Despite media reports in the West that often link Islamic education with radical Islam, there are varieties of modern Islamic education. One such example is the Gülen movement. It has inspired the creation of hundreds of schools funded by Turkish entrepreneurs who are members of the Gülen movement, motivated by Islamic principles but offering nonreligious education, whose students often excel in academic achievement, science competitions, and university admittance rates. Founded in Turkey by Fethullah Gülen and now active in over 50 countries, the Gülen movement is an offshoot of Said Nursi's (1879-1960) Nurcu movement and derived from an understanding of Islam shaped by the secular Turkish context and by ideas formed in conservative Islamic circles. The Gülen movement seeks to implement Islam at an individual level rather than a state level, emphasizes science education rather than religion alone, and conducts interfaith dialogues. Some Turkish secularists believe that he is trying to transform Turkey into an Islamic state under the guise of peacefulness and goodwill, so Gülen lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S. Education of children in the Middle East, like anywhere in the world, is an arena in which larger social issues play out.

The two children whose skeletons are shown in this photograph were both under 10 years of age, and were probably buried at the same time. An earlier burial of a baby was found at a slightly lower level in the space between them. Archaeologists found these burials in the floor of a house at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic agricultural settlement in Turkey that was continuously occupied between 8000 BCE and 6400 BCE. Many of the settlement's hundreds of houses contained multiple burials. The pits, which were sealed with white plaster lids, lay beneath raised platforms where people slept and worked, living close to their ancestors. Some of the houses were ritually closed and collapsed upon the death of an important family member. According to analysis of skeletons found at Çatalhöyük, life expectancy averaged 34 years for men and 28 years for women.

This infant burial is from Çatalhöyük , a Neolithic settlement in Turkey that was occupied continuously for 2,500 years, between 8000 and 6400 BCE. The infant was between six months and one year old, and the burial demonstrates great care. The infant was placed in a fetal position facing south and rested on a reed mat or basket. Red ochre, a mineral powder, had been used to decorate the body. Two anklets made of bone beads were placed around the feet, and large bead bracelets made of bone and colored stone in blue, black, and white encircled the infant's wrists. The bead artifacts were probably too large to have been worn while the baby was alive, so they may have been burial offerings. Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük preserved this burial intact by excavating it from underneath and constructing a box around it.