Raja, the Pakistani Muslim – the “alien” in America - surprises the family by doing the dishes, praying in the living room and generally being a polite teenager.

The show has gotten excellent reviews largely because the stereotypes in question – small town Americans and South Asian Muslims – appear to be at war everywhere else.

Yet, for all its eye-rolling typical sitcom schtick, Aliens in America succeeds in poking gentle fun at how knee-jerk and narrow America has become since 9/11 on the issue of how we view the fifth of humanity that is Muslim. The fact that there are genuine moments where the sweetness of high school friendship replaces ignorance and insults makes Aliens in America more than worth watching.

“We have the opportunity to spend the year in the presence of a real live Pakistani who practices ‘Muslimism’,” says the perky Wisconsin high school teacher.

“Raja, you are so different from us - how does that feel?”

Raja is at a loss for words. He didn’t come to America to highlight the differences or widen the divide.

The teacher turns to her class, “How does everybody else feel about Raja and his differences?”

One girl offers, “I guess I feel angry because his people blew up the buildings in New York.”

Raja tries to protest, and gets scolded in return. “In America, we raise our hands before we speak,” the teacher says, and then asks the rest of the class whether they agree that Raja is responsible for blowing up the World Trade Center. The students, observing the classroom etiquette demanded by their teacher, all raise their hands and politely label their new classmate a terrorist.

It would be a better world if such scenes only happened in television shows. Unfortunately, more and more Americans are viewing Muslims as only different. A recent Pew survey found that 70% of Americans say they have little or nothing in common with Muslims.

Viewing a group of people as aliens because of their faith is against everything America stands for. Our poets, playwrights and philosophers have always understood that America, unlike many other nations, is based on an idea, not an ethnicity or a religion, the essence of which is that our dream of opportunity for all is made real by people who come from every corner and pray in every way, or no way at all. Even given the drawbacks of the genre, I am happy that sitcom-writers are singing this most American song:

When we treat our neighbors and guests of a different faith as strangers, we become the aliens in America.