Why is it that in virtually all the prosperous nations, education takes precedence?

This phenomenon seems to be particularly true with respect to women's education, notice how the education of women correlates with nation prosperity.





And notice how Muslims advocate the converse (marriage taking precedence and advocation of being housewives).





The fact that Islam obligates the pursuit of knowledge, it seems, is mere rhetoric; Muslims are comfortable using this as an argument against criticism but how they -in reality- act with respect to it is certainly antithetical.|||Muslim culture contains lots of things that are exaggerated, intensive versions of what Islam prescribed. Example: Islam forbids women to go out with random boys. Muslims thus created "honor killing"





Muslim culture needs to change. Simple =) Education indeed is important and Islam encouraged everyone to learn worldly things.|||It's less the education itself and more the underlying attitude. A population whose focus is on attaining an afterlife will obviously not perform as well in this one as a population whose focus is the continuous improvement of the human condition.|||Yeah, Islam and Christianity claim that education comes from the devil. Probably because if you have an education, you'll more likely realize religion is flawed.