this is also true in Europe

LGs mentioned places like South Africa, Nigeria, and India, but he did not mention that - although imposed on them by outsiders - most Africans prefer to use English as a national language, and would prefer it even if it were not the international language. (In the same manner, many African countries still use French, despite its declining global importance.) This is because there is sometimes a great deal of competition between ethnic or tribal groups, and speaking English sort of levels the playing field, without giving preference to any of these groups.

That is right. In these countries, English is a neutral language compared to the ethnically charged languages of each community. Many Indian Dravidians wouldn't appreciate to be forced to speak Hindi, same as many Zulus, Xhosa and Afrikaaners regarding each other's language.

But this happened in Europe too.

Most Europeans have never been monolingual, or at least, not over the whole of European history. Still in recent memory, what we call standard German, Italian, Spanish and French were not really spoken at home in most of their own countries. People spoke the regional varieties, with specific and sometimes important differences with the "standard" language used by the governments. The standard language, in turn, was what allowed a northern and a southern German or Italian to communicate with each other. But each spoke a different language at home. The fate of regional languages has been, however, overwhelmingly negative, because of the presssures for standardisation. But they all existed, and all are well studied; and some are still spoken. And most Europeans were at least bilingual in a regional language and the standard language of their country.

The same still happens today with Arabic: native Arabic speakers speak their local Arabic, and, depending on their level of education, speak a good or not so good "standard" Arabic. The most educated, of course, are also competent in Classical Arabic, which is still taught in the best schools.

The difference is that in Europe the pressure was for standardisation from a central government (which is, in the end, why Dutch and Portuguese survived instead of being re-absorbed into German and Spanish). In the Arabic world, divided between some 20 countries, there is no such unifying pressure.