March 28, 2026 | 05:25 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An 8-second video of Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar announcing a grant circulated on Facebook [archive] on March 8, 2026. In the video, Nasaruddin can be seen wearing a peci (cap) and a black suit, with the red and white flag in the background. Similar claims were also spread by several other accounts, including account 1 and account 2, which used different visuals.
In the video, Nasaruddin explains the Al Bayti grant program, a special Baitul Mal fund for Indonesia, from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). "Grants are officially open, ranging from 250 million to 1 billion. Register now," he says. There's a link to the uploader's Messenger account at the end of the post.
Is it true that Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar announced the Al Bayti grant program from Saudi Arabia and the UAE worth up to Rp1 billion?
FACT CHECK
Tempo verified the content through various credible sources, ministerial authorities, and AI detection tools. The results revealed that Nasaruddin Umar's video had been altered using AI technology.
The Head of the Public Relations and Communications Bureau at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Thobib Al-Asyhar, denied the video's authenticity. "It's a hoax, clearly created using AI," he said when contacted by Tempo on March 26, 2026.
Thobib confirmed that the Saudi Arabian state grant program, Baitul Mal, never existed. He urged the public to be wary of similar offers of assistance.
Visual Verification
Video 1
To strengthen its evidence, Tempo used two AI detection tools: Hive Moderation and Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector. Hive Moderation's analysis revealed that the video was likely created using AI, achieving a 99.99 percent deepfake score with Google's Veo 3 model. Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector correctly identified authentic audio only eight out of 100 times.
Tempo found the source of the visuals through a Google reverse image search. On November 23, 2024, the YouTube channel iNews uploaded the original video of the moments leading up to Nasaruddin's departure for Saudi Arabia.
Video 2
The next video was also processed using AI. Tempo discovered that the original photo was taken by Kompas photographer Totok Wijayanto. The photo accompanied a Kompas.com news article from January 28, 2013, titled "Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Allegedly Involved in Arranging Quran Tender Winners."
Hive Moderation's analysis revealed that the video was produced using AI and had a deepfake score of 96.2 percent. Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector identified audio manipulation, giving it an authenticity score of only one out of 100.
Video 3
In this third video, a watermark identical to Google's Gemini AI chatbot is visible in the bottom right corner. This indicates that the content was produced using Gemini's AI model.
A Google reverse image search confirms this fact. During the handover ceremony for the Minister of Religious Affairs for the 2024-2029 period at the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs Headquarters on October 21, 2024, Nasaruddin wore a black suit and light blue tie.
CONCLUSION
Based on Tempo's investigation, the claim that Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar announced the Al Bayti grant program from Saudi Arabia and the UAE worth up to Rp1 billion is false.
TEMPO FACT-CHECK TEAM
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