Above the outdoor cafés of this city's trendiest suburb, some 60 exiles are busily dubbing Brazilian soap operas, Japanese cartoons and American music videos into Farsi. They work for GEM-TV, a privately owned, Dubai-based bootleg satellite station that beams the modern world into Iran from a broadcast station in Malaysia. This Southeast Asian nation is becoming, in the words of GEM-TV host Abed Rangamiz, "famous as a place to jump" from Iran's harshly religious regime. "It's the best of three countries that freely give us visas," Rangamiz says with a shrug. "The others are Turkey and Turkmenistan."
The Iranian influx is small but growing fast. At present, there are about 60,000 Iranians, studying, working or waiting for visas in this relatively easygoing, multiethnic Muslim-majority country. Iranians hold shares in an estimated 2,000 Malaysian businesses and occupy about 15,000 spots in Malaysian universities. Tourist arrivals from Iran jumped 14.3% to 116,000 last year. And, observe new arrivals, words of Persian origin, such as dewan for hall and anggur for grapes, have long been part of the Malay language. Most Iranians in Malaysia bask in the comforts of a life free from ideological pressures and from, in one exile's words, "bribing the police every time you want to have a party." Malaysia has become the base for frequent "Persian disco nights" and glitzy concerts by famed singers — in one performance earlier this year, during the Iranian New Year in March, there were singers calling for the overthrow of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; it was not part of the program.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090301,00.html?xid=rss-world&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fworld+%28TIME%3A+Top+World+Stories%29#disqus_thread
I shall copy a thread of discussion from the Facebook..!
Norm Mansor:
ReplyDeleteBased on the current foreigners amnesty program is seems M'sia is granting almost everyone entry....
Mustafa Assim:
ReplyDeleteI wonder why are they confident about the permits, however, iranians and their useless 2500 years of civilization I don't know when are they gonna stop bragging about it when none is impressed, as if they're the only ones who had it, or even a single bit of that is apparent from their behavior, however, I MEAN NO DISRESPECT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC ..
Elsadig Salatin:
ReplyDeleteThe Malaysian insider published the same article but they omitted the "100 years ago" part, i don't know why they did that though
Enny Mansor;
ReplyDeleteMy fren is doing masters at Utm Semarak, her class is flooded w Iranian students, in fact, she's d only msian there. Iranians, born Muslims, hate Prophet Muhammad SAW more than anybody in this world & openly express their hatred twd Rasulullah. They even replace SAW w "nauzubillah" everytime they talk abt our prophet :( and say they want to 'convert' my fren. And we welcome them as our brothers & sisters.
Elsadig Salatin:
ReplyDeleteConvert her ? to be a Sassan?
Mustafa Assim:
ReplyDeletewell, religion wise maybe they can convert or whatever its alright, nvm that, the problem with them is that they're extremists in anything they do, this always doesn't lead to any good. However, still some of my best friends are iranians
Enny Mansor:
ReplyDeleteSadig, wat's a sassan.. = atheist? they want to convert my fren to syiah, I think. As if we r of different religion..
Elsadig Salatin:
ReplyDeleteSeasonid are the fire worshipers who established the Persian empire before Nabi Mohammed and Islam defeated them, its still practiced in parts of india where they retreated
My understanding about that Iranian influx that it serves wider political agenda..It is expected within few years much Iranians will settle in Malaysia..
ReplyDelete