Did The Muslims Save the Canadian TV?

FEB 1 - The United States was considering increasing citizenship and residency application fees, officials said on Wednesday. The proposed free increases would see the price of citizenship applications rise to US $595, up from $320. Similarly, permanent residency applications would rise to $905, up from $330. If approved, the rates would be valid for a two-year period commencing in October.

No stoning, Muslim immigrants told in Canada

JAN 31 - A Canadian town has taken the unusual step of formally declaring that it is forbidden to stone women in public � part of a list of �norms� that it says are aimed at potential immigrants.

According to news reports, Herouxville, which is a rural Quebec town about 100 miles north-east of French-speaking Montreal, passed a document at a town council meeting this month that outlines what it considers to be its official behavioral norms.

The document, sent to both the provincial and federal governments, states that �a woman can. . . drive a car, sign checks, dance, decide on her own�.

However, covering one�s face other than on Halloween, burning women alive or burning them with acid is not considered acceptable.

The document also points out to potential immigrants that Quebecers are used to receiving medical services from members of the opposite sex and that boy and girls often swim in the same pool.

�Don�t be surprised,� the document reads. �For us, it�s normal.�

�We have to ensure that people who come here want to live like us,� Andre Drouin, who spearheaded the move to list norms, told Montreal�s La Presse newspaper. �The Muslims who want to impose Shariah (law), if they realized that here we don�t stone women, they would never have come.�

Herouxville does not currently have any immigrants among its population of 1,300. But that could change given the Quebec government�s policy of encouraging newcomers to the province to settle outside urban centers.

Indian-American nabbed for trying to lure teenager

JAN 30 - An Indian man has been arrested in Louisville, Kentucky state after he allegedly tried to lure an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as a 14-year-old during online chatting, for sex.

Kishore Patel, 39, made plans to meet the girl at a mall during the online discussions initiated by him and then take her somewhere for sex, officials alleged.

He was taken into custody on Monday when he reached the mall, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

FBI spokesman said Patel had a �look of surprise on his face� as federal agents handcuffed him and walked him out of the mall about 2:30 p.m Monday.

Patel had been communicating online with the agent whom he believed to a 14-year-old girl, special agent in-charge of the FBI's Kentucky office Tracy Reinhold was quoted as saying by Courier Journal on Tuesday.

Indian Crushed By Falling Elevator in Oz

JAN 28 - A 36-year-old Indian electrical engineer was crushed to death by an elevator on an oil tanker docked in southwest Australia Saturday. The man, whose identity and hometown were not immediately released, was trying to repair a faulty elevator on board the tanker when the accident occurred. The man was on board the ship, which was docked at a BP oil refinery in Kwinana, south of the state capital Perth. (AP)

Indian-American Couple Shot Dead in NY

JAN 24 - An Indian-American couple, Jaspal Singh, 46, and Geeta Singh, 38, was found shot dead by their two school going sons, in their house in Long Island in New York state. Investigators said they had found no motive or suspects for the killings. The police had no reports of domestic violence from the house. The Singh�s, had migrated from India 18 years ago..

Aliens Ask Wrong People in Van About Work

JAN 24 - Federal agents taking a break from an unrelated assignment yesterday in Baltimore arrested 24 illegal aliens at a 7-Eleven convenience store after the men attempted to solicit "underground" employment from the agents sitting in unmarked vehicles. Officials also netted 761 illegal immigrants in Southern California - majority of them were Mexican, but they included nationals from 13 other countries, including India, Japan, Poland, the Ukraine and Trinidad.

Religious dialogue in Nevada to heal mistrust wounds

JAN 22 - Hindu, Christian (both Catholic and Protestant), and Muslim religious leaders of Northwestern Nevada gathered at Reno early this month for a dialogue and to arrive at a common agenda to heal the wounds of religious mistrust. It was organized by Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno. , It was attended by Rajan Zed - Director of Interfaith Relations of Hindu Temple of Northern Nevada, Rev. James Jeffery - Rector Emeritus of Trinity Episcopal Church, Fr. Charles T. Durante - Chairman of Life, Peace, and Justice Commission of Reno Diocese; and Abdul Barghouthi, Imam of Northern Nevada Muslim Center. The gathering resolved to seek unity that celebrates diversity; attempt to overcome prejudices with the help of dialogue; promote trust, culture of tolerance and life of truthfulness.

Did The Muslims Save the Canadian TV?

Show creator Zarqa Nawaz on the set of Little Mosque on the Prairie.

JAN 16 - A new Canadian TV comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie," created by a Pakistani-American woman, Zarqa Nawaz, is becoming a surprise hit, as its first episode pulled in a record number of viewers.

Last Tuesday�s series premiere attracted 2.09 million viewers, impressive in a country where an audience of one million is a runaway hit. The CBC ( Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) had not had a show draw that size audience in a decade, according to the network.

Creator Zarqa Nawaz, was blown away by the response having worked in developing the show for almost three years.

The show tells the story of small group of Muslims that moves to a prairie town in Saskatchewan, where one of the first things it does is to try to build a mosque in the parish hall of a church. A passer-by, who finds the group praying, phones a �terrorist hot line� to report that Muslims are praying which touches off a local firestorm.

Hoping to avoid making a stir in the town, the band of fresh arrivals decides to hire a Canadian-born imam from Toronto who quits his father�s law firm to take the job. His father thinks it is a �career suicide�. En route, he is detained at the airport after he is overheard telling someone on his cell phone, �If Dad thinks that�s suicide, so be it,� adding, �This is Allah�s plan for me.�

Later, a leader of the Muslim group is seen defending to a local person the plan to turn the parish hall into a mosque. �It�s a pilot project,� he says, leading the man to exclaim wide-eyed, �You�re training pilots?!�

The newly hired imam in �Little Mosque on the Prairie,� Amaar Rashid, is clean-shaven, wears tight jeans and has the �ravishing looks of a soap-opera star,� as the columnist Margaret Wente wrote in the Toronto daily newspaper The Globe and Mail.

�If there�s an imam on Earth who resembles this one, I will convert to Islam, don the veil and catch the next plane to Mecca,� she added.

The show�s creator, Zarqa Nawaz, said that she was not trying to bridge all of the cultural gaps, but that she hoped the program could elicit laughs on all sides and perhaps foster a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.

�I want the broader society to look at us as normal, with the same issues and concerns as anyone else,� said Ms. Nawaz, who based the series loosely on her own experiences as a Muslim woman who moved from Toronto to the prairie. �We�re just as much a part of the Canadian fabric as anyone else.�

The program�s producers have spoken with television executives in the United States, Dubai, Israel, England, Germany and France among others. The first and second episodes have been sent to networks and stations that have expressed an interest.

In the United States, only cable stations have responded so far, but CBC officials say they are hoping to pitch the show to the larger networks. (DesPardes News Monitor)

Have your say >