Chinese celebrity preacher Koko Liem hits the big time; brawler Anton Medan unhappy.
In "Chinese Preachers Bridge Indonesia’s Ethnic Gap" in the New York Times newyorktimes Jakarta based Chinese Muslim tele-evangelist and Islamic themed text-messaging service entrepreneur "Koko Liem" is profiled and described as being a trailblazer in breaking down stereotypes that Islam and Chinese don't go together.
Liem Hai Thai/Muhammad Utsman Anshori aka Koko Liem is said to have converted to Islam from Buddhism as a teenager in North Sumatra, and says his role now is to teach the universality of Islam:
If a Chinese person becomes a Muslim, and he understands the religion, even to the point of being a cleric like me people are more awed and moved:
He’s just a Chinese, who wasn’t a Muslim before. Now he is one, and his religion is greater than ours. He can lecture on religion, he can memorize the Koran, what can we do?
Koko Liem is not the only publicly known Chinese Muslim preacher, his rivals in the niche including ex-gangster Anton Medan, and, much more obscure, female Chinese preachers like Irene Handono (Han Hoo Lie) and Ida Astuti ('Bu Nyai', or Tan Mei Hwa). insideindonesia.org
Anton Medan served a total of 19 years in prison for murder and robbery before his conversion to Islam from Buddhism:
I ruled Jakarta; I was running gambling, everything, until '91, '92, when I became a Muslim, and it was all finished.
He regards Koko Liem dimly, saying he is
Anton, instead of making silly appearances on television, has built an Islamic boarding school near Jakarta and three multilevel, Chinese palace-style mosques in Indonesia and Malaysia, and he does low key preaching tours, involves himself in local politics and still runs some 'secular' businesses like garment manufacturing and indoor soccer venues.
However Koko Liem gets more attention, with Anton saying
Muslims in Indonesia are stupid. They choose speakers and preachers that are famous from TV, not because of what they have achieved.
The difference between Koko Liem and me is like earth and sky.