A post circulating on social media claims that Saudi professor Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar, in a statement, said, “India is in a deep sleep. Islam is growing rapidly and thousands of Muslims have infiltrated the Police, Army, and Bureaucracy and entered important organisations. Islam is the second-largest religion in India. Today India is also on the brink of extinction. Just as the rise of a nation takes decades, its destruction requires time. India will not end overnight. It will be gradually removed. We as Muslims pursue it very seriously. India will definitely perish.” According to the post, Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar stated that the Muslim population in India currently is above 25% and asserted that no one can stop India from becoming a Muslim-majority country by 2050. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Saudi professor Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar’s statement about the rapid spread of Islam in India.
Fact: Saudi preacher Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar made similar statements referring to the United States of America, not India. Nasser Al-Omar, while expressing his support for the Iraqi resistance against the US during an interview with Al-Majd channel in 2004, said that America was collapsing from within and was on its way to destruction. During the interview, Nasser Al-Omar mentioned that thousands of Muslims had already enlisted in the American army, and Islam had emerged as the second-largest religion in America. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched to check whether Saudi professor Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar had made any such statements about India becoming a Muslim-majority nation by 2050, we could not find any credible reports.
Upon searching for further details, we found that Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar had made similar statements referring to the United States of America in 2004. Nasser Al-Omar, while supporting the Iraqi resistance to the US, during an interview with Al-Majd channel in June 2004, said, “America is collapsing from within … Islam is advancing according to a steady plan, to the point that tens of thousands of Muslims have joined the American army and Islam is the second largest religion in America. Today, America is defeated. I have no doubt, not even for a minute, that America is on its way to destruction.“
Further, Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar, while delivering a lecture on the Al-Jazeera news site in 2006, said, “The Islamic nation now faces a great phase of jihad. There are places where jihad is proper – Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, and the Philippines.” However, Suleiman Al-Omar did not make all the above statements highlighting the rapid spread of Islam in India.
As per the 2011 Census, the Muslim population in India was only ‘14.2%’. According to a 2021 report published by the ‘Pew Research Centre’, as of 2020, approximately 15% of the Indian population is Muslim. As per the study, Muslims are expected to continue to grow slowly and are predicted to account for 18.4% of India’s total population by 2050. The research study emphasized that Hindus will remain the majority religion in India by 2050. The fact-check articles, previously published by Factly, debunk similar claims related to the Muslim population and their birth rates in India. Those articles can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, Saudi professor Nasser bin Suleiman Al-Omar did not make any statements saying India would become a Muslim-majority nation by 2050.
