Interesting snippet from today's i (silly name):
Thatcher had a framed calligraphic text of the Islamic shahada on her dining room wall -

"No god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"

According to Jonathan Aitken she didn't know what it meant and had no interest in finding out. The Syrian Ambassador had presented it to her at some stage in her premiership.
Aitken tells that she knew absolutely nothing about Middle East affairs. He claims that she thought that Sinai was the plural of sinus, which may be a piss-take, but you never know.