ABSTRACT
Education in the Muslim world today is shaped in part by a history of modern contentions and debates around the respective defi nitions, values and roles of “secular” and “religious” knowledge. Theories of modernization make economic and political development contingent on the expansion of secular education and the corresponding reform and/or marginalization of religious education. In the twentieth century, secular mass education has developed at a rapid rate in Muslim majority countries as part of socio-economic development projects, albeit at diff erent rhythms and through a diversity of national systems of education. Under the regulating power of the modern state, these national systems have developed compulsory primary and secondary education that have improved literacy rates for boys and girls, although disparities between countries can remain wide (Afghanistan vs. Tunisia for instance) and gender diff erences remain signifi cant in most countries. In general, these systems have provided massive access to education, not only at the level of primary and secondary education, but also at the university level.
