Power of education
Read this article on Powerful Jews and response on desicritics.
The original article was a bit too long and most of it was repetitive. But if I got it right then there were two important parts in that article.
"Question: So, why are Jews so powerful?
Answer: Education."
and
"So, why are Muslims so powerless?
Answer: Lack of education!"
I would not say that Jews are most powerful and Muslims are most powerless in the world, however I don't see why I should disagree with the two reasoning above. If a religion emphasizes more on education, its bound to have more intellectuals. In today's world you cannot ignore the power of knowledge. Yes you can say that jews or for that christians have english as their basic language which is the language of most part of the knowledge available in the world today. However you cannot ignore the emphasis they put on literacy.
I have always believed in the power of education. All the issues in this world can be settled with proper knowledge transfer. Think of global warming, educate people about it and they would use the resources carefully. Think of international disputes, educate people about the issues and they would come up with an amicable solution. When you see a disease like AIDS which does not have a cure yet, the best option you are left with is educate people about it.
Religious principles might not be the only reason for the growth of people belonging to a particular religion, however these principles can have a huge impact on the social development.