Your friendly neighborhood Canadian mosque could be making its debut soon in the U.S. Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Canadian hit sitcom, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” developed by Zarqa Nawaz (hailed by Islamica Magazine as one the ten most innovative young Muslims).
This little show that could is a hilarious look at an engaging, multifaceted Muslim community struggling to live an Islamic life (well, their own individual interpretations of an Islamic life) in a small rural community.
Fox (which owns Beliefnet) has acquired the U.S. format rights to “Little Mosque,” which debuted in Canada in early 2007. According to a press release, the studio giant beat out other U.S. studios and cable channels for the format rights. This means that Fox may be developing their own American version of this show.


Mary Darling, the Canadian sitcom’s executive producer, said Fox understands the “creative vision of the show, that it has to be funny while it treads sensitively on certain Muslim issues.”
I, for one, am excited to see this show make a U.S. debut. Muslim themes are hardly explored by sitcoms (probably because studio heads are subscribing to the false notion that Muslims have no sense of humor. We do!) The CW’s short-lived “Aliens in America” (about a Pakistani-Muslim exchange student living with an American family) didn’t make it to a second season.
But just because Fox has acquired the rights to this show doesn’t mean the studio will actual make an American version of it. But there’s hope!

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