Muslim world but are rapidly increasing. In the Eastern Middle East, Iran has a high level of youth literacy at 98%, whereas Iraq's youth literacy rate has sharply declined from 85% to 57%, during the American-led war and subsequent occupation. Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, has a very high youth literacy rate at 99%. In Afghanistan, seminaries are operated by politically active religious organizations and have taken the place of basic education not provided and funded by the government. A 2016 Pew Research Center study about religion and education around the world found that Muslims have the lowest average
Muslim world and African American Muslims later emerged independently. According to the UNHCR, Muslim-majority countries hosted 18 million refugees by the end of 2010. Since then Muslim nations have absorbed refugees from recent conflicts, including the uprising in Syria. In July 2013, the UN stated that the number of Syrian refugees had exceeded 1.8 million. In some Muslim-majority countries, illiteracy is a problem, whereas in others literacy rates are high. In Egypt, the largest Muslim-majority Arab country, the youth female literacy rate exceeds that for males. Lower literacy rates are more prevalent in South Asian countries such as in Afghanistan and Pakistan,