Muhammad Rizieq Shihab

Muhammad Rizieq Shihab

Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, born August 24, 1965, is an Indonesian hardline Islamist scholar. He is the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front. He faced criminal charges in Indonesia, so he lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2017 to November 2020. He gained notoriety for the Ketapang incident in November 1998.

About Muhammad Rizieq Shihab in brief

Summary Muhammad Rizieq ShihabMuhammad Rizieq Shihab, born August 24, 1965, is an Indonesian hardline Islamist scholar. He is the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front. He faced criminal charges in Indonesia, so he lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2017 to November 2020. He gained notoriety for the Ketapang incident in November 1998, which occurred over 22-23 November 1998. He was born in Jakarta to an Arab Indonesian family of mixed Hadhrami and Betawi heritage. His father died in 1966 when he was 11 months old, and because of that he was not put in boarding school. His mother worked as a tailor and bridal makeup artist. His family sent him to Saudi Arabia in 1990 to study at King Saud University, majoring in Usul al-fiqh and Education, which he completed in four years with Cum Laude. In 2012, he returned to Malaysia and was admitted to a doctoral program in Da’wah and Management program at Fakulti Kepemimpinan dan Pengurusan. He has seven children, who were all schooled at Jamiat Kheir. Before becoming head of FPI, he chaired a number of number of Majelis in Tangerang. He served as the principal to religious lectures after he became principal of Madrasah Al-Fiqh at Jamat Kheir until 1996.

He also taught Usul Fiqh or Usul Usul at the Islamic Village High School in Tangersang. His wife is also of a Sayyid family from Aal bin Yahya. He and his family lived in Jakarta’s Tanah Abang market district until moving to Saudi Arabian in 2017. They returned to Indonesia in November 2020, and he is married to Fadlun bin Yahyya and has 7 children. His lineage traces back to Imam ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib through Imam Ahmad al-Muhajir. He had a son, Husein bin Muhammad, born around 1920, who was a cofounder of Pandu Arab Indonesia Movement, a boy scouts-like movement for Arab Indonesians founded with his friends in 1937. His daughter, Ayaan, was born around 2000. He worked as an English teacher for about one year after he finished his undergraduate study, before returning to Indonesia. He later became a high school teacher in Gambir, Indonesia. In 2008, he earned an MA degree in Shariah from the same university in 2008 with a thesis titled \”Pengaruh Pancasila terhadap Pelaksanaan Syariat Islam di Indonesia’\”. He has a daughter and a son with his wife, who are both of Arab Indonesian heritage.