The Islamic Defenders Front was an Indonesian hardline Islamist organization founded in 1998 by Muhammad Rizieq Shihab with backing from military and political figures. Since 2015, Ahmad Shabri Lubis has been the organization's leader, while Rizieq Shihab holds the title of Grand Imam of the FPI for life.
The FPI originally positioned itself as an Islamic religious police, mostly by conducting illegal and unauthorized vigilante operations. It also acted as an Islamist pressure group with prominent social media activism and mass mobilizations against pro-government activists, ethnic Chinese, Christian minority, as well as liberal and reformist politicians.
Current logo of Islamic Brotherhood Front, launched on 17 August 2021.
Undated photograph of Habib Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, founder of the Islamic Defenders Front
Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Shihab is an Indonesian Islamist cleric, the founder and leader of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front, which was banned by the government in December 2020. Facing criminal charges in Indonesia, he lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2017 to November 2020. 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.
Rizieq in 2022
Father of Rizieq, Hussein Shihab (wearing black cap) with Habib Ali bin Husein al-Attas (left), Habib Ali bin Abdurrahman al-Habsyi (central), and Habib Muhammad bin Ali al-Habsyi (right), while attending the event of the Prophet's mawlid in Kwitang in 1950.
Rizieq preaching.
Rizieq Shihab faces the media after being implicated in an alleged pornography case.