Rizieq Shihab's Father Standing With President Soekarno Intentionally Covered By History, Is That True?

Screenshot of @Bambang Widy's Facebook account

JAKARTA - The Facebook account @Bambang Widy recently uploaded a picture of President Soekarno standing with 2 men.

Bambang, in his narration, claims that one of the men is the father of Rizieq Shihab, a former top official of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) who is currently in prison.

"So that the public is literate in historical politics. Does anyone know who the man between Soekarno and General Sudirman was at that time?!… He was the father of Habieb Riziq Shihab this news was deliberately covered by history by the colonial government company at that time, namely the Netherlands because they were worried that Muslims would unite," wrote the narration quoted from kominfo.go.id, Monday, October 11.

Apart from Rizieq's father, the one who stood with Soekarno was General Sudirman. This account upload has been shared hundreds of times by netizens. Is this information true? Let's check!

A screenshot from Bambang Widy

Based on the search results, the claim that a man standing between President Soekarno and the Great Commander Sudirman is the father of Habib Rizieq Shihab is a false claim.

"In fact, the man is not Habib Rizieq Shihab's father. The man is Mohammad Yunus Khan, a member of the Indian Foreign Service who is also India's ambassador to Indonesia. At that time, the three of them visited Magelang on August 27, 1948," wrote kominfo.go.id

The face of the man in the photo is identical to that of Mohammad Yunus Khan, who has visited Indonesia several times. For example, he visited Jombang, East Java in 1947. Also during a visit with President Soekarno to Wonosobo, Central Java on March 3, 1948.

"Mohammad Yunus has indeed served as India's ambassador to Turkey, Indonesia, Iraq, and Spain."

Meanwhile, Habib Rizieq Shihab's father, Habib Hussein bin Muhammad Shihab or Hussein bin Muhammad bin Hussein bin Abdullah bin Hussein bin Muhammad bin Shaikh bin Muhammad Shihab, was a founder of the Pandu Arab Indonesia movement which was founded with his friends in 1937.

Pandu Arab Indonesia is a scouting association founded by Indonesians of Arab descent based in Jakarta, which later changed its name to Pandu Islam Indonesia (PII).