Based on the BBC Two format of the same name, SBS’ new two-part documentary Muslims Like Us follows 10 people from across Australia as they move in together in a suburban Sydney house.

Asking a group of strangers to live under one roof while cameras capture their every move is nothing new but SBS has cleverly adapted the idea as a means of exploring what it means to be a Muslim in Australia.

Premiering today, the series revolves around a diverse group of participants who, though they share the same faith, could hardly be more different.

They include Afghan-born Mina, who is pro same-sex marriage and believes that women covering their heads is divisive and unnecessary; former NRL player Jamal, who is of Nigerian and Aboriginal heritage; Hobart stay-at-home mum Anjum, who refuses to mix with men and wears a full niqab; and poet and gym owner Kaveh, an Iranian refugee who came to Australia with his family in 1995.

We also meet West Australian Aisha, 32, a law graduate and divorced mother of two.

She says that while she had reservations about taking part in the show, the opportunity to help break down misconceptions about her religion was too good to pass up.

“For me, I simply had one objective and that was to humanise Muslims, even just a little bit,” she says.

“I wanted to break through a lot of stereotypes and also I was hoping that the show would highlight the diversity within the Muslim community, and basically show that we are humans and like anyone else really.

“It’s quite easy to demonise ‘the other’ if you don’t know much about them, so I felt like if you watch the show it just might spark some more curiosity for you maybe to say hello to your neighbour who happens to be a Muslim, or someone at school, that kind of thing.

“I think if it can get people thinking about their own views and get them to question the stereotypes they may have bought into, that would be really positive.”

I simply had one objective and that was to humanise Muslims.

From day-to-day issues regarding sleeping arrangements and prayer schedules to broader topics such as extremism, Islamophobia and sexuality, the eight days of filming offered no shortage of debate — and conflict — among the participants.

Much of the drama arises from the group’s differing views on what it means to be a “good Muslim”, with a clear divide between those who take a traditional stance and those with more modern, progressive interpretations of the Islam faith.

Aisha, who is the daughter of a Yugoslavian Greek Orthodox father and an Indonesian Muslim mother, says her own perspective on her faith has evolved over the years.

“I’m a lot more flexible and I think that’s something that comes with maturity, it comes with motherhood, it basically comes with more life experience,” she says.

“But certainly as a teenager I was very, I suppose, black and white in certain aspects of my faith, and in my journey I’ve come to realise that whilst those aspects do exist, like in all religions and political ideologies, there is much more grey in the middle. And I’ve learnt to become very comfortable in those shades of grey.”

As well as residing together, the documentary follows the group as they visit the scene of the 2014 Lindt cafe siege, host a barbecue for the neighbours in their conservative Lower North Shore community and hold a group prayer session on Manly beach. It’s here that a passer-by stops to quiz Anjum about her niqab.

“If you come to our country,” she says, “you’ve got to do what we say.”

Aisha is one of several participants who has experienced misconceptions, prejudice or outright aggression. “I have encountered lots of abuse from the public,” she says. “I have been sworn at, I’ve been called a terrorist, I’ve been told to go back to where you come from.”

She says she is hopeful that Muslims Like Us goes some way towards opening audiences’ eyes to Muslim life.

“I always say that a third of people will hate you no matter what you do and a third of people will love you no matter what you do, and then there is a third of people in the middle, they haven’t made up their minds yet, and that was always my target audience,” she says.

“Maybe they look at this show as an opportunity to be that fly on the wall and they’re just curious to tune in and maybe learn a thing or two.

“And for me that would be more than enough.”

Muslims Like Us airs today and tomorrow at 8.35pm on SBS.