Ever since Ayat-ayat Cinta (Verses of love) hit the cinemas, the representation of Islam in Indonesian cinema has created a lively debate. Some Muslim leaders endorsed the treatment on the grounds that Is-lamic teaching could be spread to the populace through popular culture.

Film, along with television and the internet, could be mobilized to modernize and deploy ideological messages through culturally recognizable symbols. Some are a bit worried about its controversial content - its polygamy and religiously conservative messagebut the film industry has been quick to respond to just another niche market.

As many have become aware since Sept. 11, the Islamic community is frequently represented as monolithic, militaristic and primarily Middle Eastern. Western media and audiences are familiar with the story of radical Muslims that commit and are involved in terrorism. The Hollywood film industry has its stereotypes and for Islam it has many.

The democratic transition, the acceptance of liberal values and embracing of the market system since the 1998 fall of former President Soeharto have helped boost the popularity of Islamic cultural products. The movie is part of a current trend in this secular, democratic nation with the world's largest Muslim population, where Islamic teachings are disseminating through popular culture artifacts such as movies, books and songs. The literary world has been affected by the work of the Forum Lingkar Pena for years.

Established in 1997, the forum nurtures new and young writers focusing on creating so-called Islamic literature (The novel Ayat-ayat Cinta is one example.) In pop music, groups like Ungu and Gigi sell a million copies of their albums, conveying messages of Islamic teaching. After the success of Ayat-ayat Cinta, manymovies are in production. (The convergence of Islam and cinema is also interesting as some Islamic political parties have started to organize their own film festivals.)

In future months, more than five Islamic films will queue up for national screenings. But, despite the emergence of Islamic cinema, the film industry still considers Islamic values as a marketing hook. And it sells, sometimes.

Central to these issues is the role mass media plays in constituting Muslim identities, promoting certain Islamic practices and values while submerging others, and shaping perceptions of Islam among non-Muslims.

Asrul Sani, one of Indonesia's cinema's founding fathers, has written and directed films conveying Islamic teachings since 1959. Educated at the U.S. University of Southern California and a prominent leader of LESBUMI (an active cultural orga-nization under Nahdlatul Ulama) along with filmmakers Usmar Ismail and Djamaludin Malik.

Asrul Sani made some films that contained strong messages about Islam Titian Serambut Dibelah Tujuh (The narrow bridge, 1959), Al Kautsar (Great comfort, 1977). Set in a surreal location, Titian Serambut Dibelah Tujuh is a breakthrough in portraying the diverse facets of Islamic society.

In the film, conservative Islam is represented side by side with modern Islam and homosexuality is introduced without using standard cliches. During the 1970s and 1980s, many films with strong dakwah (Islamic teaching) messages were made. At the same time the horror film, arguably the Indonesian national genre, always involves Muslim clerics in battle with satanic forces.

After 1998, long before Ayat-Ayat Cinta surpassed box-office records, popular soap operas, or sinetron, are filled with sermon-like Islamic narratives, despite the fact many people consider them just marketing tools. Actually, in that context, the most interesting debate so far looks at the emerging market for what I call Islamic values.

The case of Ayat-ayat Cinta is a perfect example. Unlike Titian Serambut Dibelah Tujuh which deals with more serious issues, Ayat-ayat Cinta is basically an archetypal Cinderella love story which invokes Islamic values and portrays Islamic society.

The 1959 film takes place in a village where religiosity is the overarching value, whereas Ayat-Ayat Cinta is set in contemporary Egypt, looking just like Paris or any U.S. city used in many Indonesian secular dramas.

Secular dramas may have their Nokia cell phones and BMWs, Ayat-ayat Cinta holds up its end with Apple laptops and fancy Mercy car in the hand of beautifully veiled Muslim ladies and devout Muslim men.

The characters in Ayat-ayat Cinta are portrayed as friendly and tolerant Muslims: just like us, they feel and think about personal matters, such as love, family, etc. In Indonesian cinema, radical Muslims never have a key role or positive representation, even during the heyday of Rhoma Irama, the icon of Islamic values in dangdut stardom during the 1970s.

Even the enigmatic Syeh Siti Djenar has been represented as a rebel against true Islam in Djun Saptohadi's Sembilan Wali/Wali Sanga (Nine pious leaders, 1985). The recent film, Mengaku Rasul (Self-styled prophet) manages to depict some issues related to deviant sects, but the pattern of positive values portrayed remains unchanged.

We can conclude that, generally, recent Indonesian cinema has become a site for constituting Muslim identities and promoting certain kinds of Islamic practices and values. In this context, fundamentalism is represented as a threat to true Islamic teaching. Despite their extensive coverage in the media, particularly Western media, Islamic radicals are left out of Indonesian screenplays.

As a product of the open-market system, Indonesian cinema consists of those who claim profit-seeking as their religion. So the industry will only work within rules de-termined by the majority. And the Indonesian Muslim majority still chooses a friendly, devout but not radical Islam full of virtue and, of course, good social status (either by heredity, a trust fund or education abroad). That's precisely the Indonesian dream as defined by the New Order.

Even though hard-line Islamic groups now have little political support, careful lobbying and a long-term media strategy will give them a greater role in Indonesian cinema.

Despite these groups' efforts to ban cinema, regarded as purveying Western, sinful values the market offers opportunity for such hard-line groups to press for greater intervention, either through a censorship law or by promoting certain films.

With the resurgence of cinema since 1998, cinematic representation can significantly impact the social psyche(s). If cinema has served to reinforce "acceptable" prejudices toward another religion or culture (Hall, 1993), the representation of the Muslim community in Indonesian cinema has changed and shifted with context, usage and historical circumstances.

Since these representations are never finally fixed, always being negotiated and inflected, then Indonesian cinema is facing a new challenge: the battle between market forces and Islamic messages.

The writer is a student in film at the Jakarta Arts Institute. The writer can be contacted through pravdavero@gmail.com

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