Substantial majority of Arab world is illiterate.
MEMRI offers its translation of an interview with Salman Mashala, an Arab intellectual. He considers the importance of the fact that upwards of 80% of the Arab world are illiterate. “[T]he war on fundamentalism cannot come out of ignorance; it must come out of knowledge – and the Arab world today, as it is, is a world of ignorance.” (*)
It would be difficult to underestimate the significance of such levels of illiteracy in the war against radical Islamism.
The Left frequently, uselessly blames terrorism on poverty, but they would make a very good point to blame it on illiteracy.
Couldn’t foreign aid to Muslim countries be predicated on the condition that a certain percentage of it be used for literacy programs? I would think so.
Updated for clarity.