The New York Times

August 23, 2002

JAKARTA JOURNAL

A TV Preacher to Satisfy the Taste for Islam Lite

By JANE PERLEZ

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 20- Abdullah Gymnastiar, this

nation's most popular Islamic preacher, possesses the boyish
good looks and eternal smile that send Indonesian women
scrambling for invitations to join his television audience.
Men come, too.

Everyone sits on mats on the studio floor, though the

preacher is perched a little higher, on a cushion, dressed
in a crisp white jacket and perfectly pressed sarong that
play well to the cameras.

He is taping six back-to-back shows, which will reach into

living rooms, beauty shops and sidewalk cafes in this
hyperactive city of 13 million people, where he is best
known. Unlike religious leaders who recite repetitious
Koranic verses, Mr. Gymnastiar, 40 years old and known as
Gym (with a hard G), offers chirpy practical advice. He is
up front about the personal issues on the soap operas that
his program competes with.

"Should a woman have sex in the office?" asks one woman.

Mixing English and Indonesian words for a flirtatious
effect, he replies, "A good sexy woman doesn't show off to
others, just to her husband."

For those who say Indonesians wear their religion lightly

and are profoundly moderate in their practice of Islam, the
emergence of Mr. Gymnastiar in the last several years is
proof enough.

He attracts overflowing crowds to the Istiqlal mosque in

Jakarta, the largest in Southeast Asia. President Megawati
Sukarnoputri, who runs the world's most
populous Islamic country but whose Islamic credentials are
sometimes questioned, has invited him to appear alongside
her at big outdoor events. Earlier this month, the American
Embassy included him in a small group of Islamic leaders
all of them moderate, but most of them older to meet
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, during his visit here.

In his sermons and television programs, Mr. Gymnastiar often

uses the word adil, meaning fair. It is, he says, the
essence of Islam.

"In Christianity the significant word is love," he said.

"But in Islam it is fair. Because if we are not fair, we
hurt someone. If we make war, we have to be fair with our
enemy."

He tried, he said, to get this concept across to Secretary

Powell. Most important, he said in an interview afterward,
he tried to explain why the United States is mistrusted in
the Islamic world.

"I said: `You don't look fair. I feel so sad that America
looks too powerful,' " Mr. Gymnastiar said he told the
secretary. He then drove the point home, he said, with the
Middle East: "Why is it that Israel takes Palestinian land,
and why is that the U.S. always helps this?"

At the same time, he said, he tried to reassure Secretary

Powell: "I said we don't hate America. I just said America
is unjust, unfair. If Bush has a fair ideal, every country
is going to love America. But as Muslims we feel we are
treated unjustly, unequally."

Mr. Gymnastiar's appeal among Indonesia's young and the

middle class appears to lie in a combination of his
modernity, his background as the son of a soldier and his
interest in business. In the country's precarious economic
environment, where an unruly democracy is unfolding after
three decades of dictatorship, his homilies inspire hope and
confidence.

"Success is how we can improve ourselves all our life," he

said during a taping. "Don't think success is only money, a
beautiful wife and a good job but how we can improve
ourselves to the end of our life."

At his base in Bandung, a city in West Java, he charges $100

for three-day motivational seminars on how to succeed. A
local supermarket, a radio station and a variety of home
industries opened by his organization are supposed to
illustrate to the participants how to do better in their own
businesses.

Always mindful of the reach of his television audience, Mr.

Gymnastiar had a waterfall built in the backyard of his
modest home there, so the cameras could film him for special
segments in front of an attractive backdrop.

Every Monday he gathers his senior staff of eight men, all

under 40, on his veranda to plan the week's commercial
activities.

His latest venture is "Al Quran Selular," a telephone

service that allows subscribers to call daily to listen to
their favorite texts from the Koran, recited in his deep
voice. For several years, he has run charter flights to
Mecca.

"I like his knowledge," said Imaniza, 38, a fashion designer

of what she called Muslim clothes. She had listened to his
tapes and read his books at home before coming to the
seminars. "He's not extreme. I've learned about
entrepreneurship and human resources from him."

With the exception of constantly upbraiding Indonesian

leaders for being corrupt, Mr. Gymnastiar keeps politics out
of his sermons. But, recently, he expressed harsh sentiments
about the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, at the
Istiqlal mosque. Afterward, a close friend and financial
backer, Palgunadi Selyawan, a retired auto executive, said
 he scolded his protigi for letting go of his emotions.

But Mr. Gymnastiar is not afraid to say he has yet to see

enough proof that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the
Sept. 11 attacks. "There has to be to be a visible trial,"
he said.

In a measure of the suspicions about the United States in

Indonesia, he said he was reluctant to accept an invitation
to travel to the United States. He was scheduled to go to
Los Angeles just before Sept. 11. But now, a visit could
send the wrong signal. He said, "I don't want to appear as
someone groveling."

In short, he said, his followers would not approve.

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