bahwa keluarga Sabourjian diduga mengubah namanya menjadi Ahmadinejad ketika mereka memeluk Islam setelah kelahiran Mahmoud, kini presiden. Sabourjian secara tradisi adalah nama keluarga Yahudi dari sekitar Aradan, tempat kelahiran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sebelah tenggara ibukota Teheran. Nama ini berasal dari frasa "Penenun dari Sabour", merujuk pada syal atau selendang Yahudi Tallit di Persia. Nama Sabourjian juga terdapat dalam daftar nama yang dilestarikan, dikompilasi oleh Departemen Dalam Negeri Iran. Seorang ahli mengenai Yahudi Iran mengatakan di London bahwa akhiran 'jian' pada nama itu secara khusus menunjukkan bahwa keluarga orangtua Mahmoud dahulu adalah Yahudi taat. "Dia mengubah namanya atas alasan-alasan agama. Sabourjian adalah nama Yahudi yang terkenal di Iran," ujar ahli, yang juga Yahudi kelahiran Iran dan menetap di London. Jurubicara kedubes Israel Ron Gidor di London mengatakan bahwa hal itu tidak bisa dikaitkan dengan latarbelakang Ahmadinejad. "Itu bukan sesuatu yang perlu kita bicarakan," ujar Gidor. "Aspek latarbelakang Ahmadinejad ini menjelaskan banyak hal tentang dia. Setiap keluarga yang beralih ke keyakinan lain mengambil identitas baru dengan mengecam keyakinan lamanya," kata Ali Nourizadeh dari Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, merujuk sikap tegas Ahmadinejad terhadap Israel. Sebelumnya harian Trouw di Belanda juga mengungkap eksistensi orang-orang Yahudi di negara-negara Timur Tengah. Mereka mendapat perlindungan berabad-abad, dengan puncaknya saat perburuan dan pengusiran Yahudi dari Spanyol. Di Maroko bahkan orang-orang Yahudi menjadi penasehat kerajaan hingga sekarang dan warga Yahudi biasa hidup damai bertetangga dengan umat Islam. Keadaan menjadi serba salah dan meruncing mulai tahun 1948 setelah gerakan Zionisme memproklamirkan negara Israel di Palestina. Kaum Yahudi Ortodoks tidak mengakui negara Israel yang dicetuskan kaum Zionis ini. (es/es) ++++ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129649 Published: 01/28/09, 10:54 AM Charge: Ahmadinejad Rants to Hide His Jewish Roots by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) The son of a leading Iranian authority accuses the Iranian President of changing his Jewish name. Several Iranian media sources are quoting Mahdi Khazali - the son of a leading supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - as having written in a blog that the president has Jewish roots. So reports the Hebrew-language Omedia website and Radio Free Europe. Khazali, son of Ayatollah Abu Al-Kassam Khazali, says that Ahmadinejad changed his Jewish name on his ID card in order to hide his roots. Khazali the son says that the president hides his Jewish roots by attacking Israel and the Jews, and by expressing strong Muslim religious beliefs. A record of the name change still appears on the president's ID card, however, says Khazali. His old name was Saburjian, and he hails from the Aradan region of Iran. The accusations appear in an article Khazali wrote entitled, "The Jews in Iran." He says the time has come to "reveal the truth" about the Jews' role in Iran. Ahmadinejad's relatives once told the British paper "The Guardian" that the family had changed its name for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons." Ahmadinejad will be running for re-election five months from now. ++++ http://www.rferl.org/articleprintview/1375318.html January 27, 2009 Ahmadinejad's 'Jewish Family' Mehdi Khazali, the son of the conservative Ayatollah Khazali, has written on his personal website that he recently learned that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots. Khazali notes that Ahmadinejad changed his family name from Saburjian, and says that the origins of the Saburjian family in the town of Aradan should be investigated. Ahmadinejad's relatives had told Britain's "The Guardian" following his election that the family had changed its name for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons." "The name change provides an insight into the devoutly Islamic working-class roots of Mr. Ahmadinejad's brand of populist politics," journalist Robert Tait wrote in "The Guardian." "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. Ahmad, by contrast, is a name also used for the Prophet Muhammad and means virtuous; nejad means race in Farsi, so Ahmadinejad can mean Muhammad's race or virtuous race." Ahmadinejad, of course, is known for his frequent slurs and threats against the Jewish state of Israel. The claim about his background should be seen in the context of a growing rift among the president's political allies, the so-called principlists, in the run-up to the June presidential election. -- Golnaz Esfandiari comments +++++ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/02/iran.roberttait A humble beginning helped to form Iran's new hard man Ahmadinejad has tasted the poverty he wants to eradicate a.. Robert Tait in Aradan b.. The Guardian, Saturday 2 July 2005 00.21 BST c.. Article history The early childhood home of young Mahmoud Saborjhian sits derelict and uninhabitable; the garden in which he once toddled is overgrown with weeds and used for roosting chickens. The well where his parents used to store the drinking water they collected from local channels is dry, long-since rendered obsolete by the economic progress that delivered running water to a parched region. It is a scene redolent of Iran's past. But for Iranians, these humble surroundings - in the town of Aradan, about 80 miles south-east of Tehran and directly on the path of the ancient Silk route - have acquired a contemporary significance. This is where the country's newly elected president, better known as Mahmoud hmadinejad,was born, the fourth of seven children. The Saborjhian family rented the two-storey house before leaving their impoverished environment in the late 1950s in search of prosperity in Tehran. Mr Ahmadinejad was little more than one year old when they went to the city. It was a move that coincided with changing the family name, a step taken for a mixture of religious and economic reasons, relatives say. The name change provides an insight into the devoutly Islamic working-class roots of Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of populist politics. 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. Ahmad, by contrast, is a name also used for the prophet Muhammad and means virtuous; nejad means race in Farsi, so Ahmadinejad can mean Muhammad's race or virtuous race. "Moving from a village to big cities was so common and widespread at that time that perhaps people, not wanting to show their roots, would change their names," said Mehdi Shahhosseini, 31, son of one of Mr Ahmadinejad's cousins, still living in Aradan. "Some people were more religious and chose names to reflect that. " If the concealment of the family's origins has diminished local pride in Mr Ahmadinejad, it does not show. This week, residents of Aradan - a town of 7,000 people sitting in the shadow of the Alborz mountains - had a a street festival to celebrate his landslide victory in last week's presidential election. It was an occasion born of surprise as much as joy. "We never expected him to be president," Mr Shahhosseini said. "We could see he was mproving and making progress but we thought he would stay in his area of expertise [the Islamist mayor of Tehran has a PhD in traffic management and engineering]." About 98% of local voters are believed to have backed Mr Ahmadinejad in the run-off contest against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president. Mr Ahmadinejad, 49 - who will takeoffice next month - still makes visits his birthplace to pay respect to the memory of a late uncle buried in the local cemetery. He keeps in close contact with cousins, who visit him in Tehran. Relatives say his professed concern for the poor and Iran's growing wealth gap stems from his familiarity with the local area, which has a fragile economy based on sheep and cattle farming. "He has tasted poverty himself. He and his family have had a lot of problems," said Mehran Mohseni, 32, the son of another cousin. "The family was not poor but they were living very simple lives. He had to struggle to get his BSc and his PhD. His life is not luxurious at all. There are no sofas in his house in Tehran, only cushions and rugs." The president-elect's solidarity with the worse off is also believed to have been influenced by his father, Ahmad, who became a blacksmith in Tehran after running a grocery store and then a barber's shop in Aradan. Mr Ahmadinejad, it is said, refuses to eat at the table of any host who does not pay zakat, the portion of their annual income which Muslims are required to give to the poor. Relatives talk approvingly of how Mr Ahmadinejad's father, who now works in a revolutionary guards' shop, sold his Tehran house for £37,000 and bought a smaller home for half the price, giving the proceeds to a poor people's charity. Talking with adulation bordering on reverence, relatives try to depict the president-elect - contrary to his image as a dour Islamist - as a man of sharp humour. His favourite pastimes, they say, are football and mountaineering, a recreation favoured by Iran's rugged terrain. But hand in hand with the attempts at smoothing the hard edges go expressions of pride in his revolutionary credentials. That background is now under fierce scrutiny from the Bush administration after several former US diplomats held captive in the 1979-81 Tehran embassy takeover alleged that Mr Ahmadinejad was a ringleader. Aides to Mr Ahmadinejad, as well as other hostage-takers, deny the charges. Nevertheless, it is clear from family accounts that he was a committed activist. Before the 1979 revolution he visited Lebanon during the country's civil war and is said to have been active with Shia groups there. During the reign of the last shah, he kept a printing press at home, which he used to print leaflets denouncing the monarch. On the eve of the revolution his activities forced the entire Ahmadinejad family to flee Tehran and go into hiding in the north-eastern province of Golestan to avoid arrest by the savak, the shah's secret police. Mr Ahmadinejad's strong religious beliefs surfaced early. "He had an interest in and talent for the Qur'an as a very small child," said a cousin, Maasoumeh Saborjhian, 60, to whom he remains close." He liked to go to classes but they threw him out because he was too young. He was only 10 or 11. But he would insist, saying, no, no, I know how to read the Qur'an." His mother, addressed by friends and relatives as Seiyed Khanom (literally, Madam Descendent of the Prophet),dresses in an all-embracing black chador and insists on the rigid separation of the sexes. "She is very religious," Mrs Saborjhian said. "She will never sit beside a man who is not a close relative. If she is hosting any ceremonies, she separates men and women with a curtain." It is an aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background that will ring alarm bells for Iran's mostly affluent secular population. This is the group who supported the modest social liberalisation that unfolded during the reformist presidency of Mohammed Khatami, now about to leave office. They fear a return to the early days of the revolution, which Mr Ahmadinejad admires, when Islamist dresscodes were stringently enforced and mingling of the sexes strictly forbidden. The president-elect's aides say that is not his intention. It certainly would not meet with the approval of some of his relatives. "Poverty is the real problem," said Mr Mohseni, the son of Mrs Saborjhian, and Mr Ahmadinejad's campaign manager in Aradan. "I don't think he will stop freedom. During Khatami's period, liberalisation was OK. It was good." ++++ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6256173/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-revealed-to-have-Jewish-past.html Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows. By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat Published: 7:30AM BST 03 Oct 2009 Ahmadinejad showing papers during election. It shows that his family's previous name was Jewish 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. Related Articles a.. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Jews in Iran b.. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: in the words of the Holocaust denier c.. Funny, you don't look Jewish? 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. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
