Literacy rate among predominantly Muslim societies: Soviet Republics vs. Other

ex-Soviet:

Kazakhstan: 99.3%
Tajikistan: 99.1%
Uzbekistan: 99%
Turkmenistan: 98.3%
Azerbaijan: 98.2%
Kyrgyzstan: 98.1%

Islamic States:

Afghanistan: 12.6% (The only Muslim country in the region that was not part of the USSR)
Bahrain: 85% (A pleasant surprise)
Brunei: 88.5%
Iran: 73%
Mauritania: 31.9%
Oman: 73.5%
Pakistan: 36% (Thanks to General Al-Huq's Madrassas)
Yemen: 30% (It would be interesting to compare the old Democratic Yemen vs. the part that had always been under Islamism)
Saudi Arabia: 70.8%

Islam as State Religion:

Qatar: 88.6%
Algeria: 61%
Bangladesh: 31.8%
Egypt: 59.4% (This is fucking pathetic, given that Egypt's longtime party is a member of the Socialist International. Why those fucks have not been expelled, I'll never know.)
Kuwait: 91%
Malaysia: 85.4% (Wonder about the ethnic breakdown here? I'd assume close to universal among Chinese.)
Maldives: 97.3% (Hmmm...For a country barbaric enough to ban religious minorities from voting or acquiring full citizenship, surprisingly impressive.)
Morocco: 39.6%
Tunisia: 65.3%
UAE: 81.7%

Secular states with Muslim pluralities and majorities, excluding ex-Soviet:

Burkina Faso: 15.2%
Gambia: 32.8%
Guinea-Bissau: 27.4%
Mali: 39.6%
Senegal: 30.7%
Chad: 39.3%
Djibouti: 59.4%
Somalia: 25.8% (The new President is a graduate of Carleton University (my school), so maybe it'll get better.)
Indonesia: 86.8% (No thanks to Suharto.)
Albania: 79.5% (Coincidentally, a Venezuelan party that identifies itself as an ideological heir of Enver Hoxha opposes the Bolivarian Revolution. Given Albania's poor literacy rate, one ought to not be surprised.)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 94% (Thanks, Tito.)
Turkey: 79.6% (Not surprising. Some segments of the population have strongly resisted secularization.)

Source:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_lit_fem-education-literacy-female


Socialism: 1
Theocracy: 0

Something far-right evangelicals ought to keep in mind.

Our domestic Talibanis are probably looking at those madrassas for pointers.

It was about right wing fundamentalism/authoritarianism, but I'm sure the exact same mentality applies to fundamentalism in foreign countries or non-christian faiths.

Mark Noll, an evangelical history professor at evangelical Wheaton College,
begins his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, with a pithy thought: “The
scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” Noll
observes that “American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they
have not been so for several generations.” He points out that evangelicals support
dozens of theological seminaries, scores of colleges, and hundreds of radio stations,
but not a single research university. “In the United States he writes, it is simply
impossible to be, with integrity, both evangelical and intellectual.” “Modern American
evangelicals have failed notably in sustaining serious intellectual life.”

Couldn't find the exact quote predicting it but IIRC twas Jonathan Edwards. Predicted the eventual downfall on the church because of the importance placed on every parishioner reading and understanding the Bible themselves, and not just upon what was preached from the pulpit.

In that sense the Putitans were completly the opposite of todays Fundgelicals.

on edit: It seems of note that the greatest predictor of a womans literacy in early american Puritan culture was the chuch membership status of her parents. That a woman being most likely to be literate correlating to having both parents members of the church.

The Puritans were much more interesting than they are given credit for.

Strange as it sounds the parish where my parents attend church was started by Timothy Edwards, grandfather of Jonathan Edwards. So I will have to check that out. Always fascinated how the church has changed over the years.

It is not just literacy, but democratic institutions and personal freedom that lag in muslim majority countries. Hopefully that is changing, my understanding is there are large and growing grassroots movements in many muslim countries calling for civil rights, women's rights and other freedoms. The recent events in Iran are a good example, but there are tons of movements in places like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia too.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=101

Of the world's 192 countries, 121 are electoral democracies. However, only 11 of the 47 nations (23 percent) with an Islamic majority have democratically elected governments. In the non-Islamic world, which comprises 145 states, 110 are electoral democracies (75 percent). Therefore, a non-Islamic state is over three times more likely to be democratic than an Islamic state. None of the 16 Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa is a democracy.

In addition to a democracy divide, there is a dramatic freedom deficit between majority Islamic countries and the rest of the world. Of the states with an Islamic majority, only one, Mali, is rated Free. Eighteen are rated Partly Free, and 28 are considered Not Free. By contrast, in the non-Islamic world, 85 countries are Free, 40 are Partly Free, and 20 are Not Free.

The gap in freedom has only widened over the last twenty years. While every other region of the world has registered significant gains for democracy and freedom, the countries of the Islamic world have experienced a significant increase in repression.

There are, however, bright spots. This year's analysis does not imply an inherent incompatibility between the Islamic world and democratic values. Democratically constituted governments, such as those in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey, govern countries with large Muslim populations. Indeed, today, the majority of the world's Muslims live in electoral democracies. In Bahrain, political reforms were begun after men and women voted in a referendum. In Iran, a discernible democratic ferment is challenging the restrictive measures imposed by the ruling clerics.




-----------------------

For the people who will flame us for pointing out these facts about muslim countries, I should point out that 60-80 years ago Christian majority countries were the most repressive on earth. Hitler's Germany, the Soviet union under Stalin, Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco, the KKK in the US in the 1920s and most of central/south america was dictatorships. Now most of these countries are the most free on earth.

-Execution by stoning for infidelity? Lashings for wearing pants? Attacks on girls' schools? The list goes on and on and on.

Kudos to the thread author for this data. Although the ad hominem jab at Christians at the bottom dilutes the message. And yes, the comparison between the far right of Christians and the Muslim majority in Muslim ruled countries is valid in another context, but your data is about Muslims versus Muslims.

Mauritania is the country most renowned around the world for teaching classical Arabic. People travel there from Saudi, Yemen, Egypt, etc. to study. I guess I had imagined a whole country of talibs.

Some sources give the literacy rate in the US as being 99%, I think we can all agree that's just a smidgen too high..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

in Central Asia and they're nearly a generation removed from Communism.

(Not to dig on Central Asia, it's a very cool part of the world, but there are still folks living as nomads in yurts out there.)

Thanks for the educational and informative post.

:hi:

Saudi Arabia and UAE are filthy rich and there are still a lot of illiterate people. But yes, I would agree that religion has little to do with the poor literacy numbers of some of the African countries.

little girls. Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium...

Higher literacy rate than Canada, and yet Borat paints them as backwater hicks. I bet they just put all the important hockey countries on a map and chose the one with the oddest name.