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'We're not looking for a purely Muslim viewership'
Dave McGinn, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Zarqa Nawaz used to joke that she wanted to "put the fun back in fundamentalism." Now, the 39-year-old Muslim mother of four (and this week's National Post diarist) just wants to make funny television. But she knows that Little Mosque on the Prairie, a sitcom about a small Muslim community in rural Canada, already has people saying that laughing at the foibles of Muslims in a post-9/11 world isn't just not funny, but downright irresponsible.
"For me, it's never been strange or controversial," says Nawaz. "You write what you know. I'm a Muslim woman who grew up in North America who went to the mosque and was involved in the faith community."
Set in the fictional town of Mercy -- Nawaz originally flirted with the idea of naming the town "Infidel" -- the show follows the lives of Amaar (Zaib Shaikh), a young lawyer who gives up the profession to become the town's Imam. Nawaz, a Regina-based filmmaker, pitched the show to the CBC in 2003. The network has ordered eight episodes, which begin airing tonight.
Satirizing the tensions between Westerners and Muslims is nothing new for Nawaz, a former CBC Radio and film producer. Her five-minute comedy, BBQ Muslims, which showed at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996, told the story of two brothers who are suspected of being terrorists after their barbecue blows up. Nawaz also once made a film called Real Terrorists Don't Belly Dance.
Although Nawaz stresses that the show is a sitcom and not a political satire, it makes plenty of cracks about Westerners' stereotypical fears about Islam. The team working on the show says it's made to appeal to everyone.
"We're not looking for a purely Muslim viewership. We're looking for a viewership which is everybody, and therefore we have to make sure that the stories that we're telling are universal stories," says executive producer Mary Darling.
While getting people to laugh is the primary aim of the show, Nawaz hopes Little Mosque's effect is more than just comedic.
"It would be great if people could get a sense that Muslims have so many similarities to non-Muslims," she says. "It's the same issues, you know, a father and his rebellious teenage daughter and how she dresses; just because you're Muslim your standards may be a little bit different, but they're still the same issues."
As for potential controversy, Nawaz is confident about how viewers will react to tonight's premiere.
"Everyone will be laughing and relieved. We need to do it just to get over this, to get over this incredible paranoia and fear."