Little Mosque on the Prarie...

[Selene]

Has anyone seen this show?

The series focuses on the Muslim community in the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan (population 14,000). 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.

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.

http://en.wikipedia...._on_the_Prairie

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/little-mosque-on-the-prairie-courics-dream-tv-show-now-airing-in-canada/ <<<<this link has a seven minute clip of the first episode.

Adam

Edited December 31, 2010 by Selene

[caroljane]

Has anyone seen this show?

The series focuses on the Muslim community in the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan (population 14,000). 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.

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.

http://en.wikipedia...._on_the_Prairie

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/little-mosque-on-the-prairie-courics-dream-tv-show-now-airing-in-canada/ <<<<this link has a seven minute clip of the first episode.

Adam

[caroljane]

Yes, fun show, very canadian, Have you seen Corner Gas? Also lowkey funny and also set in Saskatchewan (I think). Btw Saskatchewan is the most prosperous province, tho it's had a socialist govt for decades. It must be the oil or something.

Also on Cdn Tv, have you seen Battle of the Blades? Best.Reality.Show.Ever.

[Mike11]

Little Mosque isn't bad. Its funny and I think shows the reality of Canadian Muslims. Sure there are some issues with how the community is funded and we have had some close calls with terrorism but every Muslim I've met has been a good person who loves this country.

I am however cynical about the show's origins. The CBC is a pompous, sanctimonious, FOX-News-North in reverse. I have a feeling a conversation like this took place between 2 white execs who have never met a Muslim -

"Gee, post 9/11 those damn dirty Yanks have been rampant Islamophobes, we should do something to show how enlightened and perfect Canada is!"

"Yah!"

"If we could just put the damn dirty zionists in their place too..."

"Yah Weinstien! Let's bastardize that old damn-dirty-Yank show 'Little House on the Prairie' that was a jewish show, back when Jews were a good little minority."

The show veers into politics quite a bit and the villain in the first few episodes is obviously a Rush Limbaugh clone. He's given a lot of weight in the story despite the fact that people like him are not given air time in Canada, another reason why the show is a bit like a hate letter to the States.

[caroljane]

"Hate letter", good grief. Acknowledging the closeness/distance of the US, culturally and politically, is a main source of Canadian comedy. Psychologizing the CBC is of course a national sport, but Joe, you're confusing the two.

Btw if you think "Battle of the Blades" was a hate letter to "Skating with the Stars") though BB preceded it by 2 years --well, such a letter would have been justified.

Little Mosque isn't bad. Its funny and I think shows the reality of Canadian Muslims. Sure there are some issues with how the community is funded and we have had some close calls with terrorism but every Muslim I've met has been a good person who loves this country.

I am however cynical about the show's origins. The CBC is a pompous, sanctimonious, FOX-News-North in reverse. I have a feeling a conversation like this took place between 2 white execs who have never met a Muslim -

"Gee, post 9/11 those damn dirty Yanks have been rampant Islamophobes, we should do something to show how enlightened and perfect Canada is!"

"Yah!"

"If we could just put the damn dirty zionists in their place too..."

"Yah Weinstien! Let's bastardize that old damn-dirty-Yank show 'Little House on the Prairie' that was a jewish show, back when Jews were a good little minority."

The show veers into politics quite a bit and the villain in the first few episodes is obviously a Rush Limbaugh clone. He's given a lot of weight in the story despite the fact that people like him are not given air time in Canada, another reason why the show is a bit like a hate letter to the States.

[Mike11]

"Hate letter", good grief. Acknowledging the closeness/distance of the US, culturally and politically, is a main source of Canadian comedy. Psychologizing the CBC is of course a national sport, but Joe, you're confusing the two.

Btw if you think "Battle of the Blades" was a hate letter to "Skating with the Stars") though BB preceded it by 2 years --well, such a letter would have been justified.

1) The CBC staff are little more than partisan hacks who would have found themselves jobless if not for a small band of comedians from Newfoundland.

2) What is the right wing journalist in the show if not an easy pot shot at the damn-dirty-Yanks?

[kiaer.ts]

Mark Steyn famously reviewed the show: The little mosque that couldn't

for which he was brought up on and tried for hate crimes in Canada: Notes on a show trial.

Looks like the real joke here is the Great White Nought itself.

Edited December 31, 2010 by Ted Keer

[caroljane]

Mark Steyn famously reviewed the show: The little mosque that couldn't

for which he was brought up on and tried for hate crimes in Canada: Notes on a show trial.

Looks like the real joke here is the Great White Nought itself.

[caroljane]

Yes, we are all very pleased for Mark and support him in his crusade to become Martyr of Political Correctness (Northern Division) of the decade. I hear he is safe in hiding and getting enough to eat. Ezra says hi.

Mark Steyn famously reviewed the show: The little mosque that couldn't

for which he was brought up on and tried for hate crimes in Canada: Notes on a show trial.

Looks like the real joke here is the Great White Nought itself.

[Mike11]

I swear in the last week the human rights tribunal has come up a dozen times on here.

[caroljane]

Human rights - we got 'em, we flaunt 'em.

No need to swear!

I swear in the last week the human rights tribunal has come up a dozen times on here.

[Mike11]

Human rights - we got 'em, we flaunt 'em.

No need to swear!

You do not what commission I'm talking about right?

[caroljane]

Yes, the HRC, it's an offshoot of the 1982 Charter of Rights incorporated into our constitution that year, and has been a huge headache to our overburdened judicial system ever since. It's also been the playground of underemployed lawyers, the court of last resort for many viciously abused humans, and the grandstand for various lobby groups. I name no names, but we all know who has been making hay where the sun doesn't really shine.

Human rights - we got 'em, we flaunt 'em.

No need to swear!

You do not what commission I'm talking about right?

[Mike11]

Just read the National Embarrassment - Mark Steyn - in Maclean's. The guy is an idiot, and a bigot but this is a free country so there should not have been legal action taken against him.

His argument is basically, "All dem dare mooslimes be terrists so I be wantin dem on da tv shone's such".

His statements are factually wrong. Many of the characters are portrayed by Muslims of Pakistani, African and Arab descent. Muslims, are unfortunately, sometimes victims of government persecution. Not all dem dare rag heads be blowin up our bizniz.

The guy is an over rated fool, I hope his speaking tours in countries other than my own continue to occupy his time.

[caroljane]

I agree Joel, Steyn is an embarrassment but we can take heart, i believe he is not ours but Britain's, or maybe he is a free mind of no allegiance like his mentor lord Black of Crossharbour. Actually I don't know his citizenship

(maybe he has renounced it in solidarity with Conrad).Question please!

Just read the National Embarrassment - Mark Steyn - in Maclean's. The guy is an idiot, and a bigot but this is a free country so there should not have been legal action taken against him.

His argument is basically, "All dem dare mooslimes be terrists so I be wantin dem on da tv shone's such".

His statements are factually wrong. Many of the characters are portrayed by Muslims of Pakistani, African and Arab descent. Muslims, are unfortunately, sometimes victims of government persecution. Not all dem dare rag heads be blowin up our bizniz.

The guy is an over rated fool, I hope his speaking tours in countries other than my own continue to occupy his time.

[kiaer.ts]

I agree Joel, Steyn is an embarrassment but we can take heart, i believe he is not ours but Britain's, or maybe he is a free mind of no allegiance like his mentor lord Black of Crossharbour. Actually I don't know his citizenship

(maybe he has renounced it in solidarity with Conrad).Question please!

Just read the National Embarrassment - Mark Steyn - in Maclean's. The guy is an idiot, and a bigot but this is a free country so there should not have been legal action taken against him.

His argument is basically, "All dem dare mooslimes be terrists so I be wantin dem on da tv shone's such".

His statements are factually wrong. Many of the characters are portrayed by Muslims of Pakistani, African and Arab descent. Muslims, are unfortunately, sometimes victims of government persecution. Not all dem dare rag heads be blowin up our bizniz.

The guy is an over rated fool, I hope his speaking tours in countries other than my own continue to occupy his time.

Your moral superiority to a best selling author whose arguments you can't refute, whose words you do not quote, whose style you cannot parallel, and about whose identity (He's a Canuck) you are ignorant must be a great source of comfort.

You are lucky. You have the CBC and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Unfortunately for us, we Americans have privately owned radio stations and cable new networks, and things called bookstores, so it is not so easy to be so totally and conveniently ignorant of the man's work and positions.

[caroljane]

"Moral superority to a best selling author'"-- KNOCKOUT PUNCH.

such a thing could not be and I crawl away. (Well its New Years I would be crawling anyway)

[william.scherk]

Mark Steyn famously reviewed the show: The little mosque that couldn't

for which he was brought up on and tried for hate crimes in Canada: Notes on a show trial.

Looks like the real joke here is the Great White Nought itself.

Steyn won the BC case hands-down, and good for him.

I dislike his fundamentalism and his anti-Mooslim rantings, but he is a damn good writer, and an effective polemicist. He is also a bit of a slop-hound as a journalist, but hey. Fact checking his hilarious Little Mosque review reveals that his claim that all the actors are non-Muslim is, well, hooey. Ho hum. Although he is a citizen of Canuckistan, he lives in New England.

The Great White Nought is a snarky little notion, unlike the Little Mosque show, which is more a time warped Andy Griffith Show, or as the serie's tag puts it, "Small town Canada with a little Muslim twist." Oddly, or not so oddly, the series is broadcast in Israel and other Middle Eastern nations.

Canadian Muslims are pretty much like Canadian Catholics, save that more Catholics wear habits than Muslims wear niqab.** The National Council of Imams is pretty darn boring about their place in the scheme of things, even going so far as to issue a very Canucki seven-point declaration that hit the international news this past August. It's a classic Canuckistani bleat about tolerance and freedom and blah blah blah, and makes the Muslims about as scary as Ukrainians, and slightly more boring and deluded than Anglicans.

Not to say that we don't have our own out and out nutcase Islamic leaders like Zijad Delic and Mohamed Elmasry, but they are balanced out by the likes of Hamid Slimi and Tarek Fatah. The many Muslim organizations are generally given to the same kinds of squabbling as any bunch of god-intoxicated people. The university orgs are probably the most demented, but are on a par with the demented neo-Zionists, no more righteous and one-eyed than ARI campus clubs . . .

I realize Ted has a necessarily limited view of Canadian reality, and I hope my fellow citizens of the Northern Socialist Hellhole (Carol and Joel) don't take his crabbiness to heart. OL is overwhelmingly American, and the Canadian 'don't give a shit' attitude sometimes gets mixed up with the loathsome Canadian smugness.

I say, Ted, some weekend you and your boyfriend should cross the border and whoop it up in Montreal, maybe get married, and see what a seething pit of horror that multicultural burg can be.

Adam, here's an example of the Little Mosque show from its third season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIgUetvSwg

____________

** The Socialist Hellhole has 13 million Catholics and about 700,000 Muslims.

Edited January 1, 2011 by william.scherk

[Mike11]

Your moral superiority to a best selling author whose arguments you can't refute, whose words you do not quote, whose style you cannot parallel, and about whose identity (He's a Canuck) you are ignorant must be a great source of comfort.

You are lucky. You have the CBC and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Unfortunately for us, we Americans have privately owned radio stations and cable new networks, and things called bookstores, so it is not so easy to be so totally and conveniently ignorant of the man's work and positions.

Well. My wagons have been circled. My evil evasions crushed by your extensive knowledge of my country. You Sir, are truly a Gentlemen and a Scholar.

[caroljane]

Steyn is a very good writer, for an expat. Not as good as the Feschuk brothers though. When did MS ever write anything decent on hockey?

Your moral superiority to a best selling author whose arguments you can't refute, whose words you do not quote, whose style you cannot parallel, and about whose identity (He's a Canuck) you are ignorant must be a great source of comfort.

You are lucky. You have the CBC and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Unfortunately for us, we Americans have privately owned radio stations and cable new networks, and things called bookstores, so it is not so easy to be so totally and conveniently ignorant of the man's work and positions.

Well. My wagons have been circled. My evil evasions crushed by your extensive knowledge of my country. You Sir, are truly a Gentlemen and a Scholar.

[Selene]

William:

Pretty amusing show:

Here is the complete episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIgUetvSwg Pt. 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSQB229A5E Pt. 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giJh1kXMdAA Pt. 3

I am surprised that it has not generated the kinds of adverse blow back that the cartoons have generated.

Any ideas as to why this has escaped fatwas and other harsh reactions against the CBC, the shows actors or the producers.

Adam

[kiaer.ts]

The Great White Nought is a snarky little notion

Oh, my. Did I say "Great White Nought"? Must have been a Steynian slip.

And unless the women you are pandering are Ukrainian expats, William, why would either my boyfriend or I want to marry anyone from Montreal?

Edited January 2, 2011 by Ted Keer

[Selene]

Oh, my. Did I say "Great White Nought"? Must have been a Steynian slip.

And unless the women you are pandering are Ukrainian expats, William, why would either my boyfriend or I want to marry anyone from Montreal?

I say, Ted, some weekend you and your boyfriend should cross the border and whoop it up in Montreal, maybe get married, and see what a seething pit of horror that multicultural burg can be.

Ted, I thought he was implying that you and your boyfriend get married to each other because you can't do that in NY and many other states...

you know that snarky Canadian attitude he referred to ...

We should have annexed Canada when we had the chance!

Adam

[kiaer.ts]

The Great White Nought is a snarky little notion

Oh, my. Did I say "Great White Nought"? Must have been a Steynian slip.

And unless the women you are pandering are Ukrainian expats, William, why would either my boyfriend or I want to marry anyone from Montreal?

Your own echoed accusations of "fundamentalism" and anti-Mooslim ranting against Steyn are, without quotes to back them up, much worse than snarkiness - they are smears, Wiiliam. You are better than that.

Steyn's America Alone has been in print and on the top of the charts for years, even if Amazon doesn't ship to the Kaczynski-style huts most of you pinkish-green loyalists live in. Surely we can get some actual quotes of his solecisms and atrocities?

[william.scherk]

I am surprised that it has not generated the kinds of adverse blow back that the cartoons have generated.

It's not really provocative, Adam, and not particularly profound. The only notable 'blowback' came from Steyn.

I did find some criticism in a 2007 story from Al Jazeera's English edition -- but it seems the reaction was from secular Muslims in Canada, rather than from the crazed bunny-breeding Eurabian jihadis of Steyn's nightmares:

But not all Muslims see the sitcom as a true representation of their community.

Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), an organisation of secular Muslims based in Toronto, says: "The vast majority of Muslims in North America don't go to mosques."

He said: "I believe there's an attempt by Islamic groups to sanitise what happens in mosques. We know that most mosques give political sermons."

Fatah said he believes this series is "a step backward".

Farzana Hassan, president of the MCC, says the sitcom portrays Muslims from a narrow narrative and is offended by the way non-Muslims are portrayed.

She said: "I would have liked to have seen [the women in Little Mosque] not wear the hijab.

"The bigotry of small-town white Canadians has been exaggerated."

She would have preferred to see more Muslims appear in mainstream Canadian shows, instead of separately in their own series.

Second season

Darling says she is aware of criticism from some of Canada's secular Muslims, but says a mosque was chosen as a setting because the sitcom is based on the experiences of its creator, Nawaz, who is a practising Muslim.

Darling says other people have criticised the show for using "hokey humour".

But, as far as she is concerned, Little Mosque "entertains and informs at the same time ... and will help race relations" in Canada.

I suspect that a lot of Canucki Muslims like their Islam 'light' -- even if they are not huge fans of Irshad Manji, they just want to get along without much fuss and bother.

What might interest you, Adam, as an indication of the relative weight given to religion, is the recent mayoral election in Calgary, Alberta. The new Mayor is Muslim, Naheed Nenshi.

Edited January 2, 2011 by william.scherk