Photo by Sam Yu Linda Funsch, who teaches history at Hood College and Frederick Community College, is organizing a screening of the film “Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.”

Funsch teaches history at Hood and Frederick Community colleges.

After years spent working in the Middle East, and decades of teaching college students about the region's history and culture, Funsch has dealt with her share of misconceptions and obsolete generalizations.

The custom of some Muslim women veiling their faces, for example, has nothing to do with Islam, but hails from an upper-class Persian custom of the seventh and eighth centuries.

Islam teaches that both men and women should be educated, she said, though some Westerners see the prohibitive practices of the Taliban in Afghanistan as representative of all Muslim peoples.

"That's a hideous aberration of anything Islamic," she said.

Islam, she said, is as diverse a religion as Christianity.

As an educator, she works to broaden and deepen awareness of a complex culture that is often misrepresented in popular media, she said.

Ignorance about the Middle East breeds fear and hysteria, which can be manifested in public policy, she said. The United States has not always adhered to its stated goal of spreading freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

The American overthrow of a democratically elected leader of Iran in 1953 and the rejection of the Palestinians choice of Hamas in 2006, she said, are examples of not embracing democratic results that might be seen as contrary to American interests.

Equipping people with knowledge allows them to make more informed decisions, though they may not change their viewpoint, she said.

"Apathy is one of the greatest challenges."

She hopes a free public screening next month of the documentary film "Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think" will poke holes in some popularly held beliefs.

The film is based on a six-year Gallup Poll of 35 majority-Muslim nations, she said.

Pollsters asked Muslims what they think of democracy, terrorism, women's and human rights.

Essentially, Muslims worldwide share the aspirations of other people, Funsch said. They want a better life, an education, personal liberty, transparent governments and security.

In many Middle Eastern nations, governments and residents are trying to embrace advanced technology and participate in the world economy, while maintaining their cultural traditions.

Oman is a nation that has developed its infrastructure and education over the past 20 or so years, but maintains its cultural roots in such forms as dress and architecture, Funsch said.

Modesty and honor are highly regarded in Middle Eastern nations, and Westerners would do well to appreciate the separation between the public and private spheres there, she said.

Funsch is organizing a nationwide model Arab League program in the spring. Hood students will represent Yemen.

She will also lead a tour through FCC of historical and spiritual sites in Egypt and Jordan, she said.

"I hope I've brought parts of the Middle East closer to the people of Frederick County."