In today's New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar looks at a new Canadian TV show called Little Mosque on the Prairie, which:

Ventures into new and perhaps treacherous terrain: trying to explore the funny side of being a Muslim and adapting to life in post 9/11 North America. Its creators admit to uneasiness as to whether Canadians and Americans can laugh about the daily travails of those who many consider a looming menace.

Plots mentioned include a young man being detained at an airport for saying into his phone, "If Dad thinks that's suicide, so be it ... This is Allah's plan for me" (hilariously, he's talking about career suicide) and a woman who wonders if she can show her head uncovered to her gay waterobics instructor (shades of Will & Grace?).

Before you start thinking the show is a Danish cartoonists'-style salvo in the war between the East and the West, MacFarquhar introduces readers to the show's creator, Zarqa Nawaz, a Muslim woman who, like the characters on Little Mosque, has lived in Saskatchewan for ten years. Nawaz heads up a production company called Fundamentalist Films, whose website boast the mission: "Putting the FUN back into Fundamentalism." She tells the paper, "It rests on my shoulders to get the balance right between entertainment and representing the community in a reasonable way."

Well, it doesn't rest on her shoulders alone. According to the Times, one of the show's writers, Al Rae, "does research by bouncing potential scenarios off cab drivers." Muslim cab driver!?! Talk about a pitch for hilarious TV show!

Cabbie-quoting Thomas L. Friedman would be proud.