Early life Noer was born in
Medan, North Sumatra on 9 February 1926. After graduating from high school, he attended to
Universitas Nasional and became a chairman of
Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam. After he obtained a
baccalaureate, he continued to
Cornell University and became the first Indonesian that obtained
Ph.D. degree in political science through a dissertation titled
The Modernist Muslim Movement in Indonesia 1900-1942.
Political career In early
New Order era, he became an advisory staff of President
Soeharto. Then he resigned because of different ideologies with other staff, and together with
Mohammad Hatta, they founded Partai Demokrasi Islam Indonesia (Indonesian Islamic Democratic Party), but the party was not approved by government. In
reformation era, he founded Partai Ummat Islam (Islamic Community Party), but did not get enough votes to surpass the parliamentary threshold in
1999 elections.
Controversy and death He served as a rector of IKIP Jakarta (Institute of Teaching and Education Sciences of Jakarta) for seven years. In June 1974, he was fired a few months before deemed provocative against Minister of Education and Culture Sjarif Thayeb. After being banned from teaching throughout Indonesia, he accepted an offer to become researcher from
Australian National University. The second year in Australia, he became guest lecturer at
Griffith University. After teaching for five years, he and
Mohammad Natsir formed Lembaga Islam untuk Penelitian dan Pengembangan Masyarakat (Islamic Institution for Community Development and Research). ==Personal life==