Jakarta, Indonesia -- Journalist Buyung Pramunsyie sees no irony in writing for an Islamic magazine while editing a risque men's monthly publication that has been attacked as pornography by religious conservatives in the world's largest Muslim country.
"My friends asked me: 'Are you crazy?' I told them I was just making a living," he told AFP at his stuffy Jakarta office where the walls are adorned with pin-ups of sexy models and soap opera actresses in swimsuits.
Modestly-dressed and wearing a skullcap, Buyung can pass himself off as a pious Muslim, but he is the executive editor of Popular, Indonesia's best-selling men's magazine.
His publication has spent years pushing the chaste boundaries of country's media, and has a criminal record to prove it. In 1998 an editor got a six-month suspended jail term for a front cover featuring a semi-nude soap opera star.
"She was not naked, even though we made it to look as if she was," Buyung said of actress Sophia Latjuba, whose flashes of flesh triggered public clamour for a crackdown on pornography.
First published in 1988, Popular was originally a general interest magazine but was rebranded four years later and now unabashedly sells itself as "entertainment for men".
Its latest cover features a bikini pose of sultry singer Vera from the East European pop group Nu Virgos who recently visited Jakarta for a gig.
Popular is not the only Indonesian glossy to augment its sales using women in bikinis and sex tips. Dozens of titles have sprung up since the 1998 downfall of dictator Suharto opened up a new era of free speech.
Publications include tabloids devoted to racy pinups as well as the Indonesian editions of foreign titles such as British "lads' mag" FHM and the female-orientated Cosmopolitan.
Such is the thriving industry that the country's once stringent censorship is now seen as more tolerant than neighbouring Malaysia, long considered by many as a moderate Muslim nation.
A recent edition of FHM in Malaysia had a run-in with authorities over its contents and bikini-clad models have since disappeared from its pages, its editor Mohamad Zulkifli said.
A Malaysian bookshop owner P. Letchmanan told AFP that censorship of sex related magazines was "very severe". Foreign magazines with sexual content were banned while others were subject to strict inspection by the authorities, he said, adding that pages with images deemed vulgar were either ripped out or blacked out with marker pen.
Indonesian news stands, however, offer a revealing insight into how similarly conservative views of sex there are changing, contradicting perceptions that its citizens are becoming more religious than before.
"How to get laid on a first date," proclaims the cover of the latest issue of another Indonesian lads' mag, Matra, on sale at a kiosk next to a mosque in Jakarta's upmarket Menteng area.
"Seven sex tips to thrill his body: modified missionary and doggie styles guarantee 100 times hotter," offers the Indonesian-language version of Cosmopolitan.
Each edition of Popular runs an investigative story keeping tabs on increasingly novel sexual adventures of Indonesians.
Efforts to reverse the affects of provocative periodicals have seen Islamic groups from the most extreme to the most liberal publishing their own magazines, joining battle for Indonesia's souls with equal gusto.
In Indonesia, however, the profane and the sacred often mix. Buyung, had a stint at Muslim magazine Syiar before joining Popular in 2000, and offers the divine blessing "Alhamdulillah" (Arabic for praise be to Allah), for sales of his magazine that reach between 60,000-70,000 copies per issue.
But the progressive attitudes of magazines like Popular and FHM -- which are tame by Western standards, with no full nudity -- are a constant source of alarm to Muslim conservatives and anti-pornography activists.
Last year Buyung and FHM's chief editor, Erry Prakasa, were grilled by members of an anti-pornography group.
"One woman told me: Brother Buyung please tone down your magazine. I have a problem. My husband always reads Popular before we make love," said Buyung. "I told her we couldn't be blamed for her husband's sexual problems."
Buyung said despite the absence of a law banning such suggestive pictures, he has to tread carefully to avoid a public outcry and official wrath.
"You think I take this lightly? No. Every time a new issue is out I always have this fear. Our pictures are works of art, and many agree with us. Besides, they aren't the only thing. We also cover sports and do gadget and movie reviews."
FHM Indonesia managing editor Richard Sam Bera said his publication also keeps a tight rein to avoid being seen as promoting immorality, often self-censoring some of the "art" -- an industry euphemism for women in bikinis.
"We are trying to be relevant. We can't 100 percent publish what is printed in the international edition as far as the stories and the artistic works are concerned," he said.
Sam Bera said 25 percent of FHM Indonesia's readers are women.
"As much as we want to know more about women, women too want to know about us men," he said.
"We don't deal with undercover stories about nightlife. We are just trying to make men and women closer together and foster a positive relationship between the two sexes," he said.
The vice chairman of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars, Umar Shihab, said attempts to ban magazines such as Popular and FHM from printing sexually suggestive pictures are hampered by the lack of legislation.
A bill on pornography has been submitted to parliament but has yet to be made into law.
"The discussion is taking a long time. There are some people in parliament who view that indecent pictures and other forms of immorality are works of art," Shihab said.
But he said he believed that the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has been unusually outspoken about women baring their midriffs, was serious about addressing the issue.
"The president recently said he felt uneasy to see scantily-dressed women on television," he said.