Iranian President Ahmadinejad born Jewish, newspaper reports

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reportedly born into a Jewish family which converted to Islam when he was four years old. The British newspaper ‘Daily Telegraph’ reports that Ahmadinejad's original family name was Sabourjian, which in Iran is officially listed as a Jewish name, meaning ‘cloth weaver’. The newspaper published a picture of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during last year’s election campaign, in a way that shows his family's previous name. Ahmadinejad never denied that his family changed its name when it moved to Tehran in the 1950’s. However he has never stated the family’s original name.

With about 25,000 Jews, Iran is home to the biggest population of Jews in the Middle East outside Israel. Jews are banned from senior posts in the Iranian government and the military.