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
Engaging the Muslim World Engaging the Muslim World Engaging the Muslim World () is a 2009 non-fiction book about the relationship between the United States and the Arab and Muslim worlds written by University of Michigan historian Juan Cole. His goal in writing the book was to illustrate the true Muslim perspective towards the U.S. and explain why that has developed. The book recommends full engagement and diplomacy with all forms of Islam and criticizes the policy of preemptive military action, arguing that it should be only used as a last resort. The book blasts what it calls the Bush administration's "Islamophobic discourse". Cole