Honest question, is it really? In which sense do the nations which make up modern Middle Eastern civilisation not match with the description "the most religious civilisation currently in existence".
Side note: there aren't separate civilizations anymore -- it's human civilization, and maybe you can separate out 'Middle Eastern' culture, but that's a very broad term and your statement still doesn't hold up.
Average rate of atheism;
turkey 3%
bahrain N/A assumes 0 maximum possible of 9.8% (other)
kuwait N/A assumes 0 maximum possible rate of 5% (non islamic)
oman N/A assumes 0 less than 5% (non islamic)
qatar N/A assumes 0 max possible 22.5% (other)
saudi arabia atheism expressly illegal
UAE N/A assumes 0 max possible 15 (other)
yemen n/A assumes 0 max possible 1 (other)
Gaza strip 0
iraq N/a assumes 0 max possible 3 (other)
israel 15-37 (split @ 26% :/)
Jordan N/A assumes 0 max possible 2 (other)
Lebanon N/A assumes 0 max possible 5 (other)
Syria 0 (other)
West Bank N/A assumes 0 max possible 8 (other)
Iran N/A assumes 0 max possible 2 (other)
Cyprus 2%
Egypt < 1%
18 countries
total 3 + 26 + 2 + 1 = 32 / 18 = 1.7%
Excuse uberfast formatting, methodology, just check the wikipedia entries then check the atheism rates, combination of the wiki entries on a per country basis + the religion in x articles + demographics of atheism. Compare 1.7% with the figures for a wide variety of western nations referenced at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#Distrib....
I'm kind of baffled by the idea that this is controversial.
I'm a big boy, I can take it. :)