American Muslim pioneers hi-tech approach to Islam<\/p>\n
David Kennedy , Contributor, Jakarta
\nd_kenn@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
A mobile phone service designed to expand understanding of the
\nKoran and provide practical Islamic teachings is gaining in
\npopularity.<\/p>\n
Since March this year, 34,000 subscribers have joined the
\nAlQuran Seluler (AQS) service, which sends Islamic teachings by
\ntext message directly to users' cellular phones and allows them
\nto hear sermons of well-known preachers such as Aa Gym, Arifin
\nIlham and Ihsan Tandjung.<\/p>\n
The sermons, readings and analysis of the Koran are proving
\nincreasingly popular. Most subscribers phone the service at least
\nonce a week, while others prefer to read the hadith, practical
\nteachings from the Prophet Muhammad's life sent by text message
\nto their cell phone.<\/p>\n
Over 60,000 subscribers now avail of the service set up a year
\nago, and about 5,000 new members are joining each month.<\/p>\n
AlQuran Seluler's inventor is Craig Abdurrohim Owensby, a 47-
\nyear-old, Jakarta-based American from Wisconsin, who converted to
\nIslam two years ago.<\/p>\n
Owensby attributes the success of the phone service to the
\nphilosophy of the company he created last year with his friend
\nand business partner Abdullah Gymnastiar, the popular preacher
\nalso known as Aa Gym.<\/p>\n
\"We have not focused on profits, but on expanding the numbers
\nof people using the service,\" he said, explaining that the price
\nof the service was set deliberately low in order to reach as many
\npeople as possible.<\/p>\n
Text messages with the hadith cost Rp 1,000, and subscribers
\ncan call and listen to six-minute prerecorded readings,
\nrecitations and sermons for the price of a local call -- Rp 500
\nwith a fixed line.<\/p>\n
Owensby describes the aim of the service in terms of dahwah --
\ndoing service to Allah.<\/p>\n
\"I thought the service would be helpful to Muslims, and that
\nif I do good dahwah and have a good business plan, it will take
\ncare of itself,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Although AQS has exceeded all original expectations, it only
\nbecame profitable recently due to technical delays in setting up
\nthe billing system, which simply deducts credit points from a
\nperson's cell phone.<\/p>\n
Calls are kept cheap by using local telephone exchanges in
\nnine cities, including Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Yogyakarta and
\nSurabaya.<\/p>\n
It is perhaps not surprising that Owensby, the son of a
\nPresbyterian minister and an ex-priest himself, came up with the
\nidea of AlQuran Seluler given his background, an unusual
\ncombination of religious marketing and telecommunications.<\/p>\n
During his two-year tenure as an executive pastor at a church
\nin Houston, Texas, the congregation nearly doubled to over 6,000
\nmembers. Owensby, who has an MBA in brand marketing, helped run
\nthe church along strict business lines and it also had a
\nsuccessful show on the local television network.<\/p>\n
Although he began his priesthood as a fundamentalist, after
\ntwo years, his faith in Christianity had waned for theological
\nreasons. He left the church and started a career in business
\ndevelopment, just as the dot-com boom was taking off.<\/p>\n
It was during a posting with a telecommunications company in
\nJakarta in 1997 that Owensby became interested in Islam. A year
\nlater, he began to develop a business that could send tailored
\nservices to peoples' cell phones, which eventually led to the
\nbirth of AlQuran Seluler.<\/p>\n
Owensby's religious background and desire to learn more about
\nIslam influenced his decision to convert, but seeing the effect
\nof Islam on communities living in extreme poverty in North
\nJakarta was the deciding factor.<\/p>\n
\"I've seen poverty in my life, but the people here didn't have
\nthe same attitude. There was joy in their lives despite the
\nsuffering,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"I thought I must respect a religion that keeps people
\ncooperating together to make sure that everybody is OK, because
\nthere is that sense of the common united spirit. Also, the
\ninternal street economies work, because there are limits to how
\nmuch profit people can make from the food they sell.\"<\/p>\n
What he saw while exploring Jakarta's slums led him to study
\nmore closely the role of Islam in sustaining people who have very
\nlittle, and it was this that eventually led to his conversion.<\/p>\n
Owensby approached his new religion with the fervor and
\ndedication one would expect from an ex-priest, attending public
\nmeetings and speaking to the media with his friend Aa Gym.<\/p>\n
A tireless activist, Owensby is keen to use technology and
\nbusiness principles to promote Islam at home and abroad. He
\nbelieves that Indonesian Islam has much to offer the world, and
\nthat popular preachers here are extremely talented at
\ndemonstrating how relevant the faith is to peoples' everyday
\nlives.<\/p>\n
Building AlQuran Seluler as a successful business and a
\nteaching tool was also a way of counteracting the effect of the
\nmodern media and capitalism, which he believes can undermine
\nreligious practice.<\/p>\n
\"It's a war of ideas. We are competing with the idea that life
\nis just what you buy, a secular ideology that seeks to undermine
\nreligious practice,\" he said, referring to the success of large
\nAmerican corporations in selling entire lifestyles in the form of
\nbrand names.<\/p>\n
\"Think of the system they have developed with TV programs and
\nads aimed at every demographic segment. We need to be as good as
\nthe mega-media marketers, or else we lose. It's simple -- we've
\ngot to build businesses.\"<\/p>\n
Owensby argues that Islam needs more effective funding
\nmechanisms, drawing from his experience with American churches
\nthat have a system of collecting large donations to support
\nindividual institutions.<\/p>\n
AlQuran Seluler is designed to expand, but its inventor sees
\nprofit merely as a means of allowing it to reach more people.<\/p>\n
\"AlQuran Seluler is as well-run as any business,\" said
\nOwensby. \"The issue for me is about receiving the blessing.\"<\/p>\n
The service is expected to open in Malaysia by early next
\nyear, and an Arabic AlQuran Seluler is planned for the Middle
\nEast, using preachers from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>",
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