Muhammad Rizieq Shihab

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 is currently finishing 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 the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kamaluddin Nurdin Marjuni and Dr. Ahmed Abdul Malek of Nigeria.

On March 19, 2009, Habib Rizieq was crowned by Sultan Sulu Ismael Kiram II as the Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Sulu with title Datu Paduka Maulana Syar'i Sulu (DPMSS).

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. 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).

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. On October 5, 2008 Rizieq was again put in prison for one and half years due to the violent attack against the Aliansi Kebangsaan untuk Kebebasan Beragama dan Berkayakinan (AKKBB) which was holding a demonstration in Monas on June 5, 2008. 59 FPI members were arrested and 12 members of the AKKBB were injured.

Rizieq declared the establishment of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on 17 August 1998. The FPI became well known from the Ketapang incident, which occurred in Jakarta on 22 November 1998. Around 200 members of the FPI engaged in riot and affray in a confrontation with opponents. This religious, inter-race and inter-group clash resulted in a number of residential houses and houses of worship being burned and a number of people killed.

Rizieq was the head of the FPI from 1998 to 2003, and since 2003 he has become the Chairman of the board of the Executive Tanfidz. He was elected as the Great Imam of FPI for life in 2013.

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 also at one time served as the Principal of Madrasah Aliyah at Jamiat Kheir until 1996. When he was no longer the head of the school, he still actively taught at the school as the teacher of Fiqh or Usul al-Fiqh.

After graduating from SDN 1 (Public Elementary School No.1) Petamburan, Tanah Abang, Jakarta in 1975, Muhammad Rizieq continued his middle 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 then transferred to a closer school, the Bethel Christian Middle School in Petamburan and graduated in 1979. He continued his high school at SMAN 4 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 fighting, his family sent Rizieq to Saudi Arabia in 1990 to continue his study at King Saud University, majoring in Usul al-fiqh and Education, which he completed in four years with Cum Laude.

Muhammad Rizieq Shihab (Arabic: محمد رزق شهاب ‎, romanized: Muḥammad Rizq Šihāb; Arabic pronunciation: [(ʔ)mʊˈħæmmæd rizq ʃihaːb] , also known as Habib Rizieq, born 24 August 1965) is an Indonesian Islamist scholar, the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front (Arabic: الجبهة الدفاعية الإسلامية ‎; Indonesian: Front Pembela Islam, abbreviated as FPI). He currently makes his getaway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Rizieq was born in Jakarta on August 24, 1965 to Husein bin Shihab and Syarifah Sidah Alatas. Both his parents were Arab Indonesians of mixed Hadhrami and Betawi heritage. 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.