Aa Gym draws protest over fuel price ad

JAKARTA: Muslim students protested on Friday against noted cleric Abdullah A. Gymnastyar's role in a government-sponsored TV advertisement backing the much-criticized fuel price increases.

The protesters, from a splinter group of the Muslim Student Association (HMI-MPO), demanded that the Islamic preacher apologize to the public for appearing in the ad funded by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Private television stations were also told to stop airing the advertisement, in which the cleric, better known as Aa Gym, urged people to be "patient and let Allah show His grace" in facing their current economic hardship.

The demonstrators accused Aa Gym of violating Government Regulation No. 1/1965 that bans the use of religion to influence the public for the interest of a certain group.

They gave the preacher until next week to respond to their demand, otherwise "we will file a case with the police" against him.

Aa Gym, who heads the Bandung-based Daarut Tauhid Islamic boarding school, is one of a number of public figures who appear in the ads. --JP