Little Mosque on the Prairie

- Season 3

(2008)

Rayyan has decided to accept J.J.'s marriage proposal. The Hamoudi household is ecstatic, except for Sarah, if only because she feels that it is the right of the mother of the prospective bride to tell the world that her daughter is getting married. But Yasir has beat her to the punch when he - off the cuff - mentions this fact to the mayor who in turn tells the rest of the townsfolk of Mercy. The only way that Yasir feels he can make it up to Sarah is to find someone - anyone - in Mercy who doesn't know the news so that Sarah can tell him/her. The only other person ...

Confused with his own feelings about Rayyan and J.J.'s impending marriage, Amaar decides to go back to Toronto to his old life. There, his parents express their concerns about his life in Mercy. He treats all his encounters, even dates and his law clients, like he was counseling as an Imam. Back in Mercy, Baber is happy in his new old role as acting Imam, but no one else is happy. Yasir decides to go to Toronto to see if he can talk Amaar into coming back to Mercy. With Rayyan and J.J.'s engagement, J.J. finally gives Rayyan an engagement ring, the ring which is a ...

Before returning to Mercy, Amaar decides to make a pilgrimage to Mecca to re-energize his faith in Islam. Arriving in Mercy, he claims he is a humbler man. To make him prove this fact, Baber, who is still a bit angry that his own tenure as Acting Imam was not well received, makes Amaar reapply for his old job as Imam. Trying to be humble, Amaar does accept needing to reapply. Not making the process easy, Baber, as one of the stipulations, make Amaar memorize the second chapter of the Koran, something according to Baber that all good Imams should know by heart. ...

As usual, Baber and Fatima are arguing about everything. Layla and Jamal, witnessing the bad behavior of the respective parent, gets Reverend Magee's take on the situation: each is lonely and needs a companion. Layla and Jamal simultaneously agree the only place for people to meet nowadays is through cyberspace. Layla registers Baber on a Muslim dating site. Although initially suspect, Baber is intrigued that there seems to be a perfect match. Not wanting to get to know his match on cyberspace, he instead wants to meet her in person. Layla helps him through the ...

Amaar is complaining about the fact that he never has much money. Sarah and Rayyan convince Yasir to hire him to help with his contractor business despite Amaar's lack of knowledge about construction. But Yasir figures Amaar's extra pair of hands couldn't hurt in speeding up completing a relatively simple home deck project. Yasir's new assistant is initially more of a burden, but ultimately helps in ways Yasir could not even have imagined. Meanwhile, based partly on Fatima's refusal to serve breakfast for lunch (she does not believe in a concept called brunch), Rayyan...

Yasir decides to join the Prairie Dog Lodge, a men's group based around hunting. Amaar and Baber can't understand his rationale for joining as Islam frowns upon killing. But Yasir sees dollar signs from joining from all the networking he can do to drum up clients for his construction business. But he has to get accepted first, no easy task as the lodge chief is Fred, who is suspicious of Muslims. But Fred also has ulterior motives in accepting Yasir as the lodge itself is in need of major repairs, and none of the existing members have the expertise to do the work. ...

For Layla's birthdays, Baber has a tradition: breakfast, a game of cricket and a movie - in that order - with his daughter. This year, Layla is turning sixteen and wants to break tradition by having a party with her friends, which upsets Baber. On advice from Rayyan and Amaar, Baber decides to throw Layla a surprise party. Layla, on the other hand, coerces her friend Jane into throwing her a party. Rayyan and Amaar find out about Jane's alternative party. Ultimately, Rayyan and Amaar and Layla are all surprised at Layla's sweet sixteen parties. Meanwhile, Fred is in ...

Yasir buys a fixer-upper for Rayyan and J.J. to live in. Rayyan hates the house because it's a long way up from becoming a fixer-upper. But what's worse, Fred lives next door, and likes to suntan in his backyard. Fred does whatever he can to stop Rayyan from moving in, not so much because of her being a Muslim, but because of the probable massive renovations that Yasir would do which may obscure his access to tanning sun's rays. Fred's plan may backfire when Rayyan finds out something that would stop Yasir from renovating. Ultimately, the facts needs to be ...

When J.J. tells Rayyan that he has been asked by his father to go back to Dubai to work on a short term project, does Rayyan mean it when she tells him to go if he wants to? Will J.J. go regardless if he wants to or not? Regardless, Rayyan and J.J. discover that they may have problems in their relationship - not so much based on this issue but how they deal with it. Meanwhile, Baber, who is taking a sabbatical from his university position, has been asked by Mr. Bowman, the principal at Layla's high school, if he would substitute for the math teacher while the regular ...

Sarah needs to find a runner to join her in a two-person team for a 10 km fun run, her team representing the mayor's office. She asks in order Rayyan then Yasir, mentioning to both that each is her only choice since she wants to spend quality time with each. Both turn her down. However, after reconsidering - in Yasir's case, with a little prodding by Amaar and Duncan - both Rayyan and Yasir agree. Sarah's problem then becomes who she will choose and how to tell the other that he/she was not her only choice. A further problem may arise for Sarah if either Rayyan and/or...

At the Mercy Small Business Awards, what's worse than Fatima losing the Small Businesswoman of the Year award to a dog groomer is that Small Businessman of the Year Yasir inadvertently refers to Sarah as Susan in his thank you speech. And what's even worse than that is that Yasir let's it slip to his wife that he was once engaged to a woman named Susan, a fact she never knew beforehand. Meanwhile, Amaar meets new Mercy Chronicle editor/reporter/newspaper-Jack-of-All-Trades Nate Shore when Amaar wants some publicity for the Mercy Mosque's new venture with the Mercy ...

Ann offers Yasir a job as the town's building inspector, a job he accepts if only to approve his own renovations for Rayyan and J.J.'s house. But Ann buries him under a pile of past paperwork, which primarily consists of building infractions around town reported by one, Baber Siddiqui. But also in the overdue file is an actual building inspection. The building ends up not being to code, but what will Yasir do with the bribe he's already unknowingly accepted to approve the building? Ann, who knows about the historic process of bribes within the building inspection ...

After Rayyan, Fred's doctor, tells him that there is an abnormality on his chest x-ray but that he has nothing to worry about, Fred still thinks that he's dying. To make his transition to the afterlife as positive as possible, Fred decides he needs to makes amends to the Muslim community, a 180 degree turn from his regular anti-Muslim rants. When Fred finds out that he is indeed not dying, he takes drastic measures to get his angry life back. Meanwhile, Baber is giving Layla driving lessons. The lessons are going badly, both for Layla but more so for Baber. Their ...

A couple of people in Mercy are trying to get noticed. One is Sarah, who seems to be the only person in Mercy who has not been featured in the newspaper segment Nate's Notables. She'll do whatever it takes to get quoted in the feature. The other is Amaar, who after two years on the job, has never had a raise from his starting salary. Hard nosed Baber, the mosque treasurer, refuses to grant Amaar's demand. In fact, Baber would like Amaar to take a pay cut. Coming to Amaar's rescue is Fred, who appoints himself Amaar's negotiator. Fred suggests Amaar take drastic ...

Yasir has finished the renovations on the house that he and Sarah bought as Rayyan and J.J.'s wedding gift. Sarah and Yasir even personalized it by painstakingly choosing the interior color scheme. But Rayyan and J.J. may never live in the house as J.J.'s parents, for a wedding present for their son and future daughter-in-law, bought them a luxurious island. Rayyan is having trouble telling her parents of the Jaffer's gift, not only because it is in direct competition with theirs, but because it also means that she and J.J. may be moving to the island away from Mercy....

Fatima is depressed because of the lack of success in her life. To cheer her up, Layla and Fred send in her Lamb Fatima recipe to Bon Appetit magazine for possible publication, Lamb Fatima being probably the most popular item at the café. The recipe does get published, but will Fatima appreciate the gesture? Meanwhile, Amaar holds a series of group couples counseling sessions. Sarah wants to attend, but Yasir, who doesn't, tells a white lie that he has a renovation job and can't make it. His renovation job is assisting Baber in setting up his home entertainment system...

Advice is running rampant in Mercy. Amaar feels he's getting too much advice from Reverend Magee and wants to break off his dependency. Many in town, including Sarah, Yasir and Fatima, start getting Muslim approved financial advice from economist Baber. It's not so much the advice to which they're looking to Baber for but solely for Baber to put together an investment portfolio that is making money without all the financial "gobbledy-gook" as Sarah calls it. And Rayyan, J.J. and Amaar are looking for advice on what to do with a certain gift. From J.J.'s cousin, it was...

After being complimented on her ability to make small talk, Sarah begins to over-think her small talk resulting in her small talk truly becomes just that: small. Meanwhile, under pressure from Faisal and after seeing Layla talk to a boy at the mosque, Baber makes a recommendation to Amaar that the women be made to use a different entrance to the mosque from the men. The men would use the front door and the women would use the back door. The women do not like this change, especially since the back door is currently solely used as the door to the garbage area. Amaar, ...

Kareem and Noora Jaffer, J.J.'s parents, have arrived in Mercy for J.J. and Rayyan's wedding, deemed the Mercy social event of the year. Everybody wants everything to be perfect, but things don't seem to be heading in that direction. First, Baber and Faisal are the direct cause of the mosque being invaded by mice. Second, Kareem insists that Yasir name the amount of the Mahr, the monetary gift J.J. and his family are to provide to Rayyan. Yasir and Sarah are in a quandary as they don't want the amount to be either considered too high or too low, naming an amount that ...

Rayyan and J.J.'s wedding day has arrived. More issues have arisen this day beyond the previous problems of J.J.'s parents impending divorce, as well as the mosque being fumigated - leaving nowhere to hold the wedding. Noora, who was in charge of picking up Rayyan's wedding dress, has other things on her mind. Although Amaar is able to find an alternative location for the wedding, it happens to be the Prairie Dog Lodge, which is filled with iconic images offensive to the Muslim culture. And Fred has ulterior motives in offering the lodge in the first place. Will ...