Canal Plus, a French pay television service, has become the first international network to buy the CBC-TV series Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Other broadcasters in the U.S. and Europe are also looking at the sitcom about a Muslim community in a small Prairie town, according to Mary Darling of Westwind Pictures, the show's producer.

Baber (Manoj Sood), Rayyan (Sitara Hewitt) and Fatima (Arlene Duncan) at a meeting in the mosque.
CBC

Canal Plus will begin airing the show in July in France and French-speaking regions of Switzerland and Africa, she said.

The French broadcaster plans to unscramble the show, allowing it to be widely accessible to viewers at no charge.

France has suffered tensions in the past few years between predominantly Muslim immigrants and other citizens.

International buyers often compliment the show for breaking down cultural stereotypes, Darling said, calling it "a real Canadian success story."

Little Mosque began airing in January on CBC Television. Writer Zarqa Nawaz is a British-born Muslim who grew up in Ontario and now lives in Saskatchewan.