With my free time

It's Saturday afternoon and for all intensive purposes I am alone at the computer. In broad daylight. This morning I offered to give Ozayr a break by taking Maymuna out for some "Mommy-Maymay time" at the bookstore while Hafsa took her morning nap. Maymuna was excited because she wanted to visit the "princess books" which she found there last time and so we agreed to go. Over breakfast our playdate was extended to include Ozayr, "Mommy-Baba-Maymay time" she said. Hafsa, she decided, would stay here at home. In her crib. Then within an hour or so I was dropped from the equation, and I heard her tell Ozayr that they would soon be having "Baba-Maymay time". So guess where Ozayr is right now? Barnes and Noble, reading something pink and fluffy, no doubt. And I am here... with some free time on my hands. I could clean something or cook something... but no! I can't quite bring myself to do something so responsible. Instead I just finished watching the pilot episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie.

A review seems to be in order, though my feelings are mixed... I guess I'll start by filling you in, for those who haven't heard of it yet. Here is the official blurb on the series:

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE is a new comedy from CBC Television about a small Muslim community in the prairie town of Mercy, many of whose residents are wary of their new, more “exotic” neighbors. The series takes an unabashedly funny look at the congregation of a rural mosque and their attempt to live in harmony with the often skeptical, even down right suspicious, residents of their little prairie town. The sitcom reveals that, although different, we are all surprisingly similar when it comes to family, love, the generation gap and our attempts to balance our secular and religious lives.

Some characters were a surprise to me... There is actually a white convert, a hijab-less woman, in the series which I didn't expect at all. That was a surprise. Their family dynamic is interesting to me. Other characters were SO not a surprise at all... the Pakistani Imam with the heavy oh-so-hilarious accent, rambling on about the evils of wine gums, rye bread and Canadian Idol. He's a caricature of the reactive, paranoid, fresh-off-the-boat Muslim. Granted, there is a presence like this in our community - people who are afraid of the new customs of the West and are suspicious of every little thing. But for me this joke's been done a thousand times. But there you go, perhaps the mainstream population will find him very funny because this character is new to them.

That's what I find hard to believe about this show - how will they make it work? Can they keep a balance between interesting/amusing characters and stereotypes? Authentic details about Muslim life can keep this series real and keep the characters from becoming one-dimensional... but those details, are they not mostly lost on the majority of the population? I found the argument about the beginning of Ramadan hilarious because it's the same struggle we have every year - but I wonder if everyone gets it. And certainly if they want to stay on the air they have to make the material as widely accessible as possible, don't they? So how long before the authentic details get dropped by the wayside for the quicker, cheaper laugh? Forgive my suspicion... it just makes me worry, that's all. I'm the first person who would love to see ethnically diverse, intelligent, funny, warm Muslim characters on television... I guess I'm just skeptical. As I'm sure you can understand, we've been more than once bitten.

Ozayr and Maymuna are back from the bookstore. Sounds like Maymuna made Ozayr read about a thousand books and he was not impressed with most of them and called for an immediate ban on princess/barbie/disney/bratz books and products. He told me about some of the plots of the stories they looked at and I must say that I was equally appalled, despite having grown up with all that fairytale goo and loving it like I did... Well. That's not to say I didn't turn out okay. But whatever. I've got to go and polish my tiara now.