FEATURE: “Little Sensitivity Lesson on the Prairie: A Canadian sitcom pokes fun at Muslim stereotypes,” by Christopher Mason, New York Times, 16 January 2007, p. A4.

The Canadians are beating us to the self-examination punch on Islam within our ranks, as demonstrated by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s daring new sitcom, “Little Mosque on the Prairie. It is attracting an audience that’s roughly double of the usual definition of a runaway hit in Canada.

The opening episode shows a bunch of Muslims trying to set up a mosque in the parish hall of a church. When a local sees them gathered in prayer, he rushes to call the terrorist hot line, and rest is a humor right out of “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!”

The president of the Canadian Islamic Congress has a great quote on the show: “Muslims are a bit late in laughing at themselves, but we have to use humor to remedy these divisions, just like any community.”

The CBC is talking with networks and cable stations in the U.S., Israel, Dubai, U.K., Germany and France about exporting the show.

Norman Lear would be proud.