Jaafar Sheikh Idris was a professor of Islamic Studies and the director of the Research Center at the Institute of Islamic & Arab Sciences (IIAS) in Fairfax, Virginia. The IIAS wasa nonprofit educational institution affiliated with the Wahhabist al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Idris was also the president of American Open University in Alexandria, Virginia. Idris was deported in January 2004, along with 15 others affiliated with the IIAS, during a massive crackdown on Saudi extremism within the United States. He also founded the Islamic Foundation of America.

The IIAS was shut down by federal authorities on July 1, 2004 because of its links to terrorism.