Inside Indonesia’s growing market for fake Middle Eastern doctorate

For generations, Indonesian Muslims have looked to the Middle East as the highest destination for Islamic learning. A degree from Cairo, Medina or Riyadh has never been simply an academic qualification. It has represented years of mastering Arabic, studying under respected scholars and earning recognition from institutions whose reputations were built over centuries.

That reputation has become a commodity.

A recent interview on the Indonesian podcast TimTeng with a teacher at the Indonesian School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a master’s graduate of King Saud University, offers a revealing window into this emerging phenomenon. Across Indonesia, a growing number of religious figures have begun displaying honorary doctorates and professorships supposedly issued by institutions bearing Middle Eastern names. Some claim affiliations with Egypt, Tunisia or Pakistan. Others present certificates written in Arabic or invoke prominent Arab scholars. Yet many of these institutions cannot be independently verified. Some reportedly have no identifiable campus, no official website, no accreditation records and no physical address.

Who is behind this growing market remains unclear.

The networks may involve actors operating in Indonesia, overseas, or across several countries. Some individuals present themselves as representatives of Middle Eastern institutions, while Indonesian intermediaries also appear to play an active role in recruiting recipients. What is already clear, however, is that the prestige associated with Middle Eastern scholarship has become the product being marketed.

The business model is remarkably simple.

Applicants submit photographs of their preaching activities, community service, books they have written or links to YouTube lectures. They pay anywhere between US$300 and US$1,000, depending on whether they communicate directly with the purported institution or through facilitators in Indonesia. Within about seven days, many reportedly receive certificates awarding honorary doctorates. Some are later encouraged to obtain honorary professorships as well.

There is no dissertation. No comprehensive examination. No research supervision. No years spent producing original scholarship. Instead, prestige itself appears to have become the commodity.

The institutions themselves raise even more questions.

Some reportedly identify themselves as Egyptian universities before later describing themselves as American or Pakistani institutions. Others claim links to Tunisia. Investigators searching for these universities have reportedly found no official websites, no verifiable addresses and no evidence of accredited academic programmes. When questions are raised about where these institutions are actually located, prospective recipients are sometimes shown photographs rather than documentation—often featuring the same small group of elderly men dressed in academic robes appearing repeatedly in different graduation ceremonies.

The marketing is equally unusual.

Rather than treating academic credentials as private documents, certificates are reportedly displayed on Facebook as advertisements for future recipients. Diploma holders become testimonials. The certificates themselves become promotional material demonstrating that honorary titles can indeed be obtained. Indonesian facilitators reportedly charge substantially higher prices than those offered through direct contact with the overseas operators, suggesting that an intermediary market has also emerged.

Whether these networks originate in Indonesia, abroad or somewhere in between is almost beside the point.

Their success depends on something far more valuable than certificates.

They depend on trust.

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For more than a century, Indonesian Muslims have associated the Middle East with authentic religious scholarship. Graduates of respected Middle Eastern institutions have helped shape Indonesia’s universities, Islamic organisations, courts and religious life.

That reputation was earned through scholarship, intellectual rigor and generations of educational exchange.

Today, that accumulated trust appears to have acquired commercial value.

The commodity being sold is not simply an honorary doctorate. It is the symbolic authority attached to the Middle East itself.

That should concern not only Indonesia but also governments and universities across the Arab world.

The reputations of institutions such as Al-Azhar and many established universities throughout the Middle East have been built through decades, and often centuries, of genuine scholarship.

Every counterfeit credential bearing an Arabic name risks weakening public confidence in the legitimate institutions that have invested generations in maintaining academic standards.

Ironically, the educational systems whose names are being invoked are generally far more rigorous than these honorary certificates suggest. Universities across the Middle East operate under government regulation, formal accreditation systems and demanding academic requirements. Legitimate doctoral programmes require years of research, proposal defenses, publications, comprehensive examinations and dissertations. Against that reality, a doctorate awarded within seven days should immediately invite scrutiny.

Indonesia, however, also needs to examine why such a market has found willing customers.

Many of those receiving these honorary titles are not fringe figures. They are respected Qur’an teachers, preachers, leaders of Islamic schools and directors of religious foundations. Their religious service may be genuine. Yet the growing appeal of honorary academic titles suggests a broader transformation in how religious authority is presented.

Titles increasingly function as personal brands.

A “Dr.” before one’s name may enhance credibility, attract larger audiences, strengthen institutional status and improve visibility on social media. In some reported cases, recipients eventually stop using the designation “Honoris Causa” altogether, leaving audiences to assume they possess an earned doctorate.

This represents a remarkable shift.

Many conservative Islamic movements traditionally emphasised humility over titles and warned against seeking worldly recognition. Today, academic honorifics appear to have become valuable symbols in an increasingly competitive religious marketplace.

The response should not begin with accusations about where the networks originate.

It should begin with transparency.

Indonesia’s religious organizations, universities and media outlets should verify foreign academic credentials before reproducing them. Ministries responsible for higher education should establish clearer procedures for assessing honorary degrees awarded overseas.

Middle Eastern governments and universities also have an interest in acting—not because there is evidence that they are responsible for these networks, but because their educational reputations appear to be the principal assets being exploited. Universities should make accreditation information easier to verify internationally. Governments should investigate organizations falsely claiming to represent institutions within their jurisdictions and cooperate with Indonesian authorities whenever such cases arise.

For centuries, Indonesia has sent students westward in search of knowledge. They returned not merely with diplomas but with intellectual traditions that shaped the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

That relationship deserves better than becoming the marketing strategy of anonymous networks trading in counterfeit prestige.

The podcast does not conclusively identify who is behind these networks, nor should it. That question deserves further investigation. The operators may be in Indonesia, the Middle East or spread across multiple countries. But it identifies something arguably more important: whoever they are, they have discovered that the prestige of Middle Eastern scholarship carries enormous value in Indonesia.

The challenge for both Indonesia and the Middle East is to ensure that trust, painstakingly built over generations of genuine scholarship, does not become the easiest thing to counterfeit.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.