Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born a Jew and converted to Islam, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

Ahmadinejad is shown in a photograph published by the Daily Telegraph holding up documents showing his original last name. 

The report cited a photograph from 2008 that showed Ahmadinejad holding up his identity card, bearing his former last name, Sabourjian, a common Jewish name in Iran. Ahmadinejad is shown in a photograph published by the Daily Telegraph holding up documents showing his original last name.

The Telegraph said that the name was “Jewish” for cloth weaver, and that the Iranian president’s family had changed the name when they converted to Islam. “The name derives from ‘weaver of the sabour,’ the name for the Jewish tallit shawl in Persia,” the report said.

It also cited experts speculating that Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic rhetoric may be a kind of overcompensation to conceal his heritage.

“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,” Ali Nourizadeh, the head of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, was quoted as saying.

On July 3, The Jerusalem Post reported that an Iranian blogger who claimed Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots was being detained by the authorities after he was arrested along with 150 university students a few days earlier, according to sources in Teheran. He was subsequently released from Evin Prison 

Dr. Mehdi Khazali, who reportedly participated in several opposition demonstrations, was reportedly summoned to a special court convened for religious figures, detained and transferred to an unknown location.

The son of a prominent, conservative pro-Ahmadinejad ayatollah, Khazali wrote on his Web site earlier this year that the president was of partially Jewish origin, asserting that Ahmadinejad had changed his family name from Sabourjian, and calling for the origins of the Sabourjian family in the town of Aradan to be investigated.

The assertion featured in the bitter presidential election campaign, when rival reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi challenged Ahmadinejad in a live TV debate, reportedly stating: ‘My full name is Mehdi Karroubi. What is your full name?’

Ahmadinejad gave his full name, according to an Al-Arabiya TV report, but left out one surname which is said to indicate Jewish ancestry.

The ‘Jewish Ahmadinejad’ dispute spread beyond Iran, when Bahrain’s oldest newspaper, Akhbar al-Khaleej, was briefly shut down by the governing authorities in June after it published an article recycling the claim.

Khazali, director of the Hayyan Cultural Institute in Teheran, has argued that while religion occupies an essential place in political life, too much intervention of religion in political matters is dangerous for modern societies. Oct 3, 2009 16:25 | Updated Oct 3, 2009 23:01. ‘Iranian president was born Jewish’ By JPOST.COM STAFF. Sabina Amidi contributed to this report.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scathing attacks against Israel and his repeated denials of the Nazi Holocaust could be motivated by a desire to conceal his own Jewish roots, an Iran expert told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

The British newspaper examined the Iranian leader’s identity card which he displayed in public during his country’s elections in March 2008.

The ID card bears his family’s original surname, Sabourjian, which is a Jewish name that means cloth weaver, according to The Daily Telegraph.

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The Sabourjians have historically been concentrated in the same region of Iran where Ahmadinejad was born, according to the report.

Ahmadinejad’s identity papers indicate that his family changed its name and converted to Islam after he was born, the British newspaper said.

Iranian observers suggested that the president’s constant verbal assault against Israel and Jews may be an attempt to prove his loyalty to Shia Islam while making every effort to hide his Jewish past.

“This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad’s background explains a lot about him,” Iranian studies expert Ali Nourizadeh told The Telegraph. “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,” Nourizadeh said. “He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.” Last update – 15:52 03/10/2009, Is Ahmadinejad trying to hide his Jewish roots by bashing Israel? By Haaretz Service