Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, founder of the banned but influential anti-vice group Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI),
| ...founded by Muhammad Rezieq Shihab for nefarious purposes and headquartered in Jakarta, FPI began agitating for national imposition of sharia law in 1998. The group quickly attracted patronage — including funding and military training for its paramilitary arm, Laskar Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Paramilitary, LPI)— from Indonesia’s army and Jakarta’s police. They’re fond of vigilante actions and Antifa-style protests with violence, and have been called a conveyor belt leading from radicalism to terrorism. At the beginning of 2021 they were banned, so changed their name to Front Persatuan Islam (Islamic United Front), which everybody including themselves has already forgotten ... |
"I’m telling you my friends and fellow scholars, we are united in the struggle and I will not abandon the people, I will not betray the people," Rizieq said in a speech livestreamed online.
"I will try my best to protect the people and will continue to fight for the rights of the people, because we are the people, and the people are us," he said.
Rizieq also said he was forbidden from travelling outside the capital without written permission from parole officers. According to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Rizieq was allowed to go free because he had met minimum requirements for parole, but he will have to report regularly to the Bapas correctional institution in Jakarta for at least a year.
Azis Yanuar, Rizieq’s attorney, said his client would spend his time preaching what he called a "moral revolution" but in a way that avoids breaching his parole terms.
"He will go about it without violating the law and in a softer manner," Azis told BenarNews.
‘WON’T RISK CRIMINAL OFFENSES’
Rizieq would likely avoid mobilizing followers for political rallies ahead of national elections scheduled for 2024, said analyst Rakyan Adibrata.
"During the period of parole, I believe that he will not risk criminal offenses. In other words, he will play it safe," Rakyan, Indonesia director of the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, told BenarNews.
However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
Rakyat said, conservative Moslem politicians might try to court Rizieq as he remains influential politically.
"I believe soon there will be meetings between politicians and Habib Rizieq that will be covered widely by the media as identity politics heats up," said the analyst, using the Arabic honorific for the holy man.
A Jakarta court in June 2021 sentenced Rizieq to four years in prison for saying he was not infected with COVID-19 after testing positive and refusing to give the government access to his test results.
The previous month, Rizieq and five of his associates were sentenced to eight months in prison for violating coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
restrictions by organizing events in late 2020 that drew thousands of people. These included a gathering to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and a wedding for Rizieq’s daughter.
Rizieq, a vocal critic of the government, held the gatherings upon his return home from Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...on Nov. 10, 2020.
Since founding the anti-vice group FPI in 1998, the holy man and the group’s members have had several brushes with the law.
In the early 2000s, FPI was notorious for raiding bars and night clubs, which, the group said, harbored drug pushers and hookers.
In 2003, Rizieq was sentenced to seven months in prison for these raids.
In 2008, he was locked away
Please don't kill me!
for 18 months after being found guilty of inciting FPI members to assault protesters from the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Beliefs.
In Dec. 2020, police shot and killed, allegedly in self-defense, six of Rizieq’s supporters who were traveling in a convoy with him.
A month later, the National Commission on Human Rights said its investigation found police had acted unlawfully in the killings of at least four of those followers.
FPI, for its part, claimed the six were victims of extrajudicial killings.
The Indonesian government officially banned FPI in December 2020 after it accused the group of violating the law and disrupting peace and security. In addition, 35 members and former members had been convicted on terrorism charges, officials said.
The decision to ban the organization was taken jointly by Indonesia’s home, law and communications ministers, the police and counter terrorism heads, and the attorney general.