User:Akhyhanif/Maaher At-Thuwailibi

Soni Eranata or better known as Ustaz Maaher At-Thuwailibi (born on July 14, 1992) is an islamic cleric from Medan, North Sumatra. Currently, he and his family live in Bogor. Maaher actively delivers his preaching on various social media platforms, such as Youtube, Twitter,and Instagram. In 2020, he decided to preach on the Tiktok app.

Personal Life
Maaher was born with the name Soni Eranata. Soni was born in Medan, July 14, 1992. He is the youngest of three children. Although born and raised in Medan, Soni decided to migrate and live in Bogor, West Java.

When he was a student, Soni recited the Quran in a tone similar to the imam of Masjidil Haram, Sheikh Maher ibn Hamad Al-Muaiqly. Therefore, the teacher nicknamed Soni with the name "Maaher At-Thuwailibi" which is now known as his stage name. Ustaz Maaher was known as a loud and fierce preacher. . However, he is also considered as a humorous person. Maaher has many social media accounts including Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok. In one of the videos on his Youtube channel, Maaher once carried out a social action by providing assistance to underprivileged residents during the Covid-19 pandemic..

His income comes from invitations to religious lectures. In addition, he has a side job selling religious books and perfumes. . Maaher is also known to be close to the famous Indonesian scholar, Abdul Somad. In addition, he also knows the leader of a well-known Islamic mass organization, Habib Rizieq Shihab.

Education
In Bogor, Maaher studied at Al-Hidayah, but didn't finish. Maaher continued his studies at Ibn Khaldun University and majored in Education.

Preaching Style
The figure of Ustaz Maaher is known to be fierce, both in delivering lectures and activities on social media. Maaher also often uses diction which is considered harsh by some people. When interviewed by Detik.com, Maaher revealed that his rough style came from the culture in his home area. According to him, a word can be harsh or not depending on the point of view of each culture.

In 2018, a clip of Maaher's video went viral in which he mentioned a "monkey in brown uniform". Some people perceive the phrase as being addressed by Maaher to the police. Responding to this, Maaher denied that his statement was addressed to the police because not only police were wearing brown uniforms, but also civil servants and scouts.

Law Cases
On December 3, 2020, Maaher was arrested by the Indonesian Police Criminal Investigation Unit at his residence. Maaher was charged with the ITE Law for allegedly insulting the prominent cleric of Nahdlatul Ulama, Habib Luthfi ibn Yahya. Maaher was detained by the police due to this case.

When interviewed by Detik.com, Maaher explained that he did not mean to insult Habib Luthfi. It all started with a fake tweet on Twitter saying that Maaher looked pretty and saying his turban was a jilbab (headscarf for women). Maaher replied to the tweet by displaying a photo of Habib Luthfi wearing a turban similar to the description that Habib Luthfi was "pretty in his jilbab".

Maaher admitted that he had no intention of insulting Habib Luthfi. The reply to his comment only reversed the opinion of the account that had insulted him first. In the interview, Maaher also admitted that he intended to go to Pekalongan to meet Habib Luthfi and apologized for his comments on Twitter. However, he was already arrested. Prior to this case, Maaher had also been reported several times, but not arrested.

Dispute

 * With Abu Janda

Jokowi-supporting activist Permadi Arya (known as Abu Janda) reported Maaher to the police regarding alleged death threats via social media. In one of his lectures, Maaher once said that Abu Janda and Sukmawati Soekarnoputri deserved to be killed because they had committed blasphemy. In response to this, Maaher also reported Abu Janda for alleged defamation. This is due to the information given by Abu Janda to the media crew that terrorism has a religion, its religion is Islam, and its teacher is Maaher.

They both had been invited to a talk show hosted by Tvone. Abu Janda stated that his reason for reporting Maaher was because the content of his lecture had the potential for terrorism, which justifies killing in the name of religion. Meanwhile, Maaher denied accusations that he invited the congregation to kill Abu Janda. According to him, he only explained fiqh. During the event, Maaher blamed Abu Janda for saying that the Ar-rayah flag was the flag of terrorists.


 * With Nikita Mirzani

Maaher has also clashed with actress Nikita Mirzani. Their feud began with the return of Habib Rizieq Shihab (HRS). Previously, HRS lived in Saudi Arabia for three and a half years. The return of HRS was greeted by millions of people, causing a buildup at Soekarno Hatta Airport. The buildup causes a serious jam. In her live video, Nikita also commented on the incident and implied that HRS was charlatan.

Nikita's statement about “charlatan” went viral. In response to this, Maaher demanded that Nikita make a public apology because she was deemed to have insulted HRS. He also said Nikita as sow and prostitute. If Nikita didn't make an apology, Maaher threatened to bring 800 people to surround her house.