CBC's sitcom about Muslims gets international buzz.
It's called Little Mosque on the prairie. It's set in a fictional Saskatchewan town called Mercy. It's goten attention from most major news outlets. But I couldn't find the BBC story.
CBC article
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:In a show that will be the first of its kind on North American TV, CBC plans to begin a new comedy series about a small community of Muslims living in rural Saskatchewan.
Yasir (Carlo Rota, left) and Baber (Manoj Sood, right) discuss the beginning of Ramadan, the month of fasting.
Little Mosque on the Prairie doesn't come to air until Jan. 9, but already it has attracted attention from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and satirical talk-show host Stephen Colbert.
The show's creator, Zarqa Nawaz, says she hopes the cheeky send-up of stereotypes and the clash of cultures will show Muslims in a new light.
"That Muslims can be funny and are just like everyone else," she said in an interview with CBC Television.
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Little Mosque on the Prairie creator and producer Zarqa Nawaz.
(Sophie Giraud/CBC)
A Regina-based mother of four, Nawaz says she hopes her children will see the new face of Canada in the show.
"I'd like them to be able to watch TV and see people who also look like them. So they can also connect that way," she said.
Shot in Toronto in 2006, the show focuses on a Muslim community in the fictional Prairie town of Mercy, following family conflicts and the community's interaction with their neighbours.
"It's based on my own observations growing up as Muslim in North America," she said.
Toronto-born actor Zaib Shaikh plays a young lawyer turned religious leader in the series.
The show isn't meant to be political, he said, and doesn't deal with political themes.
"It's a show that's meant to be funny, that shows an aspect of Canadian culture that just happens to be Muslim."
In one episode, a father fights with his adolescent daughter over what she can wear to school. In another, a battle of sexes erupts when a spiritual leader wants to put a divider between men and women in the mosque.
The show is a half-hour sitcom with humour arising out of the situations, Nawaz said, adding that her main goal is to get people laughing.
"Muslims have reacted very favourably to the show, because they want to see themselves on screen as real people," she said.
Nawaz was born in England, grew up in Toronto and moved to Saskatchewan 10 years ago. Her BBQ Muslims was a hit at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996.
Actor Carlo Rota, who has a part in this show, as well as the hit U.S. series 24, says he thinks Little Mosque on the Prairie could only be made in Canada.
"I get heavy guys, bad guys, guys that garrotte, guys that strafe with machine guns," he says of his usual roles for TV.
American TV is too timid to make a show with such a fresh perspective, he said.
The show premieres next Tuesday and then will air on Monday nights and be repeated on Wednesday nights.
CNN article below. It was also featured on Paula Zhan now and the Colbert report.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:TORONTO, Ontario (Hollywood Reporter) -- "Little Mosque on the Prairie," a Canadian sitcom that debuts Tuesday, January 9, depicts immigrant Muslims bumping up against white locals in rural Saskatchewan.
Zarqa Nawaz, creator and writer of the groundbreaking show, insists she's an equal-opportunity satirist taking dead-aim at both Muslim and Canadian stereotypes in a post-September 11 world.
"I expect both groups will be wondering if the other finds the show funny," says Nawaz.
There are predictable jokes about Muslim beliefs clashing with Canadian traditions. In one scene, a father wearing a kufi, or a knitted cap worn by devout Muslims, protests that his Canadian-born daughter wearing a revealing tank top looks "like a Protestant."
"Don't you mean prostitute?" the daughter asks.
"No, I meant a Protestant," the father replies.
In another scene, a young man of Middle Eastern origins with a Canadian accent is heard in an airport check-in line telling his mother via cell phone that his father shouldn't think his choosing to stop being a Toronto lawyer to become an imam in Saskatchewan amounts to career "suicide."
"This is Allah's plan for me," the young man says in passing, before an arresting cop appears suddenly and tells the surprised lawyer that he won't be making that appointment in Paradise.
Nawaz, a British-born Muslim and mother of four who settled on the Prairies with her family a decade ago, downplays the idea that the homegrown comedy may spark widespread controversy.
She insists her comedy springs from a relatively uneventful life in multicultural North America, unlike Europe, for example, where relations between Muslims and the wider Christian community are often a powder keg.
"North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin and questions of Canadian identity can produce a sitcom," she says.
To ensure it doesn't cause unforeseen offense with "Little Mosque on the Prairie," the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) has hired an independent Muslim-Canadian consultant to comb through the sitcom's creative elements and suggest possible alterations.
Kirstine Layfield, CBC executive director of network programming, says recent preview screenings with select Muslim audiences elicited encouraging results -- laughter.
"Just doing the series is a risk in itself, but one the public broadcaster should take on if we're to help communicate authenticity of living in Canada," Layfield adds.
Mary Darling, one of three executive producers shopping the Canadian comedy stateside, says a U.S. airing may help break down barriers between faith communities.
"It won't do any harm, and maybe it can do some good," she says.
Show's official website, http://www.littlemosque.ca/
Watch the clips and laugh a bit.
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Originally Posted by PanzerJager
). Popularizing all Muslims to be all warm and cuddly is definitely not a good idea (since a substantial number of them seem to want to separate our heads from our bodies) but easing the tensions and bridging the cultural gap between us and the “good” Muslims is a decent idea. 
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