Coming soon: 'Muslim Homer Simpson'

A character in English comedian David Baddiel's movie about a British Muslim who finds out he is actually Jewish, has been compared to Homer Simpson.

Omid Djalili, 44, who is set to star as the leading man in 46-year-old Baddiel's The Infidel, says the character in the movie is just a regular guy.

'Yeah, he's just a football watching, beer swilling fat git,' Sky News quoted him as saying.

'He's a kind of Homer Simpson of the Muslim world,' he said.

Baddiel, who wrote and produced the movie, says that despite it being a provocative idea, it is not offensive.

'It didn't occur to me when I first came up with the idea that it might be a brave thing to do,' he said.

'I just thought it was a funny idea. Twenty years ago I don't think you could have made this film because no one really thought of Muslims and Jews as polarised opposites then.

'But now politics and kind of media myth has forced that onto us,' he stated.

Baddiel has written four novels since his days with Frank Skinner but this is his first movie script, and though the story may sound controversial, in reality it is good-natured and very British challenging of stereotypes.

'Most Muslims and Jews who have seen it are not offended by it,' Baddiel, who is of course Jewish himself, said.

'And most Muslims are really pleased as far as I can work out to see an ordinary Muslim family with a likeable Muslim guy. It's really not a film that's trying to offend,' he added.