The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s national public broadcaster has a new sitcom that will be joining the airwaves on January 9, 2007. The new show is called ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie. The title is a play on the classic Michael Landon show Little House on the Prairie.

The show is about a Muslim family who moves to rural Saskatchewan, which is stereotyped as an agriculture province.

Little Mosque On The Prairie is an unabashedly comedic look at a small Muslim community interacting with the denizens of a little prairie town. The sitcom reveals that although different, we are all surprisingly similar when it comes to family, love, the generation gaps and our attempts to balance our secular and religious lives while trying to understand those of others in the community.

Starring Zaib Shaikh as Amaar, a young big-city lawyer who finds his true calling as an Imam and moves west to become the spiritual leader of the small Muslim community. Carlo Rota is Yasir, a contractor married to Sarah (Sheila McCarthy), a Muslim convert. Sitara Hewitt is Rayyan, their smart, outspoken devout daughter. Manoj Sood ss Baber the former Imam who harbours as many fears about western society as they do about his; Arlene Duncan is Fatima, who runs a diner; Derek McGrath is Reverend Magee; Debra McGrath as Mayor Popowicz; and Neil Crone as the inciting host of a local radio program.

Visit the show’s official site here or see its press kit.

The show is already picking up some international coverage from the New York Times,  Agence France Presse and NPR are just three of many examples.

See another teaser clip here.