Muhammad Rizieq Shihab

His father was Sayyid Husein bin Muhammad bin Husein bin Abdullah bin Husein bin Muhammad bin Shaikh bin Muhammad Shihab, born around 1920, a cofounder of Pandu Arab Indonesia Movement, a boy scouts-like movement for Arab Indonesians founded with his friends in 1937 (which later became PII or Islamic Scouting Organization of Indonesia. ) His father died in 1966 when Rizieq was 11 months old, and because of that Rizieq was not put in boarding school.

At the age of 4, he continued his education in the Qur'an at mosques.

As a single parent, his mother worked as a tailor and bridal makeup artist.

Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Shihab (مُحَمَّد رِزْق شِهَاب, ; most commonly known as Habib Rizieq; born 24 August 1965) is an Indonesian Islamist cleric, the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, abbreviated as FPI), which was banned by the government in December 2020.

Rizieq was born in Jakarta on 24 August 1965 to Husein bin Shihab and Syarifah Sidah Alatas.

Both his parents were Arab Indonesians of mixed Hadhrami and Betawi heritage.

After graduating from SDN 1 (Public Elementary School No.1) Petamburan, Tanah Abang, Jakarta in 1975, Rizieq commenced junior high school at SMP 40 (Public Middle School No.40) in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta in 1976.

However, the school was too far from his home so he transferred to a closer school, Bethel Christian Middle School in Petamburan, and graduated in 1979.

He then attended SMAN 4 high school in Gambir, but graduated from the Islamic Village High School in Tangerang in 1982.

Furthermore, he took Arabic classes at LIPIA in Jakarta.

Considered by neighbors to be a troublesome youth with a penchant for getting into fights, his family sent Rizieq 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.

Rizieq took a graduate program at the International Islamic University Malaysia, but only for one year, after which he returned to Indonesia before finishing.

This was because his scholarship funding was only adequate for him, not his whole family, to stay in Malaysia.

Rizieq worked as a high school teacher for about one year in Saudi Arabia after he finished his undergraduate study, before returning to Indonesia in 1992.

In addition to giving religious lectures, Rizieq served as the principal of Madrasah Aliyah at Jamiat Kheir until 1996.

He also taught Fiqh or Usul al-Fiqh at the school after his period as principal.

His organizational experience began when he joined Jamiat Kheir.

He was a member of the Chamber of Shariah at BPRS At-Taqwa, Tangerang.

Before becoming head of FPI, he chaired a number of Majelis Ta'lim (places where religious lectures take place) around Jakarta suburbs.

Rizieq declared the establishment of FPI on 17 August 1998.

FPI gained notoriety for the Ketapang incident, which occurred in Jakarta over 22–23 November 1998, when about 200 FPI members attacked Ambonese Catholics, brutally killing 14 people.

A number of residential houses and at least 13 churches were burned or attacked during the unrest.

Rizieq was the head of FPI from 1998 to 2003, and since 2003 has chaired the group's Executive Board Tanfidz.

Rizieq was jailed for seven months in 2003 for inciting his young, white-shirted followers, who often would hide their faces bandit-style behind handkerchiefs, to attack nightspots in Jakarta with clubs and stones.

Later, he was able to continue his education and earned an MA degree in Shariah from the same university in 2008 with a thesis titled "Pengaruh Pancasila terhadap Pelaksanaan Syariat Islam di Indonesia'" (The Influence of Pancasila on the Implementation of Islamic Laws in Indonesia).

On 5 October 2008, Rizieq was jailed for one and half years due to a violent attack against the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Faith (Aliansi Kebangsaan untuk Kebebasan Beragama dan Berkeyakinan, AKKBB) which was holding a demonstration at Monas on 5 June 2008.

Some 59 FPI members were arrested and 12 members of AKKBB were injured.

In 2012, he returned to Malaysia and was admitted to a doctoral program in Da'wah and Management program at Fakulti Kepemimpinan dan Pengurusan (Faculty of Leadership and Administration) at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), and started working on his dissertation titled "مناهج التميز بين الأصول والفروع عند أهل السنة والجماعة" (The Distinction of Origins and Branches of Ahl Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah) under supervision of Prof. Dr. Kamaluddin Nurdin Marjuni and Dr. Ahmed Abdul Malek of Nigeria.

Rizieq completed and earned his doctoral degree on 15 April 2021 while he was still in jail.

Rizieq is a Sayyid with his clan Shihab (or Shihabuddin Aal bin Syech) lineage tracing back to Imam 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib through Imam Ahmad al-Muhajir.

Meanwhile, his wife is also of a Sayyid family from Aal bin Yahya.

He was elected Great Imam of FPI for life in 2013.

As declared on his FPI website, Rizieq and FPI's stances regarding the ISIS are:

Rizieq said:

Facing criminal charges in Indonesia, he lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2017 to November 2020.

Rizieq and his family lived in Jakarta's Tanah Abang market district until moving to Saudi Arabia in 2017.

Following his return to Indonesia, he was arrested in late 2020, accused of criminal incitement for holding crowded events that violated the COVID-19 pandemic regulations.

They returned to Indonesia in November 2020.

To make ends meet, Rizieq owned and operated a small store selling perfume and Muslim goods.

He is married to Fadlun bin Yahya and has seven children, who were all schooled at Jamiat Kheir.