pgogborn
01-09-2007, 11:24 AM
In my dead tree newspaper this morning there is a report of an new television series which I will be adding to my TiVo's wishlist (I can quite understand that it will not be to everybody's sense of humor).Canada gets quirky look at Muslim life in the sticks
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday January 9, 2007
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
...
Little Mosque's eight episodes unroll in the Saskatchewan town of Mercy, where life for its Muslim residents is centred on the mosque. In one episode, an imam warns his followers against the evils of television. "Desperate Housewives? Why should they be desperate when they're only performing their natural womanly duties?" he asks. A young woman in a headscarf whispers to her mother: "Did you tape last night's episode?"
...
The sitcom's pilot shows a south Asian man in an airport queue talking on a phone to his mother about his decision to give up the law for a job at a mosque in the Canadian prairies. The decision is not suicide, he says. No, he is not throwing his life away. "This is Allah's plan for me." Moments later, a police officer claps his hand on the man's shoulder. "Step away from the bags, sir," he says. "You're not going to paradise today."
Now that that's out of the way, Ms Nawaz says the series hopes to focus on a life more ordinary. "The only thing we draw from 9/11 is the paranoia and the misunderstanding and mistrust of Muslims," she said. "Comedy comes out of the quirks and foibles of everyday life."
full report (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1985751,00.html)
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday January 9, 2007
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
...
Little Mosque's eight episodes unroll in the Saskatchewan town of Mercy, where life for its Muslim residents is centred on the mosque. In one episode, an imam warns his followers against the evils of television. "Desperate Housewives? Why should they be desperate when they're only performing their natural womanly duties?" he asks. A young woman in a headscarf whispers to her mother: "Did you tape last night's episode?"
...
The sitcom's pilot shows a south Asian man in an airport queue talking on a phone to his mother about his decision to give up the law for a job at a mosque in the Canadian prairies. The decision is not suicide, he says. No, he is not throwing his life away. "This is Allah's plan for me." Moments later, a police officer claps his hand on the man's shoulder. "Step away from the bags, sir," he says. "You're not going to paradise today."
Now that that's out of the way, Ms Nawaz says the series hopes to focus on a life more ordinary. "The only thing we draw from 9/11 is the paranoia and the misunderstanding and mistrust of Muslims," she said. "Comedy comes out of the quirks and foibles of everyday life."
full report (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1985751,00.html)