Outrage in the Muslim World Over an Anti-Islam Film Is Building

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/globa...uilding/56785/

Outrage in the Muslim World Over an Anti-Islam Film Is Building



John Hudson 1:15 PM ET
Though the brutal murders of four U.S. officials in Libya may have had nothing to do with the film (White House officials and some analysts say the attack may have been planned in advance), the reaction in Muslim nations to the release of an anti-Islam movie by a Israeli-American filmmaker Sam Bacile is only intensifying. From banning YouTube in Afghanistan to nationwide protests in Egypt, the outrage cycle is far from over. The movie Muslim Innocence may be a low-budget project "barely at the level of a high school play," as one pundit put it, but its depiction of an effete homosexual Muhammad has touched a serious nerve and social networks in the Middle East and Northern Africa are humming with calls for further demonstrations. Here's a glimpse of the impact this story has had around the world:
Afghanistan. For the first time ever, the Afghan government banned YouTube from the entire country in an attempt to prevent citizens from watching the movie. “Following instructions by the ministry of information and culture, the ministry of communication has ordered all service providers to block YouTube access,” a communications ministry official told AFP. The ban will persist "until YouTube removes this abusive film," the official said. An internet user in Kabul confirmed with AFP that the video site was indeed down, despite the fact that YouTube seems to have removed all results fro the Prophet Muhammad. “It seems YouTube has removed all searches for Prophet Mohammed," the official added. "We may lift the ban soon if it is confirmed that YouTube has banned access to this trailer." CBS reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai attempted to preempt any violence saying the film was only the product of a "small radical minority" in the U.S. This is why we Afghanistan can't have nice things, apparently.
Egypt. In a separate report carried by Al Arabiya, AFP reports that Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood party has called for nationwide protests on Friday. The Islamist party calls "for peaceful protests on Friday outside all the main mosques in all of Egypt’s provinces to denounce offences to religion and to the Prophet,” the Muslim Brotherhood’s Secretary General Mahmud Hussein said. He called on "national forces to join the protests." The AP notes that protesters have begun donning Guy Fawkes masks in Egypt (see above photo).
Gaza CBS News reports that "dozens" of Palestinians burned American flags while chanting "death to America" in the Gaza Strip today. "The protest Wednesday in Gaza City was sponsored by supporters of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group aligned with the ruling Hamas movement," reports correspondent Margaret Brennan. "In Gaza City, some protesters carried swords, axes and black flags. They also used knives to cut posters of Morris Sadek, the Egyptian-born Christian who has promoted the film, which was produced by an American-Israeli and also promoted by American pastor Terry Jones." The protesters chanted "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet."
Algeria and Tunisia The AP reports that the U.S. Embassies in Tunisia and Algeria warned Americans against gathering in crowded places. "The Algiers embassy said unspecified groups were using online social networks to organize demonstrations 'to protest a range of issues' there Wednesday," reads the report. "The statement out of Tunis cited 'media reports' indicating protests were planned, but said the embassy remained open."

[Khostai]

I saw the trailer on youtube of this movie. It was really a bad low budget pice of shi.t movie. It looked like it was filmed by some peopel whith no live whith there phone camera.
I find the reaction of the arabs totaly out of propotion, when are they gona learn that this violence will not solve anything but just will show the world that muslims are uncivilised peopel. That was the goal of the filmmaker and sadly he succeded in this.
And by the way this is not the first time that the west makes Islam bad. And everytime muslims like brainless zombies smashes things and kill, but those it help NO. You just show the world that muslims are not capable of defending them self in proper way. Or geting in to debate, the proper way would be to make a movie about the jewish religion and how fuked up its is. The same whith if it was made by a Christian.

[Afghanistan2010]

I applaud the response of the European journalism,commentators,analysts.

#as i quote :

And the jew ask why people hate him...

#another quotation :

All financed by jewish donators....seems like Israel is playing the game.

[Friend]

Whether it was done by an unpopular individual or someone from holywood. It gives a wrong message and the in time reaction from the Muslims is very important if not, then this will become a trend and will never stop.
You remember when Salman Tasir's mouth was shut in Pakistan, after that nobody could dare to speak such dirt again. If he not shut in time, today hundreds of such minded people would talk about such critical issues. But thanks to that police guy who stopped such a dirty debate in time.
We Muslims can't make such films regarding defaming Jesus or Moses peace be upon them because they are highly respected to us. We respect all the prophets but I wish they understand this point.

[IamDZJ]

if your faith in islam is so weak that you feel threatened by something as stupid as that then you don't have much to be offended for. don't bother. three characters in a video, talking to a donkey is not a movie either.

[Friend]

Its not my faith weak. Alhamdulillah my faith is strong in my beloved Muhammad peace be upon him. When someone gives YOU or your MOTHER kanzal then what do you do with him or her ? Have you ever thought about that ???????????????? and we know your language in the forum.

Muhammad peace be upon is more than our parents to us. So just imagine the level of our love with him.

[Tor Gul]

currently the word in the USA is.
the group that made this "film" is already being monitored by the FBI as a hate group and potential domestic terrorist group. the Sam Becile person does not actually exist and is a false name. the federal & state governments where the film was made may charge them for inflamatory speech intended to incite violence.
please understand that while Americans believe strongly in near absolute free speech, most of us also recognize this was an unacceptable attack on on the religion of Muslims

[khushal]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49016321
The California Man Behind the Anti-Islam Film


The search for those behind the provocative, anti-Muslim film implicated in violent protests in Egypt and Libya led to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role in managing and providing logistics for the production.

Ed Giles | Getty Images

An Egyptian protester runs toward riot police during clashes Thursday near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles that he helped with logistics for the filming of "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad and may have caused inflamed mobs that attacked U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. He provided the first details about a shadowy production group behind the film.

Nakoula denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cell phone number that AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Sam Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where AP found Nakoula. Federal court papers said Nakoula's aliases included Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others.

Nakoula told the AP that he was a Coptic Christian and said the film's director supported the concerns of Christian Copts about their treatment by Muslims.
Nakoula denied he had posed as Bacile. During a conversation outside his home, he offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP subsequently found it and other connections to the Bacile persona.
The AP located Bacile after obtaining his cell phone number from Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who had promoted the anti-Muslim film in recent days on his website. Egypt's Christian Coptic population has long decried what they describe as a history of discrimination and occasional violence from the country's Arab majority.

Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., who burned Qurans on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, said he spoke with the movie's director on the phone Wednesday and prayed for him. He said he has not met the filmmaker in person, but the man contacted him a few weeks ago about promoting the movie.
"I have not met him. Sam Bacile, that is not his real name," Jones said. "I just talked to him on the phone. He is definitely in hiding and does not reveal his identity. He was quite honestly fairly shook up concerning the events and what is happening. A lot of people are not supporting him."

The film was implicated in protests that resulted in the burning of the U.S. consulate Tuesday in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Anti-U.S. protests also were held in Cairo, and spread to Yemen on Thursday.

Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed during the mob violence, but U.S. officials now say they are investigating whether the assault was a planned terrorist strike linked to Tuesday's 11-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Google[GOOG 695.548 4.668 (+0.68%) ] , which owns YouTube, pulled down the video Wednesday in Egypt, citing a legal complaint. Access was also restricted in Libya, but it was still accessible in the U.S. and other countries.
In a statement to CNBC, YouTube said: "We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. This can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video — which is widely available on the Web — is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries. Our hearts are with the families of the people murdered in yesterday's attack in Libya."

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  Nakoula, who talked guardedly about his role, pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

The YouTube account, "Sam Bacile," which was used to publish excerpts of the provocative movie in July, was used to post comments online as recently as Tuesday, including this defense of the film written in Arabic: "It is a 100 percent American movie, you cows."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Leigh Williams said Nakoula set up fraudulent bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers, then checks from those accounts would be deposited into other bogus accounts from which Nakoula would withdraw money at ATM machines.
It was "basically a check-kiting scheme," the prosecutor told the AP. "You try to get the money out of the bank before the bank realizes they are drawn from a fraudulent account. There basically is no money."

The actors in the film issued a joint statement Wednesday saying they were misled about the project and said some of their dialogue was crudely dubbed during post-production.
In the English language version of the trailer, direct references to Muhammad appear to be the result of post-production changes to the movie. Either actors aren't seen when the name "Muhammad" is spoken in the overdubbed sound, or they appear to be mouthing something else as the name of the prophet is spoken.

"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," said the statement, obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

The person who identified himself as Bacile and described himself as the film's writer and director told the AP on Tuesday that he had gone into hiding. But doubts rose about the man's identity amid a flurry of false claims about his background and role in the purported film.

Bacile told the AP he was an Israeli-born, 56-year-old, Jewish writer and director. But a Christian activist involved in the film project, Steve Klein, told AP on Wednesday that Bacile was a pseudonym and that he was Christian.

Klein had told the AP on Tuesday that the filmmaker was an Israeli Jew who was concerned for family members who live in Egypt.
Officials in Israel said there was no record of Bacile as an Israeli citizen.
When the AP initially left a message for Bacile, Klein contacted the AP from another number to confirm the interview request was legitimate then Bacile called back from his own cell phone.

Klein said he didn't know the real name of the man he called "Sam," who came to him for advice on First Amendment issues.
About 15 key players from the Middle East — from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and a couple Coptic Christians from Egypt — worked on the film, Klein said.
"Most of them won't tell me their real names because they're terrified," Klein said. "He was really scared and now he's so nervous. He's turned off his phone."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said Klein is a former Marine and longtime religious-right activist who has helped train paramilitary militias at a California church. It described Klein as founder of Courageous Christians United, which conducts protests outside abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques.

It quoted Klein as saying he believes that California is riddled with Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells "who are awaiting the trigger date and will begin randomly killing as many of us as they can."
In his brief interview with the AP, Bacile defiantly called Islam a cancer and said he intended the film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
But several key facts Bacile provided proved false or questionable. Bacile told AP he was 56 but identified himself on his YouTube profile as 74. Bacile said he is a real estate developer, but Bacile does not appear in searches of California state licenses, including the Department of Real Estate.

Hollywood and California film industry groups and permit agencies said they had no records of the project under the name "Innocence of Muslims," but a Los Angeles film permit agency later found a record of a movie filmed in Los Angeles last year under the working title "Desert Warriors."
A man who answered a phone listed for the Vine Theater, a faded Hollywood movie house, confirmed that the film had run for a least a day, and possibly longer, several months ago, arranged by a customer known as "Sam."

Klein told the AP that he vowed to help make the movie but warned the filmmaker that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.
"We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said.

[RevolutionThroughReason]

Its not my faith weak. Alhamdulillah my faith is strong in my beloved Muhammad peace be upon him. When someone gives YOU or your MOTHER kanzal then what do you do with him or her

Well since I have the mind of a fully developed grown up . I would just laugh and say, "that tells us more about what happened with you and your mother, than it does mine". Make a smart and more clever come back is the proper response.

Muhammad peace be upon is more than our parents to us. So just imagine the level of our love with him.

Muhammad can handle himself he doesn't need us. Here I'll prove it

Muhammad did a lot of moronic stuff......what are you going to do now?

[Friend]

RTR, we already know your views on blasphemy as your views do not differ the views of any western anti religious person so your views do not carry any weight here.
An advice for you, why don't you start a campaign against the religion of Islam and its prophets to train the Muslims because you want Muslims to get addicted to such incidents and it becomes a routine thing for them (the Muslims) and so that the Muslims take it as a joke that they do with each other like friends.

[Toramana]

RTR, we already know your views on blasphemy as your views do not differ the views of any western anti religious person so your views do not carry any weight here.
An advice for you, why don't you start a campaign against the religion of Islam and its prophets to train the Muslims because you want Muslims to get addicted to such incidents and it becomes a routine thing for them (the Muslims) and so that the Muslims take it as a joke that they do with each other like friends.

Any sane person will defend his/her belief with logic---the deranged ones will resort to beheading---

Are Swati Taleban hiding in the West?

[Friend]

Any sane person will defend his/her belief with logic---the deranged ones will resort to beheading---

Are Swati Taleban hiding in the West?

What are you talking about ?

[RevolutionThroughReason]

RTR, we already know your views on blasphemy as your views do not differ the views of any western anti religious person so your views do not carry any weight here.
An advice for you, why don't you start a campaign against the religion of Islam and its prophets to train the Muslims because you want Muslims to get addicted to such incidents and it becomes a routine thing for them (the Muslims) and so that the Muslims take it as a joke that they do with each other like friends.

so Muslims should act irrational and destructive and resort to violence just because people call us or our Prophets names? IS that the Adult way to handle things, is that what you're suggesting?


and why don't my views carry weight, what makes them invalid? You're saying religious people act like morons just because someone says a few words?

Rumi once said in FARSI ......" jawab-e-ablahan khamosh ast" ...pa pakhto ki wayoo "da jahil ta jawab ghalay dai" that's what a REAL Intelligent person would do.

[RevolutionThroughReason]

Any sane person will defend his/her belief with logic---the deranged ones will resort to beheading---

Are Swati Taleban hiding in the West?

exactly the way to respond to Anti-Islam is to prove them wrong; acting like violent illogical idiots, proves them right!

[IamDZJ]

Muhammad did a lot of moronic stuff......what are you going to do now?

What type of a person justifies proving a point with such an idiotic manner???