Teachers in Massachusetts are getting an introduction to Islam, thanks to a training course titled The Genesis and Genius of Islam: Teachers prep for questions on Islamic history. (Hat tip: twostellas.)

Primary Source, the group that organized the workshop, called “The Genesis and Genius of Islam,” began offering the course three years ago, said Deborah Cunningham, senior program director for the group. The workshop is sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and the Mosaic Foundation out of Virginia.

During the weeklong seminar the teachers heard about the history of Islam from its beginnings through the rule of the Ottoman Empire, received a primer on the art, science and legal traditions of the Islamic cultures and found the wide variety of ways that Muslims practice their religion.

Professors from Boston College, College of the Holy Cross and Harvard and Bridgewater State College took part. Lectures ranged from the birth of Islam, to Islamic art to women’s role in early Islam. Even the lunch breaks were filled with learning opportunities, with screenings of movies and documentaries covering various aspects of Islam.

***

In Massachusetts public schools, Islam comes into the lesson plan when students study world religions as well as topics such as the Crusades and the study of the modern Middle East. Usually these topics are covered in eighth and ninth grades.

The workshop comes at a good time for eighth-grade history teachers.

Robert Dunn, a history teacher at Shrewsbury Middle School, will teach world history to his eighth-graders for the first time this year, after the state changed the order of how history is taught. In past years Dunn taught U.S. history in eighth grade. “A huge chunk (of world history) will be on Islam,” Dunn said. “I’m trying to catch up. (The workshop) has been great.”

When school starts in a few weeks, Dunn said he must be prepared for some pretty frank questions about Islam. “Everything we’re thinking, kids will be saying these things,” Dunn said.

Many student’s perspective on Muslims comes from what they see on the news and from movies and television shows. Dunn hoped to find an Islamic nation he could use as an example of where women have rights more like those in the United States, to dispel some misconceptions.

“Students come in with preconceived notions about things,” Dunn said. “I’m looking for a country to choose that has progressive Islam.”

***

Even if the class is not studying world religions or the Crusades, topics related to Islam pop up often. Discussions about Islam or Muslim countries have been common since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Elizabeth Ward, a history teacher at Natick High School.

“Current event issues happen all the time,” Ward said. “I feel that social studies should be a place to discuss those issues, and give them a historical perspective.”

Students’ knowledge of Muslims and their religion mostly comes from what their parents tell them, television or possibly a teacher, Ward said. Most children have only snippets of information about Islam.

“There is a lot of myth dispelling,” Ward said. “I get kids who really know nothing about it, except the extremists (they see on the news), and to them that’s all Muslims.”

***

Much of the confusion Americans have about Islam comes from looking at the action of Muslims, often the most extreme groups, and what is written in the Muslim holy book, The Koran.

During the workshop, Barbara Petzen, outreach coordinator of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said anyone studying or discussing Muslims must keep in mind the difference between what the Koran says and what is actually practiced.

One of the West’s biggest criticisms about the Muslim world is the treatment of women. In the beginning, however, they had a large role in the religion.

“Realize, women didn’t have the same access to the written,” Petzen said. “And the sections they did have access later may have been edited out.”

The group spent quite a lot of time discussing a subject that fascinates and perplexes many non-Muslims — veiling. Unlike the stereotype, not all Islamic countries require women to wear veils, and the vast majority do not insist on women covering head to toe. Some Muslims see the veil as a sign of prosperity, rather than something oppressive.

“The veil is a symbol of high class,” Petzen said. “(It shows) the ability of a husband to keep his wife out of the work force, as well as being a sign of sexual honor and purity.”

Westerners hear Osama Bin Laden’s anti-technology message and assume that Islamic cultures are backward. Muslims, however, have a strong tradition in math and science, said Ibrahim Kalin, an assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross. Alexandria, Egypt and Baghdad in the Ninth Century were the learning centers of the world. Scholars — Muslims, Christians and Jews alike — came to those cities to study and debate, as well as translate scientific works, Kalin said.

Islamic sailors were the best seamen of the day, Kalin said, who noted that even Christopher Columbus had several Muslim sailors on his voyage that wound up in the New World.

I’ve read a couple of books on Christopher Columbus. Maybe it escaped my notice somehow, but this is the first time I have ever heard the claim that there were several Muslim sailors on Columbus’s voyage to “the East Indies.” The only references Google has are located on Islamist web sites.