AOL NEWS: The Mystery Behind Gadhafi's Birth: Some Say He's Jewish

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

 

Last year, Israel's Channel 2 interviewed two Israeli women of Libyan origin who claimed to be Gadhafi's Jewish relatives.

 

A journalist named Mary Pace wrote a book last year called "Gadhafi's Secret" in which she claims that Gadhafi should be considered Catholic because he was born to an Italian officer who impregnated a Libyan girl and then took the baby to Venice, where he was baptized at the age of 8 or 9 months.

 

AOL News spoke with Magariaf about what he learned about Gadhafi's origins, including the "Da Vinci Code"-like rumors surrounding his birth.

 

AOL News: Why is there so much mystery surrounding Gadhafi's childhood?

 

Magariaf: No one knows exactly which year he was born or exactly where he was born. Nobody knows which day or month. There are so many question marks about it. Everything the average person knows -- and there isn't much -- was a story he invented.

 

But aren't there people from his tribe around today who knew him back then?

 

This is the bizarre thing. Tribal traditions are everything in Libya, and everyone is always known by their cousins and uncles. In the case of Gadhafi, no one has ever mentioned that he is from his uncle's tribe. Who are his uncles? For someone like Gadhafi to be so powerful, it would be normal for his uncles to come out and say he is our nephew. Gadhafi never mentions his uncles.

 

How legitimate are the reports that have circulated for years in Libya that Gadhafi has Jewish roots -- especially the one where he was born out of a wedlock to a Jewish girl and an Italian soldier?

 

There have always been rumors in Libya about this. But then came two facts. In the early 1970s, the Italian newspaper Oggi published a story saying Gadhafi was born to a Jewish mother. I have no idea why or where it came from.

 

In 1973, Gadhafi told two journalists who were interviewing him for a local Libyan magazine called Al Blagh that he had some cousins of Jewish background. One of the cousins was born to a Jewish mother. This cousin, who has since died, looks very much like him. But Gadhafi retracted the line about his Jewish cousin, and it was never published in the magazine. I interviewed one of the journalists, Ahmed Dajani, in 1980, and he confirmed all this.

 

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[Ismahaan]

What now? They say Hilter was of Jewish descent, and now Gaddafi too.Interesting story!Is there any truth to the rumor that Gaddafi's real name is Chaim Levine..?

[Jacpher]

There were similar rumors about Mubarak and Saddam. Now Gaddafi. I wonder how many more of these stories will surface as these dictators fall. Cali Cabdallah Saalix iyo Bashaar Al-asad maa next rumor ah?

 

Yahuuda waxaa la dhihi jiray waxay leeyihiin big corporations hadda waxey kaloo yeesheen Arab dictators?

[nuune]

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 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.

 

Ahmadinejad showing papers during election

Ahmadinejad showing papers during election. It shows that his family's previous name was Jewish

 

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 changed 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.

[General Duke]

Ghadafi is from the Gudaifa tribe, not sure how he is Jewish if his tribe is not Jewish. Also one can have Jewish relatives of the past and still be Muslim and anti Zionist. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

i thought qaddafi was a berber but it wouldn't be hard to believe if he has living jewish relatives saying so. Ahmed nijaz stories on the other hand makes a lot of sense. but yeah, i don't see the problem either, you could be an ethnic jew and a muslim by faith but you would think they try to pacify judeo-muslim animosities at least.

[Blessed]

How legitimate are the reports that have circulated for years in Libya that Gadhafi has Jewish roots

 

Off course he does. He who deviates from the path of Arab perfection must be an alcoholic. If alcohol is not the cause, he must have Jewish blood. There is no other explanation for his madness.

[Taleexi]

Does it make difference?