Indonesian music sensation Inul Daratista is getting complaints from muslim clerics. She may be one of the country's most popular artists but the clerics say her gyrating dance movements and skimpy costumes are indecent and immoral.

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Barraud: It's described as a kind of salsa, but the mixture of traditional Javanese, Indian, Portuguese, Arabic and Malay music is uniquely Indonesian. Dangdut music reflects the tropical heat, the acrid smells of polluted streets, dark coffee bars and clove cigarettes. Wait at a city taxi stand or ride in a bus in the countryside and you'll hear its beat through the tinny headphones of a worker or farmer. But the dangdut singer sensation Inul Daratista's version – apparently conjures other – more basic images.

Azra: "In my observation I think the dancing is fairly sensual, something like you see it in striptease dancing, bringing your imagination into sexual relations between male and female so we call it "drilling" meaning you know like a woman and a man drilling each other in sexual intercourse."

Barraud: Dr Azumardi Azra is President of the State Islamic University in Jakarta. He reflects the view of many Muslim clerics. While Dr Azumardi doesn't really object to the music or even her scanty costumes, he believes Inul's gyrating dance style borders on the pornographic. He says while it might be acceptable in small karaoke bars and discos, it's too hot for television and large public concerts.

Azra: "Probably also we can call it dirty dancing or something like that, but this touched public decency and people began to question it beause she performs that kind of dance in public."

Barraud: The main Islamic group, the Indonesian Ulemas Council has strongly objected to Inul's dancing style. Religious leaders in the conservative East Java region have banned her performing although the ban is not enforceable.

24 year old Inul Daratista was a rock singer in the small village of Gempol in East Java, when a besotted amateur cameraman sent copies he'd made of her performances to friends overseas. Within months she'd dropped western style rock and switched to the Indonesian dangdut, which she accompanies with frenetic and sensual dance movements.

Her concerts, held in soccer stadiums and large auditoriums are booked out and her television appearances have boosted ratings and advertising revenue, making her one of the most courted local performers in Indonesian history. She is yet to record an album, but an estimated 3 million people have bought pirate video CDs. One fan who managed to get hold of a VCD is Dr Ariel Haryanto who teaches Indonesian popular culture at Melbourne University

Haryanto: "I'm going to show her dance in a recording for my students in the next few days, few weeks actually. To be very honest I'm a great fan of Inul, I think Inul is so original and authentic, not trying to be clever or trying to be more erotic than she needs to, a lot of other performances are much more vulgar in terms of eroticism. Not Inul, definitely. I have a collection of dances of dangdut and she's definitely one of the most civilised. If you look at the others they are much more vulgar."

Barraud: Dr Haryanto says from the early 1930's dangdut was an expression of the rural and lower classes. While sometimes bawdy and accompanied by often sexually suggestive dancing it also had a strong religious element. During the Suharto regime it was considered the music of dissent.

Haryanto: "The military regime put a lot of Islam leaders into prison and under repression and therefore when dangdut was attached to Islam it became like a symbol of resistance. Now things have changed, definitely, Islam has been politically correct in Indonesia and the radical edge of dangdut shifted again from being religious expression into something else."

Barraud: Inul has stated she's taking dangdut music and performance back to those earlier earthier roots. Dr Haryanto believes it's this authenticity which has helped Inul's meteoric rise to fame – and contributed to the controversy over whether her dancing is pornographic.

Haryanto: "Decency that's of course true to some segments of the society I think, not just have to do with any particaulor religion, but also with class. Inul is definitely from the lower class and as Inul herself describes there's a lot of pornographic CDs around and people have not done anything about it they just leave it alone. But none – as I said earlier – as powerfully famous and threatening as Inul, I think that's the real reason."

Barraud: President of the State Islamic University Dr Azumardi Azra agrees Inul's dance style reflects the lower classes and believes it's not appropriate for a wide audience, although he disagrees with some clerics who have suggested a moral edict or fatwa be issued on Inul.

Azra: "Educated young generation I think do not watch her show but most of her fans are people of the lower level of society."

Barraud: She's really low culture you think?

Azra: "Yes. Of course I don't think we should issue a fatwa or relgious ruling in connection with this."

Baraud: Why not?

Azra: "I think it's not useful."

Barraud: It would probably make her become more popular wouldn't it?

Azra: "Yes I think that's right. It's not going to work so I think the best way is probably to have a dialogue with her – that's the best way."

Haryanto: "Mind you even among the Islamic community there's been a great deal of division and even a public one at that. So there's been a threat for example of arson in one case, where a Muslim religious leader painted Inul surrounded by Muslim clerics during the prayer – then there was a threat mosque that would bve burned because of that display of painting by a quite a respected cleric for example."

Barraud: She's been photographed with the husband of Megawati, and I understand the military commander of the police in Jakarta and I think the Mayor have performed on stage with her.

Haryanto: "I'm not surprised, yes. She has been very popular definitely and I think what makes some nervous is that she's popular among the masses. Now that really worries some."

Barraud: Dr Haryanto says in some ways the controversy over Inul is to be admired because it reflects the diversity of Indonesia including its Muslim leaders. Meanwhile whether clerics, politicians and leaders court or criticise, Inul Daratista continues to draw tens of thousands of fans.