Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz, produced by WestWind Pictures, and filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan.
The series focuses on the Muslim community in the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan (population 70,000). The primary institutions of the community are the local mosque, presided over by imam Amaar Rashid and located in the rented parish hall of the town’s Anglican church, and Fatima’s Café, a downtown diner run by Fatima Dinssa. The community patriarchs are Yasir Hamoudi, a construction contractor who originally fronted the money to establish the mosque under the pretense that he was renting office space for his business, and Baber Siddiqui, a college economics professor who served as the mosque’s temporary imam until Amaar was hired.
The town of Mercy is governed by Mayor Ann Popowicz. Sarah Hamoudi, Yasir’s wife, works as a public relations officer in Popowicz’s office. However, since Yasir had to leave Mercy and go to Lebanon, Sarah manages his contracting company.
The title alludes to the classic American book and drama series, Little House on the Prairie. The two series are not related aside from the modified version of the title logo.
While the show does derive some of its humour from exploring the interactions of the Muslims with the non-Muslim townspeople of Mercy, and the contrast of conservative Islamic views (held primarily by the characters of Baber and Fatima) with more liberal interpretations of Islam (as represented by Amaar and Rayyan), at its core the show is essentially a traditional sitcom whose most unique trait is the simple fact of being set among an underrepresented and misunderstood cultural community. Nawaz herself has stated that the show’s primary agenda is to be funny, not to be a political platform. She has also stated that she views comedy as one of the most valuable and powerful ways to break down barriers and to encourage dialogue and understanding between cultures.
The series was selected and showcased at the 2009 Dawn Breakers International Film Festival in Zurich.
Home » Comedy » Little Mosque on the Prairie
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January 27, 2012 / Comedy, Little Mosque on the Prairie
A small Muslim community in the prairies finally gets its own mosque–the problem is, it’s in a church. Reverend Magee, who was tricked into the deal by the scheming Yasir, is suddenly very unpopular with his parishioners. The mosque’s new Imam, Amaar Rashid arrives from the big city to smooth things over, but his easy charm and progressive ways do little to convince the locals that Muslims aren’t simply a bunch of terrorists. A handshake deal between the new Imam and [...]
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