Muslim sitcom debuts in Canada (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Lee Carter
BBC News, Toronto

I'm with a group of surprised camels, a 300lb chicken shwarma and a bemused comedy writer in a wintry, wet Toronto square.

We're here for the launch of CBC's new sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, which depicts a Muslim community trying to assimilate in a small prairie town.

It has little in common with the sugary, 1970s American pioneer family drama Little House On The Prairie, jokingly appropriated in the show's title. By contrast, Little Mosque addresses head-on post- 9/11 fears and prejudices.

It's generating lots of publicity in Canada, with or without the camels, largely for breaking new ground as the first Muslim comedy to air on mainstream North American television.

Big city imam

Braving Toronto's cold and drizzle, the show's writer and creator Zarqa Nawaz explains that the inspiration for the show came from her own experiences as a Muslim woman who made a life-changing move to the provincial prairie city of Regina to work in a mosque.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6244199.stm

By weird coincindence, this story was also posted today: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3076549&mesg_id=3076549

The show's writer and creator, happily not wearing a veil: