Little Mosque On The Prairie - Characters

Characters

• Amaar Rashid (Zaib Shaikh) – A Toronto lawyer who answers an ad to become the imam at Mercy's mosque, much to the dismay of his family. He tends to support liberal movements within Islam, sometimes putting him in conflict with the more conservative Muslims in the community. Amaar tends to be sarcastic, which he blames on his work as a lawyer. His wealthy parents (Hrant Alianak and Veena Sood) are not religious at all, and continue to pressure Amaar to return to his much more lucrative law career. He tends to say "I am the imam!" to prove his point or to show that despite his age, he has authority. He usually uses this when other characters (particularly Rayyan and Baber) are fighting and won't listen to reason. Amaar has also been known to be petty and hold a grudge but is generally a good man and a good man of faith. Amaar married Rayyan in Season 6 of the season. They have returned from their honeymoon to Mercy after Sarah and Yasir divorced. In season 6, Amaar does not start out as the Imam despite pressure from some congregation members to do so.
• Yasir Hamoudi (Carlo Rota) – A contractor who runs his business out of an office at the mosque, he is a practical man who seeks compromise. He is committed to Islam but is also an opportunist and not, as his daughter might put it, "a good Muslim." For instance, one of the main reasons he helps out with the mosque is because he does not want to lose his free office space, but he lost that privilege when the church's bishop learned of the arrangement and ordered Rev. Magee to pay appropriate rent to the Church organization for it which was passed on to Yasir. Yasir is a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party of Canada, although more for the networking opportunities than out of any particular interest in being politically active. His role was reduced in seasons four and five, due to Rota's other acting commitments; within the show, his absence was explained as a temporary return to Lebanon to care for his ailing mother. Yasir is said to have left to stay in Lebanon, in the process separating with his wife, Sarah, after a 31-year long marriage.
• Sarah Hamoudi (Sheila McCarthy) – A former Anglican who works as a public relations agent in the mayor's office, Sarah converted to Islam to marry Yasir. Like her husband, she struggles with Muslim customs and regulations and is often shown up by their more pious daughter, Rayyan. She wears the hijab when attending services at the mosque, but not day-to-day. After her divorce with Yasir, she returned to her original name Sarah Cunningham at the insistence of Ann Popowicz. Ann wanted Sarah to have "Danger" as her new middle name but it ended up being Dangler. Sarah is now Sarah Dangler Cunningham. Baber and Rev. Thorne are now competing for her soul or which religion she may become part of. Sarah was revealed to also lack a wild side and her memories of a wild past being lived by her friend Ann Popowicz. Sarah does free herself when she kisses Lou and gets into a fight with his girlfriend Svetlana.
• Rayyan Hamoudi (Sitara Hewitt) – Yasir and Sarah's daughter, a doctor. She follows Islamic feminism, keeps the sartorial hijab, and takes her religion very seriously. Her Western medical treatments are met with disapproval by Fatima, who uses traditional Nigerian remedies. She is occasionally foiled by her own ambition; in one episode, she insists on being named as the mosque's representative to the local Interfaith Council as her price for letting go of an argument with Amaar, only to discover at her first meeting that the council is really little more than an interfaith bake sale committee. Rayyan has long had feelings for Amaar and they are currently married. Rayyan pushed her mother to join a divorce group but later on has discovered her own insecurities regarding her marriage. Her fear is that her parents' divorce may lead to problems between her and Amaar. In this fear, she gives up her habits of drinking milk out of the carton and forcing Amaar to place the dishes a certain way in the dishwaster.
• Baber Siddiqui (Manoj Sood) – A divorced college economics professor and the most conservative member of the Muslim community in Mercy, he acted as the imam prior to Amaar's arrival in the pilot episode; when Amaar briefly quits his job in Season 3, Baber again takes over as imam, and proves to be one of the reasons the community is so determined to get Amaar back. His conservatism often conflicts with the wishes of his teenage daughter Layla, although he loves her dearly (in fact the main reason he has custody of her is that when his ex-wife came to visit him after he moved to Mercy she saw that the only thing he had bothered to unpack was his daughter's picture on the wall). He wears a taqiyah and a shalwar kameez and constantly rants and raves and complains about everything, to the point that most of his acquaintances consider him obnoxious. He once falsely claimed that he was on the American no-fly list to cover up his own fear of flying, resulting in Rayyan and Amaar taking him to the American consulate in Regina three separate times to help him clear his name. He calls most non-Muslims "imbeciles" and "infidels", although it is rather obvious that he is not any sort of dangerous fanatic but just a harmless crank. In the episode "The Letter", Baber takes an interest in a female motivational speaker (played by Andrea Martin) who is stranded in Mercy, who in turn becomes interested in him. Everything goes well until Baber utters some anti-Semitic remarks. The motivational speaker takes offense, and reveals to Baber that she is Jewish. Baber comes to Amaar for guidance. Amaar reminds him that anti-Semitism is not tolerated in the Muslim faith. Baber also fell for Thorne's tricks of taking over as Imam which led to Amaar being removed as Imam. His bringing in the overzealous Rahaloon resulted in the mosque being removed from the church. Later Amaar made amends with Baber when he was reinstated as Imam. Baber performed Amaar and Rayyan's wedding and they left for their honeymoon. Upon their return it is revealed that Baber is the current Imam and is good friends with Reverend Thorne.
• Fatima Dinssa (Arlene Duncan) – A conservative Nigerian immigrant and the widowed owner of a diner. She is sarcastic and enjoys engaging in verbal sparring matches, frequently with Fred Tupper, the local bigot and radio "shock jock" who has a crush on her. She hates the Mercy Diner, her competition. She has a son, Jamal (Demetrius Joyette), who hates being forced to play ayo by his mother. She officially becomes a Canadian citizen during the show's run. She recalls fights with her deceased husband.
• Rev. Duncan Magee (Derek McGrath) – The priest of the Anglican Church which also houses the mosque, he is a good friend of Amaar and the two religious leaders often turn to each other for advice. He is liberal, once offering to perform a gay marriage at the church, and is willing to stand up to the church hierarchy when he believes that it is acting inconsistently with the true message of Christianity. He often laments the sad state of his own church and congregation. He suddenly left the church after the events of season three, replaced by the ambitious younger and distinctly less accommodating Rev. William Thorne, played by Brandon Firla, who feels it is his religious duty to compete with Amaar for the souls of the residents of Mercy. It is gradually revealed that he has taken up a number of hobbies over the course of his life including curling, running, and painting and has taken all of them seriously.
• Mayor Ann Popowicz (Debra McGrath) – The mayor of Mercy, who supports the Muslim community in return for their votes. She is primarily concerned with maximizing the perks of her office and minimizing the amount of work that she actually has to do. She has an uncharacteristically wild streak for a woman in middle age, having been known to date members of the Hells Angels and has more skeletons in her closet than the local cemetery. She is also very witty and blunt.
• Fred Tupper (Neil Crone) – The local bigot and the host of a talk show on the local radio station, he often equates Muslims to terrorists who want to take over the country. However, at times he finds himself in the awkward position of siding with the Muslim community, as evidenced in the first season. A flashback episode revealed that his distrust of Muslims stems more from an unpleasant encounter with Baber than from any deeply-held prejudices. His radio rants are primarily a ratings-grabbing persona; while he can be a condescending jerk off the air, he is like that with everyone and does not actually treat the Muslims any differently than anybody else. He has also had a crush on Fatima which was requited in an episode when Fatima banned him from her diner, and ended up crying from missing him. Fred Tupper is also a divorcee.
• Layla Siddiqui (Aliza Vellani) – Baber's daughter and a representation of an average teenage Muslim girl struggling to find the right balance between her desire to be a good Muslim and her desire for the lifestyle of a regular Canadian teenager who's into music, clothes and boys. She can be rebellious and sarcastic, especially at her father's foibles (she refers to their home as "Baberistan"), but is also very perceptive and insightful.
• Junaid Jaffer, also known as J.J. (Stephen Lobo) – Son of Yasir's friend Karim and former fiancé of Rayyan, who remembered him as a geeky childhood playmate whom she once pushed out of a tree. She wasn't expecting to meet an urbane, handsome, wealthy engineer when first told that Yasir was inviting him over for dinner.
• Joe Peterson (Boyd Banks) – A local farmer and a perpetually trouble-making sidekick of Fred Tupper. Basically a stereotypical hoser, he mostly trades cheap insults with Fred and occasionally causes mayhem by going for a joyride on his tractor. To their mutual surprise, he and Baber have found themselves agreeing on certain matters more often than they expect, developing a friendship only occasionally hampered by cultural differences. He has also found common ground with Sarah, unexpectedly revealing that he had read and loved the novel that her book club was reading. He is mainly a comic relief character, appearing in almost every episode, but having very little significance to the plot.
• Nate Shore (Jeff White) – Editor and reporter for the local newspaper. He has a very Zen attitude to his job as the main news source of a tiny, tiny town. He is a good friend of Amaar, despite Amaar's occasional exasperation at his freewheeling personality.