Literacy
Bismillah,
One of the things that just boggles my mind is illiteracy in the Muslim world. Islam is the most scholarly religion; a religion that makes learning to read a requirement upon every Muslim man and woman. The first word revealed in the Holy Quran is “Iqra!” (Read!) Then why are so many Muslims illiterate? Take a look at these statistics:
CIA - The World Factbook — Field Listing - Literacy
definition of literacy: age 15 and over can read and write
Worldwide total population: 82%
male: 87%
female: 77%
note: over two-thirds of the world’s 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)
That, my friends, is not the bleakest part. Doing a quick spot-check on countries, it seems one part of the world is lagging;
Afghanistan
total population: 28.1%
male: 43.1%
female: 12.6% (2000 est.)Pakistan
total population: 49.9%
male: 63%
female: 36% (2005 est.)Morocco
total population: 52.3%
male: 65.7%
female: 39.6% (2004 census)Egypt
total population: 71.4%
male: 83%
female: 59.4% (2005 est.)Bangladesh
total population: 43.1%
male: 53.9%
female: 31.8% (2003 est.)
Compare this with other developing countries:
Honduras
total population: 80%
male: 79.8%
female: 80.2% (2001 census)Dominican Republic
total population: 87%
male: 86.8%
female: 87.2% (2002 census)Sri Lanka
total population: 90.7%
male: 92.3%
female: 89.1% (2001 census)South Africa
total population: 86.4%
male: 87%
female: 85.7% (2003 est.)
Literacy, I’m quite sure, will solve many problems in people’s lives. It’s a critical first step towards knowledge and gives people opportunities. It’s part of the reason why the Ummah feels so behind much of the world today, at least that’s my opinon.
What is the solution? I say we form a new NGO (Non-Governmental Organization, like Unicef or Amnesty International) to promote literacy. It strikes me as strange that there’s only one other literacy NGO, Room to Read, but almost none of its countries are Muslim ones yet. If you do look around, it’s being done piecemeal, but the results make some very happy stories.
This is much bigger than I can do alone. Even Room to Read states, “In order to select a specific country, we have to look at a number of macro economic and education metrics, conduct on-the-ground interviews and research, and consult with other groups working in the area.” This is why they can’t expand that easily. We can do better, insha’Allah 
.
How do we start? I’ll need some people with expertise, and funding. In addition, you can’t just graft this overseas; does anyone know pro-literacy or education organizations that already exist in countries like these?
I will be taking the first steps to create this NGO over the coming summer, but I’ll need as much help as possible. If anyone is interested, email me and I’ll add you to the soon-to-be listserve.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Salaam aleichem, Sulayman.
The problem is that, as with Christianity, a lot of people who say they follow Islam don’t really understand what the Faith truly is. It’s a challenging religion by any standards, and adherence to it should result in an educated, well-rounded, person.
Unfortunately, there are some who use the Faith for their own purposes, instead of those of God. People who believe in using it as a weapon for their own aggrandizement and their own beliefs. These are the people who promote jihad as a military struggle instead of an intellectual and spiritual struggle. These are the people who want to subjugate women to a second-class status instead of the jewels that the Prophet said to treat them as. How do they get away with this? They promote illiteracy, encouraging people to not read the Qu’ran for themselves, but to trust them and what they say it says. Then they take parts of the Prophet’s words out of context and preach them to their followers.
It’s been done in other faiths, including my own, as well. (I would even argue that in some sects in the United States, it’s still going on.) In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church discouraged the reading of the Bible, and as late as the 17th Century were still saying that the Bible should never be translated from Latin (even though none of it was originally written in Latin!) into the vulgate, so that the common people would need to rely on what the Church told them was in the book instead of reading it for themselves.
Someone who has read the Words of the Prophet for himself or herself with an open mind, as I have (albeit in my case in translation as opposed to the original text), would have no alternative but to believe that Islam is a religion of peace and fulfillment. Likewise, I maintain to my friends who have been turned off by “Christian” teachings that anyone who actually reads the teachings of Jesus (as opposed to what certain preachers would have us think he said) would have no choice but to agree that the way of life he preached is a good way to live. (Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, and so on.)
Literacy is the cornerstone of free thought. It is the foundation of inquiry and inquisitiveness. It is vital, and probably the most important issue facing the world today. That’s why it’s been my pet project for years.
If there’s anything I can do to help you, please feel free to ask me.