The Alphabet of Progress
"There have been roughly ten thousand books translated into Arabic during the last millennium...about the same number of books that Spain translates into Spanish each year."
I've learned a lot during Dr. David Aikman's History of Islam class, but when he cited the high rates of illiteracy, both historical and current, I was awed. I did some fact-checking, and arrived at the conclusion that the literacy situation in the Arab world is abysmal....especially compared to the United States. According to a 2002 U.N. report, 65 million Arab adults were illiterate. Since then, the situation has gotten worse (something only barely mentioned in this NY Times op-ed).
As of 2006, 1.2 billion Muslims have fewer books than 300 million Americans.The Library of Congress has more books than the combined collection at the national libraries of Brunei, Maldives, Suriname, Comoros, Djibouti, Qatar, Bahrain, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Gabon, Gambia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Albania, Lebanon, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Benin, Tajikistan, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Chad, Somalia, Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Cote d'Ivoire, Syria, Mozambique, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Iraq, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Guyana and Niger.
Why? Why is the demand for reading material so low in the Arab world? History indicates that Islamic leaders have supported the Qur'anic idea that Allah revealed all necessary truth in the Qur'an, and that it contains all the knowledge mankind needs. Anyone who posits truths that question any part of the Qur'an is a heretic, and ought to be silenced (read: killed). The Qur'an says that Allah is not bound or limited by anything, including logic.
Is it possible that Western philosophical traditions, which appeal to the immovable rules of logic, are totally incompatible with Islam? Robert Reilly's acclaimed book, "The Closing of the Muslim Mind," catalogs the role of reason in Islam, and examines what happens when a religion abandons rationality. There's a good chance your library has a copy - go check it out!
