Indonesia glued to child preacher show

Jakarta, Indonesia - It is show-time at the Lativi television studios in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

The dancers are going through their routines, stressed-out floor managers are doing final sound checks and the audience is beginning to get excited.

Everything is as it should be for a prime-time TV talent show - with one exception.

All of the contestants are under the age of 10.

Fahmi, for example, is one of the three finalists in tonight's competition. He is eight years old and he is here, he says, because he wants to spread the word of Islam.

"I want to be a preacher when I grow up," he says, "because there are lots of young people these days who don't follow the Koran."

That is the other thing about this competition - it might look like a normal entertainment show, but it is all about the word of Allah.

Young orators

Child Preachers, as the show is called, tests children in the art of Islamic sermons. Fahmi and his two competitors are, in effect, trying to out-preach each other.

And despite the age of the contestants, it is a serious business. For the past two months, the contestants have been living in quarantine at a house in Jakarta.

Every day, they train for several hours with a team of mentors. After all, turning an eight-year-old into a fully fledged Islamic preacher takes work.

Everything about their performances has been carefully choreographed - the make-up, the Islamic clothes, the gestures, and of course the sermons themselves.

The end result is convincing - but is it the real thing?

Fahmi is clear enough about why he is competing, and why he likes to preach, but when asked to talk a little more about his sermon, he looks shyly at his father and then at the ground.

The audience, though, is convinced enough; the show is now in its sixth season. Mixing Sharia with showbiz, it seems, is working.

At the back of the audience sits a group of teenage girls, all dressed in pink, all wearing strict Islamic dress. How, I ask them, does this show compare to shows like Pop Idol?

"This is much better" they say, "because this is actually teaching something about the Islamic religion. Indonesian Idol is just to have fun, it's just talking about worldly pleasures, but this is talking about the world and the after-life."

'Dash of fun'

Religious TV shows go down well here. There were at least 10 of them running during Ramadan this year. And while in the mosque the tone is usually calm and sombre, on television, Indonesians like their sermons with a touch of glitz.

The show's producer, Dicky Sumandjaja, admits that the fusion of these two things is not always easy, but he says they do not have to be in competition.

His perspective is that entertainment helps to educate people.

"If you're trying to inform and educate viewers at home," he said, "it's always going to be more effective if you add a dash of fun, because in my opinion, I don't think Indonesian society is ready to accept things that are too serious on TV."

This is all part of a wider trend in Indonesia.

Muslims here are hungry for modern consumer products with an Islamic flavour. And if it works for lipstick, fashion and music, why not television shows?

Fahmi is only eight, but he is already plugged in to this new trend. He never knew Indonesia a decade ago, when too much religious expression was dangerous, and television strictly controlled.

He is just a little boy who likes dressing up for the camera and playing the joker, whose only wish, he says, is to grow up to be a preacher and visit Mecca.