Little Mosque on the Prairie

Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie logo.
Format	Comedy
Created by	Zarqa Nawaz
Starring	Zaib Shaikh Carlo Rota Sheila McCarthy Sitara Hewitt Manoj Sood Arlene Duncan Debra McGrath Derek McGrath Brandon Firla Neil Crone
Ending theme	Music/singing by Maryem Tollar
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	79 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mary Darling, Clark Donnelly
Location(s)	Ontario and Saskatchewan, Canada
Running time	22 mins. (approx)
Production company(s)	WestWind Pictures
Broadcast
Original channel	CBC Television
Original run	January 9, 2007 – Present
External links
Website

Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures. It is filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan. The series was selected and showcased at the 2009 Dawn Breakers International Film Festival in Zurich.

Plot

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.

Characters

• Amaar Rashid (Zaib Shaikh) – A Toronto lawyer who answers an ad to become the imam at Mercy's mosque, much to the dismay of his family. He tends to support liberal movements within Islam, sometimes putting him in conflict with the more conservative Muslims in the community. Amaar tends to be sarcastic, which he blames on his work as a lawyer. His wealthy parents (Hrant Alianak and Veena Sood) are not religious at all, and continue to pressure Amaar to return to his much more lucrative law career. He tends to say "I am the imam!" to prove his point or to show that despite his age, he has authority. He usually uses this when other characters (particularly Rayyan and Baber) are fighting and won't listen to reason. Amaar is married to Rayyan.
• Yasir Hamoudi (Carlo Rota) – A contractor who runs his business out of an office at the mosque, he is a practical man who seeks compromise. He puts in an effort to observe his religion, mostly when pressured by his wife or daughter (or his domineering mother when she comes for a visit) or when he can get something out of it, but he tends to slip up. It is implied that the only reason he helps out with the mosque is because he does not want to lose his free office space, but he lost that privilege when the church's bishop learned of the arrangement and ordered Rev. Magee to pay appropriate rent to the Church organization for it which was passed on to Yasir. Yasir is a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party of Canada, although more for the networking opportunities than out of any particular interest in being politically active. His role was reduced in seasons four and five, due to Rota's other acting commitments; within the show, his absence was explained as a temporary return to Lebanon to care for his ailing mother.
• Sarah Hamoudi (Sheila McCarthy) – A former Anglican who works as a public relations agent in the mayor's office, Sarah converted to Islam to marry Yasir. Like her husband, she struggles with Muslim customs and regulations and is often shown up by their more pious daughter Rayyan. She wears the hijab when attending services at the mosque, but not day-to-day.
• Rayyan Hamoudi (Sitara Hewitt) – Yasir and Sarah's daughter, a doctor. She follows Islamic feminism, keeps the sartorial hijab, and takes her religion very seriously. Her Western medical treatments are met with disapproval by Fatima, who uses traditional Nigerian remedies. She is occasionally foiled by her own ambition; in one episode, she insists on being named as the mosque's representative to the local Interfaith Council as her price for letting go of an argument with Amaar, only to discover at her first meeting that the council is really little more than an interfaith bake sale committee. Rayyan has long had feelings for Amaar and they are currently married.
• Baber Siddiqui (Manoj Sood) – A divorced college economics professor and the most conservative member of the Muslim community in Mercy, he acted as the imam prior to Amaar's arrival in the pilot episode; when Amaar briefly quits his job in Season 3, Baber again takes over as imam, and proves to be one of the reasons the community is so determined to get Amaar back. His conservatism often conflicts with the wishes of his teenage daughter Layla, although he loves her dearly (in fact the main reason he has custody of her is that when his ex-wife came to visit him after he moved to Mercy she saw that the only thing he had bothered to unpack was his daughter's picture on the wall). He wears a taqiyah and constantly rants and raves and complains about everything, to the point that most of his acquaintances consider him obnoxious. He once falsely claimed that he was on the American no-fly list to cover up his own fear of flying, resulting in Rayyan and Amaar taking him to the American consulate in Regina three separate times to help him clear his name. He calls most non-Muslims "imbeciles" and "infidels", although it is rather obvious that he is not any sort of dangerous fanatic but just a harmless crank. In the episode "The Letter", Baber takes an interest in a female motivational speaker who is stranded in Mercy (played by Andrea Martin), who in turn becomes interested in him. Everything goes well until Baber utters some anti-Semitic remarks. The motivational speaker takes offense, and reveals to Baber that she herself is Jewish. Baber comes to Amaar for guidance. Amaar reminds him that anti-Semitism is not tolerated in the Muslim faith.
• Fatima Dinssa (Arlene Duncan) – A conservative Nigerian immigrant and the widowed owner of a diner. She is also sarcastic and enjoys engaging in verbal sparring matches, frequently with Fred Tupper, the local bigot and radio "shock jock" who has a crush on her. She hates the Mercy Diner, her competition. She has a son, Jamal (Demetrius Joyette), who hates being forced to play ayo by his mother. She officially becomes a Canadian citizen during the show's run.
• Rev. Duncan Magee (Derek McGrath) – The priest of the Anglican Church which also houses the mosque, he is a good friend of Amaar and the two religious leaders often turn to each other for advice. He is liberal, once offering to perform a gay marriage at the church, and is willing to stand up to the church hierarchy when he believes that it is acting inconsistently with the true message of Christianity. He often laments the sad state of his own church and congregation. He suddenly left the church after the events of season three, replaced by the ambitious younger and distinctly less accommodating Rev. Thorne, played by Brandon Firla, who feels it is his religious duty to compete with Amaar for the souls of the residents of Mercy.
• Mayor Ann Popowicz (Debra McGrath) – The mayor of Mercy, who supports the Muslim community in return for their votes. She is primarily concerned with maximizing the perks of her office and minimizing the amount of work that she actually has to do. She has an uncharacteristically wild streak for a woman in middle age, having been known to date members of the Hell's Angels and has more skeletons in her closet than the local cemetery.
• Fred Tupper (Neil Crone) – The local bigot and the host of a talk show on the local radio station, he often equates Muslims to terrorists who want to take over the country. However, at times he finds himself in the awkward position of siding with the Muslim community, as evidenced in the first season. A flashback episode revealed that his distrust of Muslims stems more from an unpleasant encounter with Baber than from any deeply-held prejudices. His radio rants are to a significant extent a ratings-grabbing persona; while he can be a bit of a condescending jerk off the air, he is like that with everyone and does not actually treat the Muslims any differently than anybody else. He has also had a crush on Fatima which was requited in an episode when Fatima banned him from her diner, and ended up crying from missing him.
• Layla Siddiqui (Aliza Vellani) – Baber's daughter and a representation of an average teenage Muslim girl struggling to find the right balance between her desire to be a good Muslim and her desire for the lifestyle of a regular Canadian teenager who's into music and clothes and boys. She can be rebellious and sarcastic, especially at her father's foibles (she refers to their home as "Baberistan"), but is also very perceptive and insightful.
• Junaid Jaffer, also known as J.J. (Stephen Lobo) – Son of Yasir's friend Karim and former fiancé of Rayyan, who remembered him as a geeky childhood playmate whom she once pushed out of a tree. She wasn't expecting to meet an urbane, handsome, wealthy engineer when first told that Yasir was inviting him over for dinner.
• Joe Peterson (Boyd Banks) – A local farmer and a perpetually trouble-making sidekick of Fred Tupper. Basically a stereotypical hoser, he mostly trades cheap insults with Fred and occasionally causes mayhem by going for a joyride on his tractor. To their mutual surprise, he and Baber have found themselves agreeing on certain matters more often than they expect, developing a friendship only occasionally hampered by cultural differences. He has also found common ground with Sarah, unexpectedly revealing that he had read and loved the novel that her book club was reading. He is mainly a comic relief character, appearing in almost every episode, but having very little significance to the plot.
• Nate Shore (Jeff White)  – Editor and reporter for the local newspaper. He has a very Zen attitude to his job as the main news source of a tiny, tiny town. He is a good friend of Amaar, despite Amaar's occasional exasperation at his freewheeling personality.

Production

Although the show is set in Saskatchewan, the actual production is split between Saskatchewan and Ontario. Episodes 1 and 2 were filmed in Regina, but the rest of season one was filmed in the Toronto area. Indian Head, where a set has been built for the exterior of the mosque, doubles for the show's exteriors.^[1] Film Rescue International's building exterior stands in for the town hall and Certified Plumbing and Heating as the local used car dealership. The Novia Cafe, the front of which is used in the show as a stand-in for Fatima's, is located in Regina.

Actors Zaib Shaikh^[2] and Aliza Vellani are Muslims. Sitara Hewitt (Rayyan) is also of partial Pakistani Muslim descent, but was raised Christian as both of her parents are Anglican Christians.^[3] Manoj Sood (Baber) is a Hindu Punjabi.

Zarqa Nawaz based much of the show on her personal experiences. Many of the characters are partially inspired by her family and friends. The episode "The Barrier" is based on a true happening at Nawaz's mosque when incoming conservative Muslims pressured the imam to put up a barrier separating men and women. The pilot episode also contained a satire of Maher Arar's 2002 detainment.^[2]

In the episode "The Archdeacon Cometh", the archdeacon mentions having to "shut down a church in Dog River", referencing Canadian sitcom Corner Gas on rival network CTV. Carlo Rota and Sheila McCarthy, in character as Yasir and Sarah, also later appeared in a crossover with Brent (Brent Butt) and Hank (Fred Ewanuick) from Corner Gas on the sketch comedy series Royal Canadian Air Farce, debating the location of Mercy and Dog River (both fictional towns) in relation to each other after Yasir and Sarah bought the gas station and fired Brent.

Guest actors who have appeared on the show include Colin Mochrie, Dan Redican, Samantha Bee, Dave Foley, Maria Vacratsis, Sam Kalilieh, Peter Wildman, Sugith Varughese, Hrant Alianak, Veena Sood, Kathryn Winslow, Jayne Eastwood, Patrick McKenna and Tom Jackson, as well as hockey player Darcy Tucker, curler Glenn Howard, and sportscaster Ron MacLean.

Production staff

The show's executive producers are Mary Darling and Clark Donnelly, owners of WestWind Pictures, and Allan Magee. Producers are Colin Brunton and Michael Snook. Associate producer is Shane Corkery, with Jason Belleville, Dan Redican and Zarqa Nawaz as consulting producers.

The writing staff includes or has included Susan Alexander, Cole Bastedo, Jason Belleville, Claire Ross Dunn, Greg Eckler, Sarah Glinski, Karen Hill, Paul Mather, Jackie May, Zarqa Nawaz, Paul Pogue, Al Rae, Dan Redican, Sam Ruano, Vera Santamaria, Rebecca Schechter, Rob Sheridan, and Miles G. Smith. Mather and Sheridan were previously writers for Corner Gas.^[4][5]

The directors for the first four seasons include Michael Kennedy (33 episodes including the pilot and entire first season), Brian Roberts (14), Jim Allodi (6), Steve Wright (4), Jeff Beesley (4), Paul Fox (4), and Zarqa Nawaz (1).

Themes

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.

This is represented by the show's current promotional tagline, "Small town Canada with a little Muslim twist": the religious angle, while always present, is largely tied to and sometimes even secondary to standard and universal sitcom themes such as family, friends and the humour in everyday life. For example, while the show sometimes tackles storylines with a political edge, such as a character being unable to attend a conference in the United States after being wrongly placed on a no-fly list or the mosque being raided by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, even these situations are explored as much for their humour as their politics. The show much more commonly explores purely comedic issues such as whether a Muslim woman still has to cover her hair if the only man who can see her is gay, whether Muslims can curl, whether to haggle with the carpet salesman when buying a prayer rug, or whether a Muslim woman's head scarf is enough to mitigate a bad hair day. Television critics have also credited this very combination of an attention-grabbing premise with conventional and familiar sitcom themes as one of the primary reasons that the show successfully retained an audience after its debut.^[6]

The series also sidesteps issues of stereotyping by having characters in both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities who cross the entire spectrum of political opinion. Baber and Fatima, who represent conservative views within Islam, are balanced by conservative radio host Fred Tupper among the non-Muslims, while Amaar and Rayyan, who represent Islamic liberalism, are balanced by the liberal Anglican Rev. Magee. The more moderate Yasir and Sarah, who try to be good Muslims but aren't particularly strongly defined by their faith, are balanced among the non-Muslims by Mayor Popowicz, who doesn't care what anybody's religious beliefs are as long as they vote for her on election day.

Hewitt's character of Rayyan Hamoudi, in particular, has been singled out in the media as a strong and unique role model for young Muslim women—both for her ability to reconcile a commitment to her Muslim faith with a modern, feminist-inspired Western lifestyle and career,^[7] and as a fashion icon who dresses in clothes that are religiously appropriate yet stylish, professional and contemporary.^[8]

Episodes

Main article: List of Little Mosque on the Prairie episodes

DVD releases

Entertainment One has released the first four seasons of Little Mosque on the Prairie on DVD in Region 1.^[9]

The cover art for the first season DVD.

The series logo used for the cover art of the DVD releases does not use the mosque imagery of the televised version, thus rendering it similar to that used by Little House on the Prairie except for the use of the word "Mosque" instead of "House".

Reception

Unusual for a Canadian television series, Little Mosque received extensive advance publicity in international media, with stories appearing in The New York Times,^[10] the Washington Times and the Houston Chronicle, as well as on CNN,^[11] NPR^[12] and the BBC^[13]

The show premiered on Tuesday, January 9, 2007, at 8:30 p.m. It airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. (all times half an hour later in Newfoundland). The Monday, January 15 broadcast was a repeat of the pilot.

The series premiere drew an audience of 2.1 million,^[14] an exceptionally strong rating for domestic programming in the Canadian television market, and on par with Canadian ratings for popular American series. It was, in fact, the largest audience the CBC had achieved in a decade for an entertainment program. By comparison, Corner Gas, one of the highest-rated Canadian TV shows, attracts just under a million and a half viewers for a typical episode. The second episode, airing against the second night of the much-anticipated season premiere of American Idol in most markets, had 1.2 million viewers,^[15] a sharp drop but still a high rating for a Canadian sitcom, and very high for CBC Television, which has had trouble garnering large audiences for its scripted programming in recent years.

At the end of the show's season on March 7, 2007, the show attracted 1.1 million viewers, or an average of 1.2 million for the season. CBC Television renewed the show for a second season consisting of 20 episodes, which began airing on October 3, 2007, and continued to attract an average of one million viewers per episode.

CBC renewed the show for a third season on March 7, 2008. Season three premiered on CBC Television October 1, 2008. In its third season ratings declined and as of December 2008 it was attracting a quarter of its original audience.^[16] In its fourth season ratings declined further and as of December 2009 it was drawing 420,000 viewers a week, or twenty percent of its original audience.^[17]

On February 11, 2011, it was announced that CBC had renewed the series for a sixth and final season.^[18][19]

Critical reception

Canadian writer/producer Ken Finkleman (best known for his CBC series The Newsroom) describes the show as cynical. "There’s deep confusion and racism about the place of Islam in the Western world and it’s the thing that’s broiling up under everything in the world, and the show presents this world where everything is happy."^[20]

Weekly ratings

#	Episode	Air Date	Viewers (m)
1	"Little Mosque"	January 9, 2007	2.178
2	"The Barrier"	January 17, 2007	1.232
3	"The Open House"	January 31, 2007	1.311
4	"Swimming Upstream"	February 6, 2007	1.085
5	"The Convert"	February 14, 2007	1.112
6	"The Archdeacon Cometh"	February 21, 2007	0.906
7	"Mother-in-Law"	February 28, 2007	1.001
8	"Playing with Fire"	March 7, 2007	1.128

International syndication

On May 8, 2007, WestWind Pictures announced that the show would be airing in France, Switzerland, and francophone African countries beginning in July. The French television company Canal+ Group will distribute the show's first season in July to non-subscribers of Canal+, a channel to which viewers must subscribe in order to watch. French voice-actors will dub the show.^[21]

On September 26, 2007, WestWind Pictures announced that the show would soon air in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, United Arab Emirates, Finland and Turkey.^[22] On October 2, 2007, Al Jazeera English confirmed that the United Arab Emirates and Finland had signed deals to begin airing the series in 2008.^[23]

From June 12, 2008, SRC, CBC's French-language station in Canada, started to air the show, dubbed in French, under the title La Petite Mosquée dans la Prairie.^[24]

Awards

The show was nominated for Best Writing at the 2007 Canadian Comedy Awards. The episode "The Convert" was nominated for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series and Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series at the 2007 Gemini Awards. The show was also nominated for Best Television Series – Comedy at the 2007 Directors Guild of Canada Awards.

Internationally, Little Mosque won awards for Best International Television Series and Best Screenplay at the 2007 RomaFictionFest. Former Canadian federal Member of Parliament Rahim Jaffer, who is Muslim, and director Michael Kennedy introduced the program screening.

The show won the Canada Award for media representation of multiculturalism at the 2007 Gemini Awards, and the 2007 Search for Common Ground Award, an international humanitarian award whose past recipients have included Muhammad Ali, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter.

Since the producers of the show are Baha'is, it was selected and showcased in the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival in both 2008 and 2009 festivals making its first international film festival premieres in the US and Europe.

United States version

In June 2008 Fox announced plans to adapt Little Mosque on the Prairie into an American setting, in partnership with the show's production company, WestWind Pictures. The planned deal would not affect the Canadian version if it were to be picked up in the United States by another distributor or network.^[25][26]

References

1. ^ Little Mosque' now calls Indian Head home. The Leader-Post (Regina). July 28, 2008.
2. ^ ^{a b} Zarqa Nawaz on 'Little Mosque' (Interview, MP3, Flash). Fresh Air; NPR. January 17, 2007.
3. ^ EGO Magazine: Sitara Hewitt EGO Magazine. October 8, 2008.
4. ^ Witty and wise, Little Mosque is enjoying a fine second season. The Ottawa Citizen. October 24, 2007.
5. ^ "Little Mosque steps on the Gas", The Globe and Mail, March 3, 2007.(subscription required)
6. ^ "Season finale on Mosque", CanWest News Service, March 5, 2008.
7. ^ "The rights stuff: Sitara Hewitt resurrects women's-lib issues as Little Mosque's Dr. Rayyan Hamoudi", canoe.ca, March 5, 2008
8. ^ Hijab Chique, a Muslim fashion blog which frequently uses Rayyan's wardrobe as inspiration.
9. ^ CBC Shop Online, Pre-Order Little Mosque On The Prairie: The Complete Second Season DVD
10. ^ McFarquhar, Neil (2006-12-07). "Sitcom's Precarious Premise: Being Muslim Over Here". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/arts/television/07mosq.html?ex=1323147600&en=d22f5b36a36e920d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss/. Retrieved 2007-01-07. 
11. ^ "Glenn Beck (interview with series creator Zarqa Nawaz)". CNN. December 12, 2006. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0612/12/gb.01.html. Retrieved 2007-01-07. 
12. ^ NPR : CBC to Tell the Story of Little Mosque on the Prairie
13. ^ BBC website: "Muslim sitcom debuts in Canada"
14. ^ "A whopping two million viewers tune in to 'Little Mosque'". The Globe and Mail. 2007-01-10. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070110.wlilmosk1010/BNStory/Entertainment/home. Retrieved 2007-01-10. 
15. ^ CBC's 'Little Mosque' viewership drops off from hyped debut, but still respectable, Canadian Press via CBC.ca, January 18, 2007
16. ^ Brioux, Bill "'Heroes,' 'Little Mosque on the Prairie' among shows needing work", Canadian Press, 2008-10-27. Retrieved on 2008-12-2.
17. ^ Brioux, Bill " "Being Erica Means Being on the Bubble", 2009-12-10. Retrieved on 2009-12-15.
18. ^ "CBC Renews Lots of Stuff". Macleans. February 11, 2011. http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/02/11/cbc-renews-lots-of-stuff/. Retrieved March 21, 2011. 
19. ^ Harris, Bill (June 8, 2011). "Cover Me Canada’ takes centre stage". Toronto Sun. http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/08/cover-me-canada-takes-centre-stage. Retrieved June 10, 2011. 
20. ^ http://www.eyeweekly.com/film/interview/article/111341
21. ^ "Press Release: Little Mosque on the Prairie Producers Ink First International Distribution Deal With French Broadcasting Giant Canal+". CCNMatthews. May 8, 2007. http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=650465. Retrieved 2007-05-08. 
22. ^ "Little Mosque goes international". CBC News. 2007-09-26. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2007/09/25/mosque-deals.html. Retrieved 2007-09-26. 
23. ^ "A Little Mosque Grows". Al Jazeera English. 2007-10-02. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/878B9728-ADA1-4058-8F90-6F241D6FC619.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-03. 
24. ^ "Radio-Canada présentera «La petite mosquée dans la prairie»". Showbizz.net. 2007-10-29. http://www.showbizz.net/articles/20071029201324/radiocanada_presentera_petite_mosquee_dans_prairie.html. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 
25. ^ Surette, Tim (June 10, 2008). Fox importing Mosque. TV.com.
26. ^ Vlessing, Etan (June 10, 2008). Fox picks up rights to build U.S. 'Mosque'. The Hollywood Reporter.

External links

• Little Mosque on the Prairie
• Little Mosque on the Prairie at the Internet Movie Database
• Little Mosque on the Prairie at TV.com