by Les Zsoldos

Created on: May 12, 2010

One of the best shows on television is a show that many may not be familiar with.  In fact, I didn't watch it when it first came out.  I was rather skeptical about the show and doubted that it could be good.  The first time that I watched it, I was pleasantly surprised.  The name of this show is "Little Mosque on the Prairie."

The title of the show obviously reminds viewers of the famous American show "Little House on the Prairie."  "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is a Canadian show which chronicles the lives of Muslims living in a small town in Saskatchewan called Mercy.  Their mosque is actually inside an Anglican church.  At first the Anglicans are not happy to learn that they have Muslims renting part of their church but they later become fond of them.

The show is very funny.  One of the main characters, Fatima, is a Muslim woman from Nigeria who runs Fatima's cafe.  A hilarious scene that I'll never forget is one in which she wears a full-body suit at the local swimming pool because the substitute swimming instructor of her aquafit class is male.  She develops a friendship with Fred Tupper, a conservative radio talk-show host who is initially very suspicious of Muslims.  He often visits her cafe and chats with her.

One of the main characters, Sarah Hamoodi, is also memorable.  She is a convert to Islam whose husband is a Lebanese Muslim.  Though she is a Muslim, other Muslims don't consider her particularly devout.  She rarely prays five times a day, she does not cover her head and in one scene, she even tap dances.  She goes to great lengths to convince one of the conservative Muslims of the mosque, Baber, that tap dancing hardly qualifies as erotic and is thus acceptable for Muslims. 

Baber is another hilarious character.  He's a conversative Muslim who dresses in traditional clothes.  Though he's a conservative Muslim, he's divorced and raises his daughter on his own.  To his disappointment, his daughter refuses to wear the hijab.  She's not as conservative as he is. 

Reverend Magee, the pastor of Mercy Anglican, strikes up a good friendship with Amar, the Muslim imam.  In a hilarious episode, the reverend defeats Baber in an Islamic Trivia Contest.  Baber, a very proud man, can't accept the fact that he has lost.  Even worse, he has lost to a Christian which for him is utterly humiliating.

In many ways, Amar is not a typical imam. 

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