Abu Bakar Bashir

Not much is known about his personal life other than the fact that he has three children, two sons, Abdul Roshid Ridyo Ba'asyir and Abdul Rahim Ba'asyir, and a daughter, Zulfur.

Abu Bakar Bashir was born on August 17, 1938 in Jombang, East Java to a family of Hadhrami Arab and Javanese descent.

Young Bashir gained his early education from Gontor Islamic boarding school in Ponorogo. Finishing schooling in 1959, he enrolled at Al Irsyad University in Solo, Central Java. He graduated from the same in 1963.

He served as an activist of the Islamic Student Association in Solo and was later elected as the secretary of Al-Irsyad Youth Organization. He was then nominated as the President of Indonesian Islamic Youth Movement and Indonesian Student Dawah Organization.

In 1972, he along with his friends founded the Al Mukmin boarding school, in Ngruki, near Solo, Central Java.

At the time of initiation, the activity of Al Mukmin was limited to religious discussion after mid-day prayer. The increasing demand led it to become a Madrasah or Islamic School and later Pesantren or Islamic boarding school.

Bashir was accused and arrested for actively supporting Sharia and promoting an Islamic State. He was accused of inciting people to reject the Indonesian national philosophy Pancasila which promotes religious pluralism. He was also charged of refusing to acknowledge Indonesia as a secular state.

For his rigid stand against secularism, Bashir was imprisoned without any trial in 1978. He was held under imprisonment until 1982. Right after his release, he was yet again convicted. He was linked to the bomb attack on Buddhist monument Borobudur in 1985. Evading detention, he fled to Malaysia.

Bashir’s period of exile was somewhat long, until President Suharto’s stint ended in 1998. During this time, he commenced religious teachings in both Malaysia and Singapore, based on Quran and Hadith. He was alleged of developing a close relationship with Jemaah Islamiyah, an alleged militant Islamic group that had close ties with Al Qaeda and Taliban.