The antidote to American Islamophobia, Katie Couric and others have suggested, could be a television show about a typical Muslim American (or is that American Muslim?) family, moderate and happy to be in America. It would be something akin to The Cosby Show, which supposedly helped change white attitudes towards blacks.

As Asif Mandvi shows in this recent 6-minute clip from The Daily Show, creating a Muslim Cosby is easy, but changing American minds about Muslims is not. Mandvi and his pals come-up with Allah In The Family, revolving around the likable Qu’osby family, and replicating its predecessor, getting it down right to the sweater.

But to no avail. It’s not believable, says a member of the 7-person focus group. “You gotta have that closet terrorist…Uncle Raheeb or something that came over,” says another.

Hmmm. I liked The Cosby Show, but maybe it would have been better if there had been a radical black uncle, always dressed in camouflage and pushing Malcolm X tapes (his early stuff) on his unsuspecting nephews and nieces. Now that would have been interesting.