LOS ANGELES Most Americans do not associate Islam with medical advances or cutting-edge technology, but perhaps they should think again: Hospitals were an Islamic invention, Muslims saved the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers and they were the first to use paper widely.

"Hostility exists against Muslims in the United States. People think about the guy in Afghanistan who is blowing up statues rather than the guy down the street who is a dentist," said Rob Gardner, who produced and directed a documentary about Islam for the Public Broadcasting System.

According to Reuters, Gardner said his documentary, ****Empire of Faith,**** which was aired on May 8, sought to avoid negative stereotypes. Much of the program is spent looking at the positive achievements of the first 1,000 years of Islam.

In making it, Gardner became the first American filmmaker to work in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He said Iranians were the most relaxed of all the Muslims he worked with to make the program, which was also filmed in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Spain and Turkey.

"We were never restricted in Iran," he said.

During the rare moments the film touches on something negative, like the fratricide of the Ottoman emperors, it does so in a sympathetic way. "It may have been cruel but it worked for the Ottomans," Islamic art historian Esin Atil said after outlining the benefits of such a policy.

On another occasion there is a discussion about young Christian boys being "recruited" as slaves of the sultan, but the emphasis is on the great education they received and the marvelous prospects they had for advancement.

The documentary seeks to focus on what unites Jews, Christians and Muslims, such as a belief in one God, and plays down differences. "The core values and the basic starting point are very much the same," said Gardner.

The dome of the rock in Bait-ul-Moqaddas is described as the site where Abraham is believed to have offered to sacrifice his son Isaac. There is no mention of the Muslim belief that it was his eldest son Ishmael, and not Isaac, that was offered to God.

The documentary goes from Islam's foundation by the Prophet Mohammad (S) in the 7th century to the splendors of the reign of Ottoman Emperor Suleyman the Magnificent in the 16th century.

There are frequent favorable comparisons of Islam with Europeans, who took a long time to recover from the demise of the Roman Empire in the 5th century and had only limited achievements in both science and culture until they rebounded with the Italian-led Renaissance in the 14th century.

"It may sound like there was an ax to grind but it had more to do with a writer trying to surprise an audience (with Islamic cultural superiority)," said Gardner, adding that comparisons between Islam and Europe in the documentary centered on artistic and scientific endeavor and barely touched on the lives of ordinary citizens.

"It think if you took a Muslim peasant he would be cleaner and have better clothing (than his European counterpart) but he would still be illiterate and poor. We didn't spend much time on the ratty end of the scale," Gardner said.

The program provides few details about the teachings of Islam, apart from its emphasis on monotheism and social justice, a decision Gardner admits disappointed some Muslims.

"This was never meant to be about religion. Explaining this stuff takes a lot of time," he said.

More serious Muslim objections have centered on the inclusion in the documentary of a painting of Prophet Mohammad (S) that shows his face. Muslims, particularly those in the Indian subcontinent, believe such depictions are forbidden.

He said many Americans have little understanding of Islam or its achievements and what knowledge they do have centers on the activities of the "extreme end". "It is much more interesting to hear about chopping hands off than a heart surgeon," he said.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, Gardner said, a Jordanian was immediately arrested and the Islamic community in that city faced much hostility. "There was an immediate feeling that if something blew up, the Muslims blew it up," he said.

The actual perpetrator of the bombing, which killed 168 people, Timothy McVeigh, is to be executed on May 16.

Saying Jews had a long history of being treated as outsiders by Christians but were now "almost completely assimilated" in the United States, Gardner noted the same may happen over time with Muslims.

"It is the nature of big cultures that it takes time to absorb and accept what is different, he said. His documentary appears to be an attempt to help smooth that transition.