JAKARTA - MOSQUES may outnumber Internet cafes in Muslim-majority Indonesia, but Islamic clerics out to take on social networking site Facebook may have met their match.

The clerics have argued the site enables unregulated chatting between the sexes, opening the door for 'obscenity', pornography, premarital sex and adultery.

Fatwas from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country's highest religious body, are in theory binding on Muslims but in practice they are often ignored.

'Facebook is like a magnet that attracts people to join,' the cleric who headed the meeting, Abdul Muid Sohib, told AFP.

'Many use it simply for chatting, but Islam restricts the relationship between men and women... not only for face-to-face contact but also for Facebook, since it too could lead to sexual intimacy.'

Clerics hoping their call could make an impact may be a little disappointed with the response.

Indonesia ranks fifth behind the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and France in terms of Facebook use, according to Internet tracking website Alexa.com, in spite of a patchy communications infrastructure and little computer access for many of its 234 million people.

Discussion groups ranging in topics from politics to Japanese animation and homosexuality in the national language Bahasa Indonesia dot the website.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians have signed up to Facebook groups condemning the clerics' call, including at least one prominent Muslim member of parliament. - AFP