http://www.smh. com.au/world/ australian- invites-indonesi ans-to-join- his-journey- 20090920- fwqq.html TOM ALLARD HERALD CORRESPONDENTSeptember 21, 2009 Wahyu waits for an iced coffee in Bekasi... "becoming a Muslim was the most amazing experience of my life. It's like coming home." Photo: Kate Geraghty JAKARTA: Each day throughout Ramadan, it has been a ritual enjoyed by a million Indonesians. As the sun set and they broke the fast, they tuned into an Islamic program on one of the main television networks. Filmed all over the archipelago, Rahasia Sunnah - Secrets of the Sunnah - examines an aspect of Islam and Indonesia in each episode, often tying it in with modern scientific thinking that reveals the prescience of the prophet Muhammad's teachings. The host is not, as one might expect, a leading Indonesian cleric, nor an authoritative import from the Middle East. Rather, it is a freckle-faced native of Adelaide who, after an unsatisfying career as a flight attendant, moved to Indonesia to work in manufacturing but became a soap opera star, perhaps most famous for a cross-dressing character in Toyib Minta Kawin (Toyib Wants to Get Married). To say the least, it has been quite a journey for Wahyu Soeparno Putro. Born Dale Colins-Smith, he moved to Yogyakarta 15 years ago to work in management at a factory. With his mother having died, and estranged from his father, he became close to the security guard at his house, eventually being adopted by him and taking his name and religion. (Wahyu means divine inspiration. Soeparno is the security guard's name. Putro means son.) In his early days in Indonesia, he was, like many expatriates, ''not a good boy'', enjoying the many nocturnal temptations of the country. But a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction went away after he converted to Islam, a gradual process that began with him waking to the morning call for prayer and joining in the Ramadan fast to be social, before he converted fully in 2003. ''Becoming a Muslim was the most amazing experience of my life. It's like coming home,'' says Wahyu, during an interview at his local mosque in Bekasi, a satellite city outside Jakarta. ''For me, the taste of life was not quite right; now it's perfect.'' Wahyu's conversion to Islam is played up in Rahasia Sunnah, as is, inevitably, the fact that he is a bule, slang for Caucasian. The novelty of his show is that he is funny, learning about Islam and sharing it with viewers along the way. For many Indonesians, it is a welcome antidote to other religious programming, which can often be stern. ''I'm inviting people to come along on the journey with me. I'm talking about why this is allowed in Islam, and why it isn't allowed. Personally, I've been amazed at the clinical elements that back the prophet's teachings,'' he says. ''When you think of pork being banned, you think it was because it's a dirty animal. But did you know the gene of a pig is very close to humans? If you asked a fireman about the smell of burning human flesh, they will tell you it smells a lot like pork.'' The links between science and Islam in the show can seem tenuous. Wahyu insists that eating pork products is ''close to cannibalism' ', while a martial arts exponent interviewed in one program urged viewers not to rely on genies and angels for strength as man was created by Allah to be the most powerful creature on earth, pointing to the mitochondrion in cells which he said produced 200,000 volts of energy per square centimetre. Other episodes have examined traditional Islamic medicines known as gurah, inheritance (men get more than women) and why it is important to eat slowly when breaking the fast. ''Islam has got a bad rap from radical fundamentalists but the fasting month of Ramadan is the perfect example of how Islam is a religion of peace,'' Wahyu says. ''We are taught to withhold all personal desires, be it passion, rage or consumption of food and drink. Why? So that we can learn to be more like Muhammad, gentle, just and caring for others, no matter what their religion. At the end of the fast, we ask everyone we know to forgive us. It's a cleansing experience.' ' Wahyu is passionate about Islam, and certainly no fundamentalist. Indeed, he sees the parallels between Islam and best-selling tomes of the modern age. ''We have to realise that [Koran and hadith] was written 1430 years ago. What's relevant today? There are some things that are not, there are others that are. ''You know that book The Secret, the one that's on Oprah, that's so, so Islamic,'' he says. ''Islam is all about your intentions, and if your intentions are positive, then good things will come to you.'' [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
