Religion
Muslims have a sense of humour
Published 11 October 2007
In Britain we've had gay sitcoms, black sitcoms and even a couple of Indian sitcoms but Muslim sitcoms?
Muslims have become funny. Like most other people, we've always had our funny side and have never been averse to laughing at ourselves. But somehow the west never appreciated that we had a sense of humour. And, of course, evil-doers out to undermine civilisation and the relentless ascent of Homo euro paeus could hardly be regarded as funny. Now, things are finally changing. Two new sitcoms from North America confirm that you can laugh with, and at, Muslims.
Little Mosque on the Prairie is about a small community of Muslims in the fictional town of Mercy, Saskatchewan. Its humour derives mainly from the interaction between the Muslim and non-Muslim residents. A typical example is an encounter between the young imam and an airport security guard. The imam has given up a promising career as a lawyer to lead the congregation in Mercy. A guard overhears him speaking on his mobile phone. The career move is suicidal, he explains to a friend, but the new job is "Allah's plan for me". The guard drags him from the queue, saying: "You're not going to paradise today." But Little Mosque also plays on the contrast between the views and antics of conservative Muslims and those who favour a more liberal interpretation of the Quran. The imam sees Muslims besieged by dangers everywhere. "The enemy is in your kitchen," he tells the congregation as members try hard to suppress their laughter. "Wine gums, rye bread, liquorice: western traps designed to seduce Muslims to drink alcohol."
The show generated controversy even before the first episode was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on 9 January. Apparently, Muslim sensibilities were going to be offended - which, in my book, would have been a very good thing. But, alas, Little Mosque is a tame show that tries to please everyone and offend no one. I have seen only a couple of episodes on YouTube, so I can't really say much, but two things did strike me. Even though it is written by a woman - the hijab-wearing Zarqa Nawaz, who seems to specialise in gentle Muslim comedies - it focuses on men's stories. And it treats its small-town characters rather conventionally - as dim-witted rustics who just don't understand the complexities of modern, urban life.
Yet Little Mosque does manage to bring some humour to a challenging situation. That is why CBC commissioned a second, extended season of 20 episodes, the first of which hit Canadian airwaves on 3 October. The show is soon to be broadcast in Dubai, Turkey, Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, and will go out in Finland next year.
Little Mosque is quintessentially Canadian, concerned largely with new immigrant groups and Toronto-bashing. In contrast, CBS Paramount and Warner Brothers' Aliens in America, as the title suggests, is essentially American. It ploughs the same ground between school and family life as Malcolm in the Middle. So, in Medora, Wisconsin, we have the domineering mother, Franny, who is concerned about the school life of her shy, 16-year-old son, Justin. She decides to sign up for the school's international student exchange programme, hoping for a blond, athletic Nordic adolescent to befriend lanky Justin and bestow coolness on him. To everyone's surprise, the exchange student turns out to be Raja, a 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim. You can imagine the rest.
Aliens in America premiered on 1 October, so it is too early to assess whether it will be a success. But it seems to possess the quirky, geeky humour of Malcolm in the Middle and Everyone Hates Chris, so the omens are good.
Both Little Mosque and Aliens in America raise a basic question: why are Muslim sitcoms not being commissioned in Britain? We have had gay sitcoms, black sitcoms and even a couple of Asian (meaning Indian) sitcoms. But Muslim sitcoms are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, our broadcasters seem to be obsessed with sharia, even more so than most loopy, conser vative Muslims. This monomania is far from amusing, and encourages everyone to laugh off the possibility of more broad-based and relevant discussion about living in Britain today. Hardly a week goes by without some "shock, horror" about sharia gracing our television screens.
After the Shariah TV series and Inside a Sharia Court, a one-off documentary broadcast on BBC2 on 1 October, we are to be treated to Sharia Street, a reality show from Channel 4. In three hour-long episodes, we are to find out how six non-Muslims from Harrogate manage to sustain their humanity while living under sharia, watched by card-carrying mullahs. It would be cheaper, and perhaps more entertaining, to send them to Saudi Arabia.
Is it too much to hope that our television executives and commissioning editors are intelligent enough to realise that Islam on the box has reached the point of diminishing returns? The goulash fanatics, the sharia schlock, the ex-Islamist, the burqa-clad evangelical have now become banal and boring. It's time to satirise them out of existence. So, bring on the comedians and the sitcoms, I say.
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