ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the various visual structures governing the key figure of Muslims and the practice of Islam in Western media following the catastrophe and beyond. It explores how Little Mosque engages with the key issues in the post-9/11 debate over visual representations. The chapter also focuses at the issue of visibility in depth by enclosing the politics of representing Muslims and Islam within a dominant regime of visibility that invites certain ways of watching and forecloses others. It discusses how the globally-syndicated show mobilizes one of the most beloved television formats in popular culture, the situation comedy to insert a banal and normalized gaze towards Muslims and to contest hostile representations of Islam in Western media. The chapter considers how the on-screen interactions between Muslim and non-Muslim characters might also facilitate a distinct, although overtly idealized, visuality; these on-screen relations and the emerging visuality are discussed through Paul Gilroy's concept of convivial culture.
