Posted on Professor Vali Nasr’s Facebook profile – The Telegraph: “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.”
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
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The Guardian carried an interesting article a few days ago that debunks the theory that Ahmedinejad is Jewish. The writer proposes that his family changed their name not to distance themselves from their Jewish roots (which they probably don’t have), but their rural roots: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-jewish-family
Irony with a capital I.
Michael Moore this week threatened Congressional Democrats with defeat at the polls in 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRNdO_SsohU
At the press room at Public Citizen on DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C. – and with pictures of the consumer advocate on the wall surrounding him – Moore announced that he intended to launch a campaign against Congressional Democrats who didn’t at least support a strong public option in the health care legislation currently barreling through the Congress.