One post in April warned of an alleged plot by Muslims to “multiply their population to take control of India”. A forecast issued the same year from the Pew Research Center said that India’s Muslim community would grow to 311 million by 2050. But despite their growing share of the national population, Muslims would remain a small minority in a country of 1.7 billion people by mid-century, according to the US-based think tank’s projections. One Facebook post sarcastically greeted news that India’s population had overtaken China’s by thanking Muslims “for producing 5-10 children” each. Quraishi, has written extensively on the spread of disinformation about the country’s Muslim birthrate.
