Aa Gym draws protest over fuel price ad

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