Re: Boycott Little Mosque on the Prairie
**A response from Brother Meer.
**It was quite heart-warming to receive so many phone calls and emails from sisters and brothers expressing their appreciation for warning them about the unsavoury character playing the role of an imam in the TV series "Little Mosque on the Prairie". I also appreciate that numerous Muslim e-groups which have given prominence in publishing the same article. One e-mail I received came from as far away as the Maldives.
So far, I have only seen three opposing views expressed by a Brother named Haydar, another named Shamael from Detroit, and our own Br. Craig. I always welcome and enjoy a healthy, open debate which is quite absent in our community. Br. Haydar and Br. Craig have unfortunately missed the point, and side-tracked the main issue, namely, an actor of very distasteful and vulgar background has been thoughtlessly given the role of an honourable Imam in the Little Mosque on the Prairie.
I had already mentioned that Zarqa Nawaz was only a minor irritant. Those who watched her first 'documentary' ("Me and the Mosque"), which brought her to 'fame', should ask themselves if she was motivated by altruistic ideals towards the Muslim community or the dancing dollar signs in her eyes. Many sisters who had watched the documentary were of the same opinion, that Zarqa was going out of her way to find something to fault Muslims, so that her film will be 'saleable' to the Western media. In that respect, I compared her
to Manji, Mansur and others. All of them have hurt Muslims, but the degrees are different. (At our Mosque, when we took off the partition between men and women for the Sunday Lectures, it was the women who
insisted on putting back the partition. So, go figure!).
Unfortunately there are many ill-informed Muslims who too believe that Manji is on a mission to reform Islam and uplift the image of Muslims, none of which is going to happen, when we realize that her promoters are Zionists and her bodyguards are Israelis.
But I do know Zarqa is no Manji. The "Me and the Mosque" certainly gave the impression that motives of both of them were the same - earning the almighty dollar by Muslim-bashing. But that is where their similarities end. I have not watched Zarqa's other productions, such as 'BBQ Muslims', 'Death Threat' and 'Real Terrorists Don't Belly Dance', but I believe these productions keep her at a very safe distance from Manji and other Muslim-haters.
It is utterly naive on the part of Br. Craig to conclude that this TV series (Little Mosque on the Prairie) is a good da'wa material and moreover, it would change the battered image of Muslims, since we will now be considered as 'normal people with a sense of humour'. Such opinion lacks scientific methodology; instead it shows herd mentality - that is, when someone says it is good, others blindly follow it without thinking for themselves analytically or otherwise.
Today, anything bad about Muslims seem to stick to people's minds and anything good about Muslims seem to be soon forgotten. There is a 24/7 efforts by vested interests to ensure that is exactly what happens. So, whatever little good that may come out of this show, is most likely to evaporate quickly, but the negative stereotypical image is likely to build-up, like layers of dirt in a garbage dump.
Muslims who watched the "Jeopardy" game show on the CTV a couple of days ago, were reminded of this phenomena. In this episode of the game, the question to the players was to describe what is : "Muslim holy war vs. infidels in Arabic".
The 'correct' answer was: "What is Jihad"
A good brother from Montreal, who is also a revert, just like Br. Craig, wrote the following regarding the show: "They are just patiently but persistently chipping away one little pebble at time until they achieve their objective of poisoning every single mind against Islam and Muslims. Once they do this, they then can do anything they wish to us without any fear of public censure."
Can anyone say with certainty, what would be the outcome of this comedy show (Little Mosque), in the long run? Will Muslims be henceforth called "Humorous Terrorists" instead of just plain terrorists? Will Muslim children be taunted at schools in the broken (Indian) English of Baber Siddiqi, (played by Manoj Sood), who is described as the community's one "true spiritual leader" and "defender" of all things traditional, and who refers to non-Muslims as "Infidels", which is quite insulting and gives the impression, that is how Muslims cavalierly refer to fellow Canadians? He will be no teflon-coated Archie Bunker, when he plays as a Muslim!
The following blog review seems to show the mixed reception of the non-Muslim audience: [It doesn't help that Neil Crone's boring Rush Limbaugh parody and Sitara Hewitt's gratingly self-righteous young Muslim woman make one want to put on a blindfold and earmuffs until they go off the screen.] There is a well pronounced resistance to hearing anything positive about Muslims.
In an interview with Zarqa, Stephen Cole asked the following questions:
Q: Did you feel any restrictions in making this sitcom, in light of the revolt in some parts of the Islamic world when Danish newspapers printed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad?
A: No, we are making fun of people, not prophets, and when you make fun of people, you can get away with anything...
Q: Viewers may be surprised to find Sitara Hewitt, the scantily clad co-host from the Comedy Network game show "You BET Your Ass", playing a wisecracking feminist in Little Mosque on the Prairie....
Zarqa evaded this question, but even a non-Muslim like Stephen Cole, makes a crucial point, expressing his concern about unsavoury characters playing roles of Muslims. If that is what Cole feels about scantily clad *Sitara, imagine the horror among respectable Muslims when they see the honourable role of an imam being played by a porn skinflick lowlife character!
(*I personally find Sitara an affable character when dressed as a Muslim and, I couldn't care what she wears when she is not acting as a Muslim. I hope, one day she turns to Islam in her real life).
Br. Craig writes: "The target demographic of the show also happens to be non-Muslims and young Muslims born in Canada and other western countries."
And that is exactly what should make each one of us ask the question : "These very young people would be watching Zaib Shaikh, in the Little Mosque film, with admiration and pride, as a legal professional - a former lawyer, and one who became a young imam. He is seen as a leader of the Muslim community, advising and guiding Muslims in spiritual and social matters, with the Holy Qur'an in his hands.
As it happens with movie stars, these actors too could become role models for Muslim youngsters, after they watch the series for a while.
And, immediately after watching the Little Mosque, if these youngsters chanced to flip the channel to the "R"rated show in which, the same "imam" is seen in a bawdy house, performing vulgar and bestial acts with happy men, naked or half-naked, what would it do to the image of the imam? Wouldn't the psyche of these people be mortally wounded?
Despite her previous objectionable documentary (me and the Mosque), I have come to believe that Zarqa Nawaz is a Muslim who cares for her Community. That being the case, how did she fail to anticipate the painful effects on the sensibilities of Muslims when she knowingly invites such a person to act as an IMAM? There are plenty of talents available, if she had searched hard enough. Do you mean to say that this show wouldn't have been possible at all, if not for this one 'Muslim' actor? If Manoj Sood of Hindu-Sikh extraction could do such an excellent job as a 'fundamentalist Muslim', and Sitara as a witty Canadian born Muslim woman, couldn't any other decent Hindu, Sikh, Arab or Canadian actor have done a perfectly fine job as an imam?
One, named Shamael from Detroit, wrote asking if Anthony Quinn who used to have several mistresses could act as Hamza, why not Zaib Shaikh?. First of all Zaib Shaik is no Anthony Quinn. Let's remember
that.The producer of the film, Mustapha Akkad, was a great Muslim, and he was looking for a world-class actor. He would have never blemished the memory of Hamza by hiring Quinn if he would have been a known porn actor. Quinn was an excellent find, if Akkad was looking for a world-class actor with the least sins in the Hollywood!
It is quite inconsiderate for someone to compare our civilized, and dignified, morally righteous indignation over the skinflick actor playing the role of an imam, to the 'mindless emotional rage' of those
who reacted to the blasphemous cartoons, as Br. Craig has insinuated.
Have Muslims reached such a lowly state that no insults, whether to our own parents, our wives and daughters, our Beloved Prophet, our religious leaders (imams) - matter to us any more? What has happened to our honour, dignity and pride?
Engr. Meer Sahib