The medical definition of disease is, “an impairment of the normal state of the living animal.”[1] In a highly technical and scientific world where information changes by the minute, illiteracy is a dangerous disease, preventing individuals from functioning within the world and becoming successful.

Literacy may be defined best and simply as the ability to read and write. It is the ability to read this sentence, and to also write it. Literacy is the ability to read a letter from a grandparent, and also the ability to respond in kind with a written letter. Most importantly, literacy is fundamental to the well-being and success of any human being.

            Many Muslims, let alone human beings, lack the preparedness and necessary skills to achieve success, to find peace, to bring about prosperity in life. The startling reality is, without Indonesia, the world Muslim literacy rate peaks just over half the Muslim population, settling at a frightening 53%[2]. The result is the deprivation of the basic requirements to successfully function in the world for half of Muslims. Yet this doesn’t have to be the case.

            Some diseases, unfortunately, are without cures, and the individuals stigmatized with them destined to never outlive them. Illiteracy is not one of those diseases. It is a curable disease with education as its antidote. While the surgeon may use the knife to cure a diseased patient, the literate use the pencil to thwart off the disease of ignorance, the book to keep sickness at bay, and the vast sum of collective information existing in the world to eradicate illiteracy.

The prevalence of disease

Illiteracy encompasses Muslim populations far and wide, leaving no country untouched. While Indonesia has a Muslim population of 88% and country literacy rate of 88%[3], other countries do not fare so well. Pakistan, while composed of a 97% Muslim population, has a country literacy rate of only 48.7% with a male literacy rate of 61.7% and a female literacy rate of 35.2%[4]. Nearly two-thirds of women in Pakistan cannot read a sentence such as this one.

            The situation worsens for Nepal. While only 4.3% of the country consists of Muslims, the percentage of Muslims girls between the ages of 11 and 15 that attend school, a traditional haven for literacy, has lagged at 23% over the last decade[5].