Comments on: Looking at Sarah from Little Mosque

By: Unpacking the “culture” argument « Muslimah Media Watch

Unpacking the “culture” argument « Muslimah Media Watch — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:48:14 +0000

[...] Krista in Culture/Society, Politics, Web. Tags: Islam, racism, Western Muslims trackback I wrote a few weeks ago about the effect of a fictional white character’s Muslim identity on possible constructions [...]

By: » MMW Roundup 10/24/08 Talk Islam

» MMW Roundup 10/24/08 Talk Islam — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:30:21 +0000

[...] week on MMW, we deconstructed Sarah from LMOTP, assessed Golshifteh Farahani’s issues with Iran over the headscarf, roll our eyes [...]

By: Melinda

Melinda — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:21:51 +0000

Great topic, Krista. Thanks for writing this.

By: Inal

Inal — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:22:57 +0000

I wish I could watch this show-but I realized as I reread the post, that you can watch it on YouTube (sorry behind the times). And I wonder if I will see specks of myself – a Spanish Muslimah that unfortunately takes umbrage to being glumped together with African American Muslims when we don’t share heritages in enough quantities to be thought the same- whose only outwardly public accommodation I have made is the hijab and haven’t caught on to giving dawah to her staunch “other religions” clan members. That they respect my space in this world is good enough for me- does that make me…what? Like Sarah?, traditional?, liberal?, hypocrite? What I wonder?

By: Fyre

Fyre — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:21:26 +0000

Islamic History Month is also going on in Windsor. They’re are some lectures that are going to happen at the University from what I’ve heard.

By: Krista

Krista — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:04:22 +0000

@ Sobia:
I definitely remember seeing something about it when I lived in Vancouver – so it’s not *only* Toronto. That’s weird that it didn’t get more widely publicised though.

By: American sister

American sister — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:55:46 +0000

Assalamu alaikom,
I have watched LMOTP since the first episode. I love that there is a sitcom on tv about Muslims. (I worry how the American version is going to play out.) I agree with what you’ve said about Sarah. As far as I can recall, there have only been two converts on the show, Sarah and the crazy white guy who de-coverted by the end of the show. That really bothers me but I am not going to complain too much because this show is a terrific start (towards the goal of acceptance, tolerance, the normalization of Muslims in the broader society.)

By: Sobia

Sobia — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:45:53 +0000

I had no idea about Islamic History Month. I wonder if there is preference/funding etc given to certain organizations in a certain city or province (yeah…I’m a Toronto hater ). How did the government go about telling people about this month?

My brother is an executive member of a provincial Muslim society (not Ontario) and I know they have not heard of it.

Very odd. Good to know that this happens and I’m glad to see it does but it seems useless if people don’t even know.

By: amirah

amirah — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:29:23 +0000

@sobia

http://www.islamichistorymonth.com/

i mean parliment said its suppose to be for all of canada lol….. here in toronto they teach islam in the public schools during the month… every morning they even do a muslim scientist……and in toronto there are events at the museums, and events at libraries etc…….

By: Krista

Krista — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:08:03 +0000

@ luckyfatima:
Yeah, I agree with you that I don’t actually have that much in common with Sarah’s character. In fact, we have almost nothing in common aside from our backgrounds and appearances. But I think that in a culture where “Muslim” is understood and represented as necessarily being outside of the dominant culture, and (especially in the case of women) represented specifically as being *visibly* “different” in some ways from the mainstream white Canadian identity, there’s something interesting (and often confusing) about having an identity that fits completely into both categories. It’s rare to see that actually depicted, so it was interesting to see Sarah on this show, and I’m always curious to see what she’ll do next. But yeah, I don’t share much else with her, and her own experiences and relationship to Islam are really different from my own.

@ Sobia:
Really, you didn’t hear about Islamic History Month? It’s new (I think was just decided by the government last year), but it’s a cross-Canada thing… Guess it hasn’t really caught on though yet, since it hasn’t existed for long. There’s been lots of stuff happening in Toronto, but I’m not sure about anywhere else in the country.

@ amirah (and everyone):
We’ve talked about some of the good things about the show, but I do have to say that I’m conflicted about the “hey, Muslims are normal” images that the show is trying to convey. I worry sometimes that the show is trying to say “we should respect Muslims because they’re just like us,” in a way that normalises the “us” (ie, white non-Muslim Canadians) and reinforces it as the “normal” Canadian identity that Muslims should try to emulate. While I’m glad to see something suggesting that Muslims aren’t actually a whole different species or something, I’m concerned that this emphasis on claiming that “don’t worry, we’re just like you!” in some ways reinforces an idea that Muslims should be respected primarily because of their attempts to conform to some pre-determined identity, rather than arguing for respect on our own terms. Does that make sense?