[Muslims must boycott the TV series “The Little Mosque
on the Prairies” and here is why:]
The other night I received a phone call: “Br. Meer,
are you watching the TV? There is something you need
to watch, I just happened to be flipping channels and
I saw this horrible thing..” - the caller then gave me
the channel number and said “Please watch it quickly
before it ends”.
It is not unusual for me to get phone calls like this.
As a freelance writer, my readers let me know if there
was a debate or a documentary worth watching, which I
appreciated. I asked him “Tell me quickly what is it
about?” He said “The Imam is vulgar! The Little Mosque
on the Prairie imam! Watch it! Be quick!” and, he hung
up.
I turned on the TV right away and tuned in to the
channel he had mentioned. There was Zaib Shaikh, the
chap who acts as the imam in the CBC series, “The
Little Mosque on the Prairie”, but this time, he was
not in a mosque, quoting Qur’an, but in what looked
like a smoke filled, bawdy house, with other gay men,
uttering profanities, one four letter word after
another, and sipping beer.
Then I froze in my chair, after what I saw next. Two
other gay men stripped and started performing vulgar
sexual acts on Zaib Shaikh whose naked upper torso was
gyrating in some kind of an ecstasy. Later I realized,
it was an “R” rated gay / lesbian TV series. That’s
all I could take. In disgust I turned off the TV.
When the “Little Mosque on the Prairies” series began,
many of my readers had written to me to find out my
views on it. I had only seen a few episodes and
frankly, while it is good to be able to laugh at
ourselves once in a way, I thought there was nothing
much in it which was going to boost the image of
Muslims. So, I simply wrote : “Today, when Muslims are
reeling under so many Islamophobic attacks daily, this
is just a non-life threatening stab on our sides”.
That is, until, I had the misfortune of seeing the so
called “imam”, playing such a disgusting, vulgar role
which would be revolting not only to Muslims, but to
any family oriented respectable Christian, Jew, Hindu
or a Sikh as well.
For those of us, in whose mind, the image of Zaib
Shaikh was a ‘former lawyer, turned imam’, finding out
his roots were in vulgar sleazy, gay skinflicks, was
not only heart-breaking, but quite an insult as well.
If the CBC really wanted to hurt the pride of Muslims
and their honour, it couldn’t have found a worse
character than Shaikh, as, I am sure there are many
decent Muslims who could have been chosen to play this
role.
The woman behind this series, Zarqa Nawaz, was
apparently the one who invited Shaikh to play the role
of the imam. Obviously, she must have known he was an
actor and what kind of a morally sordid actor he was.
Having watched her previous ‘documentary’ - “Me and
the Mosque”- in which she was attempting to create a
problem out of a non-issue, portraying Muslim men as
mindless overlords and anti-women, a problem otherwise
typical to the Muslim society only, (despite the fact
that, in other societies women are treated sex-slaves,
and servile, and are murdered by the millions each
year), making a mountain out of a mole hill, a story
which would have pleased those who loved watching and
hearing negative stories about Muslims, especially the
media, and obviously the CBC had fallen for her ideas
and provided the parasite the nourishment it needed.
I had thought of her as someone similar to Irshad
Manji, Tarek Fatah, Salim Mansur, and others, who have
jumped onto the Muslim-haters’ bandwagon for quick
bucks and media fame. So, I had simply ignored her, as
a minor irritant, in comparison to the avalanche of
media Islamophobic onslaughts.
Sadly, many Muslim countries are now going to show
this obnoxious character portrayed as an 'Imam" by
purchasing rights to show the series in their
countries. This is quite normal, as Muslims have
stopped thinking centuries ago. They bow slavishly to
every thing of Western origin, they do no research of
their own, and they are willing victims, and I
frankly think they deserve the daily insults which
they suffer.
The Jews wouldn’t have tolerated such a third class
vulgar character being portrayed as a rabbi, and, for
sure the Hindus and Sikhs would have put a stop in
their own ways. The foolish Muslims are paying money
to watch the most precious image of an imam, being
trashed and dishonoured.
Dear Reader: If you are a sincere Muslim with taqwa,
love of Allah and His Prophet and fearful of the Day
of Judgement, consider this as a duty and obligation
upon you: Post this article on every Muslim e-group to
which you subscribe, take copies of this and
distribute at mosques, and at any other gatherings of
Muslims, give copies to the imams ask them to deliver
a khutbah advising Muslims to boycott this series. Let
us show our aversion in a dignified and civilized
manner.
Engr. Meer Sahib
–
from the beginning this show was about insulting Islam and Muslims.
