I don't know how I exactly feel about this.

On the one hand, as a Muslim, you want a major Muslim-themed show on a major network to be something positively Muslim, because there's so much on american TV already that portrays Muslim in a negative image. But also you don't want another **Little Mosque on the Prairie** because it's too schmaltzy and nobody really watches it or is interested in it. So is **Ramy** negative? hard to say from one episode, but Ramy is clearly not THE model Muslim, and from the get go we are introduced to him having sex out wedlock, which is way more of a big deal than drugs or alcohol. So from the get go, Ramy is not alright neither by the standards of the whites (who see him as a hypocrite) or the Muslims (who see him as a stray), maybe this is intentional from the writers but I feel it could've been executed a little bit better without losing your audience from the first episode.

On the other hand, there's a lot of good things in seeing a story of a Muslim trying to grapple with his faith in a modern world trying to lead him astray at every corner, and all the struggles that come with it. Muslims are not saints, we lies, steal, masturbate and sin on a daily basis like any other person, we are human after all.

I would have liked it more if they didn't start the show with the topic of sex straightaway, because it's kind of a big deal and it is not to be taken lightly, but maybe lead to it gradually so at least it feels like someone is struggling with his faith rather than someone who is living life on his own rules and his faith is only an afterthought. If you watch **Crashing**, you can see what I'm talking about, it's a show about someone who is trying to reconciliate between his faith and his environment, it's done in a way that it doesn't feel like his faith is just a character trait but a journey you take with the character as he is trying to find out who he really is and what he wants out of life.

With that being said, I will be watching the rest of it and hopefully it will get better, because there is a lot of humour to be found in being Muslim, and having a TV show explore that and make it relatable is something beautiful to experience, and hopefully **Ramy** could contribute in educating a wider audience about how similar Muslims are to everybody else, but we are just slightly better. :wink: