Inside Islam: The Qu'osby Show? - Islamophobia In America
04 March 2011By Juan Cole
A recent episode of the satirical news program The
Daily Show placed a humorous spin on the idea of
having a "Muslim" Cosby Show. As wementioned in
January, Katie Couric and others see the Cosby show as
an important step towards mainstream white-American
acceptance and respect for African-Americans and
believe a comedy show about a Muslim-American family
could bring about a similar shift in opinion.
In Canada, the popular CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the
Prairie highlights a diverse Muslim community in
small-town Saskatchewan. The show explores issues of
gender, faith, and family, and has been popular with
both non-Muslim and Muslim audiences. An American
version has yet to be produced, but some American
networks are apparently talking about it.
The Daily Show often places people with racist,
sexist, homophobic, or otherwise narrow-minded
worldviews in situations to make them look ridiculous.
In a recent show, correspondent Aasif Mandvi–an
Indian-born, British raised Muslim-American–stars as
the father character in a short trailer for a mock
television show he names The Qu'osby Show. In front of
a small audience purposefully chosen by The Daily Show
to be made up of Islamophobes, Mandvi plays Mr.
Qu'osby and his "normal looking" Muslim-American
family dance to country music in their middle-class
Oklahoma living room.
When the Islamophobic test audience is asked whether
the The Qu'osby Show clip changes their attitudes
towards Muslims, no one seems convinced that the show
represents "real" Muslims. One New York area woman
says, "It's not anything I would ever watch or believe
or think for two seconds that this is like a regular,
you know, Muslim family." To make the show more
realistic, one man suggests that The Qu'osby Show
"could have like an uncle, you know, uncle Rahib or
somethin', who came over, and he's, you know, a
Bedouin and he lives in the basement . . . with a
goat." I'm not making this up.
While the Islamophobic test audience is certainly not
a perfectly accurate representation of American
attitudes towards Muslim-Americans, The Daily Show
clip does bring up interesting issues to consider. If
a major American television network were to make a
"Muslim Cosby Show," what should the characters look
like? Depending upon the cultural background of the
family, the show is likely to take on a very different
character. Should the show feature a South
Asian-American family from Houston, Texas, as the
largest "cultural grouping" of Muslims in the U.S. is
of Pakistani, Indian, or Bangladeshi origin? Or maybe
a traditional, conservative Yemeni family from
Dearborn, Michigan, would be perceived as being more
representative of Muslim-Americans?
If the family isn't perceived as being "Muslim" enough
by an American audience, viewers may not be convinced
that this is a realistic depiction of Muslims living
in the U.S. On the other hand, if a large,
"traditional" family where all of the women are
wearing head scarves is presented on television, does
that not reinforce stereotypes? Pilot shows are
currently being explored by HBO, and other major
networks, and it's my hope that they avoid both of
these traps.
Is the U.S. ready for a show on a Muslim-American
family? What "type" of family should the show be
about? What issues should the show explore?
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