E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSQuestions swirled Wednesday around the makers of a provocative anti-Islam movie blamed by some for triggering protests at U.S. diplomatic outposts in Egypt and Libya and sparking an attack on the latter that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
At least one clip from what is described as a feature film titled “Innocence of Muslims” was posted on YouTube and later reposted after being translated into Arabic. The clip, an amateurish production featuring dozens of actors, portrays Muhammad, believed by Muslims to be God’s prophet, as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser.
Reports published by The Associated Press and the Wall Street Journalidentified the filmmaker as Sam Bacile. The AP described Bacile as a 56-year-old Israeli American real estate developer from California; the Journal said he was a 52-year-old real estate developer, but did not say where he lived. Both news organizations said that they interviewed Bacile, who was said to be in hiding, by phone, and both quoted him as saying the film was intended to show that "Islam is a cancer."
"This is a political movie," the AP quoted him as saying. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas."
But by midday Wednesday, Bacile's credibility -- indeed his very existence -- were being questioned:
- The Atlantic quoted a man reported by the AP to be a consultant on the film, Steve Klein, as saying that “Bacile” is a pseudonym and that the filmmaker “is not Israeli and most likely not Jewish.”
Klein, a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, Calif., told the Atlantic he doesn’t know the man’s real name and indicated that the filmmaker contacted him because he leads anti-Islam protests outside mosques and schools.
- A source close to the cast and crew of the film told NBC News that the man known as Bacile misled the actors and production crew.
"The entire crew and cast are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," the source said. "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."
- Israeli officials also told the AP that there is no record of an Israeli citizen named Sam Bacile.
- California corporate records show no one by that name as holding a real estate license there.
The 13-minute, English-language trailer was posted on YouTube in July by an account registered to Sam Bacile. The account, which was created in April, lists Bacile's age as 75 and has been used only twice apart from posting the trailer -- once to "like" another video and to make one comment, in Arabic. That comment, which referenced a debate on Egyptian TV over the "Innocence of Muslims" clip, was translated as, "Oh, Animal, it’s 100% an American movie."
The trailer shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults cast as revelations about Muhammad.
Many Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.
The Journal reported the film had been promoted by Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose burning of Qurans previously sparked deadly riots in Pakistan and other Muslim nations.
Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., told NBC News on Wednesday that he aired the trailer once in his makeshift church. But he said efforts to screen it on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were thwarted by technical difficulties.
NBC's Kerry Sanders talks about the controversial pastor's history of provocative acts against Islam and how he may be tied to an inflammatory film that has sparked uproar within the global Muslim community.
"We tried to stream it … and every time we did that, it was cut off, disappeared,” he said.
A statement on the pastor’s political website, posted late Tuesday, said that the screening was to have been part of a day-long ‘International Judge Muhammad Day’ in which the Muslim prophet would be subjected to a mock trial for “promoting murder, rape, and destruction of people and property through his writings called the Koran.”
Jones also told NBC’s Kerry Sanders that he had been in contact with the movie’s producer, but did not provide financial support for its production or distribution.
The AP also reported that Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian in the United States known for his anti-Islam views, said he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.
Although it was posted to YouTube in July, the film only attracted attention in the Middle East after an unknown person recently dubbed it into Egyptian Arabic. That translation, which the man who identified himself as Bacile told the AP was accurate, has been broadcast repeatedly on Egyptian media in recent weeks after being seized upon by extreme Islamists who dislike the presence of the country’s Coptic Christians.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports on the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The envoy is the first American ambassador killed on duty since 1979.
Film news site The Wrap said the Arabic-dubbed version had garnered more than 40,000 views by Tuesday afternoon. However, that clip appeared to have been taken down on Wednesday.
The AP quoted the man who identified himself as Bacile as saying that the film was made in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera. The Journal quoted him as saying that the film cost $5 million, which was raised from about 100 Jewish donors, whom he declined to identify.
The man also told the AP that the full film, which he said is three hours in length, was shown only once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year.
No record of such a screening could be found.
NBC News' Alfred Arian, Kerry Sanders and Bob Sullivan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- US official killed in anti-American protests at Libya consulate
- No Obama-Netanyahu meeting as rift over Iran widens
- Where is China's heir-apparent? Rumors abound
- Dead Guantanamo detainee had been cleared for release
- 100 most endangered species listed; worth saving?
- Afghan Taliban made $400 million last year, UN estimates
- Iran sanctions working, except where it counts
- 18 Afghan police join us, Taliban claim
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
How dare you mindless cretans blame the film or the man that produced it, instead of those raghead watching the film that murder in the name of religion because they do not have the common sense to realize that their's is not the only religion. Personally, I feel that it is time to clode the US checkbook to this savages and turn their desert into glass. They are only a few weeks away from living in the Stone Age. Hell, these people were smarter 5,000 years when they built the Pyramids.
The man is a COWARD! Why doesnt he stand behind his work? You have the right to make inflamatory films statements etc, but you also have the responsibility to accept the consequences. This man should be tried for murder, or at the very least depraved indiference. He knew what this would do, and if he didnt, he should have. I say we put him on a plane and send him to Cairo for an all expense paid vacation to judgment day.
Freedom of Speech doesn't mean much to you, huh?
Interesting concept that Militant Islam has about freedom of expression; "if your speech offends us we will kill you". By the way, didn't we just help the Libyans get rid of Qaddafi? Nothing like a deadly thank you. Really makes looking like helping the Syrian rebels a foolish idea.
Too bad Kevin does not understand the whole movie thing was a set-up.
Really makes looking like helping the Syrian rebels a foolish idea.
Syrian?
muhamdad, ally,allababa or whatever you call it is a fake, dead murderous piece of crap excuse for religion
So was Moses.
Not saying Christians are superior, because some of them real a-holes. But, if a non-Christian says something derogatory about God, or Christianity, the most likely response is "whatever dude, that's your opinion" and that's the end of it. But do the same to Islam or Muhammed, and they are ready to kill every Christian in sight.
Where is the outrage and condemnation from the leaders of the Islamic community? Silence=Approval in some minds.
Hey Muslims! Don't like the worlds opinion of you? Do something to change it! If you continue to sit there silently, and say nothing or do nothing, the whole world thinks you are OK with this kind of stupidity.
Well, are you?
I tell you what -- let's make a movie where Jesus molests the children that "come unto him" and have Mary sucking off a donkey in a Bethlehem manger. I am sure the American Christianists would be just fine with that (/sarcasm)....
Ybluepanda...do you really think Christians would murder and riot as a result???
Muhammad WAS a child molester, mass murderer, thief, et al ...
So what.
Hatred, ignorance and intolerance are the cancers. Religion is just a way of spreading all three.
Christianity and its minions of christianists are a plague on the world. They are the true terrorists of America. And Romney, the king of panderers, is nothing more than their puppet. Beware the Christiban!!
If it weren't for Christians, especially those in America, the world would be in a perpetual war..
Just make it up, why not.
I am sick and tired of Israel manipulating American election by forcing our president to launch war with Iran. Just remember that our blood is going to be shed for Israel. Is it worth it?
I blame republicans for stirring up controversy so they can make a political issue of it.
When they "booed" God at the Democratic Convention....did Christians and Jews riot and murder???
Hope:
No they didn't. This is yet another example of that "Tolerant", "Peace Loving" religion that wants to force it's Stone Age social order on the entire world.
I have an idea. Let's Go into muslim countries Every five years, Hold the men at gunpoint, and offer ALL thier women assylum. Tell them "Come live with us in a place where you can get educated, do what you want with your life, marry whom you want, wear what you want, be free from the Floggings, Canings, Stonings, beheadings, hangings, and "Honor Killings" they are forcing on you, and; by the way, we won't strap dynamite to your children either. Some older ones might stay, but most of the younger ones will come.
And since; According to thier religion, dying with Pork in your body gets you a one way ticket to H#LL. Everywhere we fight them we should pack each, and every bullet, and piece of ordinance with a small vacuum packed plastic bag filled with Pork.
Do these two things, and our children won't have to deal with them because in thirty years there won't BE a Muslim religion.
Frobose...I agree with most of your post.....but, how would you describe that vote on whether or not to allow the word "God" at the DNC Convention? ....I didn't see if they had a vote on whether or not to allow the word "Allah"...did they??
"And since; According to thier religion, dying with Pork in your body gets you a one way ticket to H#LL. Everywhere we fight them we should pack each, and every bullet, and piece of ordinance with a small vacuum packed plastic bag filled with Pork."
Yes.
Hope:
I would describe it as the Democratic party falling all over itself trying to get out of it's own way.
yeah, the problem is that Muhammad was a womanizer, maybe homosexual and definitely a child abuser. so is it because they told the truth or showed his face? i love how human beings think they can just make up new realities with words. if the truth hurts we just pretend it isn't real.
CNN talked to the cast and crew of the movie. "The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose," the statement says. "We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred." One wonders what happened in the editing room by the person who call himself Bacile. What a director-he isn't even proud enough to put his real name on a movie!
if you don't like the message of the movie.....don't watch it! Wasn't that easy?
The movie was shown on Egyptian and Libyan news. It wasn't necessary to download it from YouTube. One wonders about the American Coptic Christian group that helped distribute the film and added the Arabic translation. Their intent was simply to stir the masses in Egypt and Libya.
How to control hate speech: publish "imbacile's name and address" and see how he feels about freedom of speech
I'm offended by your comments - does that mean I get to kill you?
The situation is typical of Hollywood fictional films in which a member of one ethnicity murders or abuses someone of a different ethnicity. This could anger some moron to the point of retaliatory abuse or murder against an innocent victim. The films producer has, in effect, murdered or abused someone of an ethnicity he doesn't like.
“Seriously? Whwt about that "Judge not lest ye be judged" part of your bible?”
Hey jackass. That is also in the Koran… you mind telling that to THESE people?
“How about the rape, murder and destruction of property BY CHRISTIANS throughout the middle ages ALL THE WAY UP TO the fighting in the U.K. between Catholics and Protestants which didn't end until the 1990s?”
WOW I’ve never heard this argument before! Well that tears it! I’m atheist now.
Seriously that unoriginal trite is a fools argument. It has been comically obliterated so many times, that the people who bring it up are simply uneducated morons.
Sadly, the movie speaks true about the fanaticism and violence of Islam, otherwise they wouldn't have killed anyone.
Also, sadly. Bacile has illustrated how quick all of you are to give up your freedom and blame the messenger instead of...um, blaming the lunatics who committed murder.
So, when do we put a limit on our 1st Amendment declaring that mentioning Muhammed (who was a murdering, womanizing, fanatic, by all accounts of history) is considered accessory to murder bcz mentioning Muhammed 'will' incite a riot among the coward, fanatical extremists?
Bacile did NOT yell fire and yet you (Americans?..i dont think so) argue that he should be held accountable for the deaths. yeah, that makes sense. You ppl disgust me!
Bacile made a movie and it has great significance bcz it has revealed how Americans are being controlled by the actions of a few nutjobs. He has hit the nail on the head and it pisses most ppl off when they have to face how really afraid they are of their own shadow. And in typical American fashion, you dont blame the criminals.
If thats the case, then I guess I just brought a jihad on my head bcz "Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet." I don't give a F*ck what offends ppl. grow a backbone...its called Freedom of Speech. bcz really then, we should be arresting every comedian in this country for using inciteful language. Hahahahahaa.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave...more like, Land of the Fearful, Home of the Enslaved.
Muslims are bigger pussies than Christians by a long shot.
What could be more inappropriate than giving Mitt Romney time to speak on his political bias at a time like this? He has no basis to have an opinion other than to back his President at a time Americans have been attacked. He should offer his support for the President and shut up.
And who in the world thinks this is about religion? It's about the power to poke a rabid dog, desperate people, and let someone else get hurt.
Yeah Kelly, the problem is that Muhammad was a womanizer, maybe homosexual and definitely a child abuser? Moses was just as bad. So is it because Republicans exposed their Shari'a agenda or spilled the beans by quoting Moses? I love how Republicans think they can just make up new realities with Bible words. If the truth hurts we just pretend it isn't real. Shari'a law is based on Moses, the Old Testament is the same in Islam, including Leviticus.
how would you describe that vote on whether or not to allow the word "God" at the DNC Convention? ....I didn't see if they had a vote on whether or not to allow the word "Allah"...did they??
Allah is the same God in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
All Christians worship Allah and all Muslims believe in Jesus.
No one but kids educated in the US believe that. Christians believe Christ Jesus was one part of the triune God; Muslims believe Jesus was only a man. Christians believe man is saved by grace and faith in Jesus; Muslims believe man is saved by works. Jews believe they are save by virtue of their works and their genetic makeup. Doesn't seem the same to me.
All Muslims believe in Jesus because they believe Jesus was a prophet of God.
Christians believe Christ Jesus was one part of the triune God
That is a lie. Not all Christians believe in the trinity.
Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in the same God, the God of Abraham.
please understand, Islam does not recognize freedom of speech. for this reason alone Islam cannot coexist in America and most of the western world. This is something that the Muslims understand and for the sake of their muhammad they cannot understand why America is insisting on accepting them and tolerating them when they are themselves are naturally intolerant religion and thus has built their society around these principles. They are a lost cause, leave them alone and stop going into their countries and stop them from going anywhere either to cause harm to others.
Islam does not recognize freedom of speech? Neither does Christianity.
It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man. - Matthew 15:11
What has this Israeli Jew gained by producing this film ? More animosity against us. Recently we sold 50-60 $billions worth arms to Saudi Arabia & Qatar. What do we get from Israel ? On the contrary, we send them billions $$$ - no charge.
Israeli Jew? That may not be true. It may be a cover. Scroll up and read the topic:
“Bacile” is a pseudonym and that the filmmaker “is not Israeli and most likely not Jewish.”
The more I read about the origins of this film - and who put it out there, especially the translation - the more murky it looks. And the more I think about it the more it looks like a piece of 'black propaganda'. My only question is by whom:
-was it done by militant Muslims to provoke hatred against the US?
-was it done by militant Muslims to provoke hatred against Jews/Israel (given the amount of references to it being funded or made by Israelis/Jews)?
-was it done by Far-Right anti-Semites to provoke hatred against Jews?
-was it done by Russia to foment hatred against the US amongst anti-Assad forces in Syria - especially at a time when the Free Syrian Army look to the West (US, UK, etc.) for support against the Russian-backed Assad regime?
-was it done by Islamists to try and turn the protesters of the Arab Spring from looking to the West for their example and back towards the East?
I'm no conspiracy theorist (I'm certain 9/11 was al-Qaeda, man landed on the moon, Diana died in a car crash, etc.) but I also know full well that there are those happy to use so-called black propaganda and the internet is providing them with ever more opportunities to practice these dark arts. (Just Google 'Marc Gaza Flotilla homosexuality' for a recent clumsy example.)
Lovely. Some duschbag says he's a Jew and an Israeli and suddenly the whole world latches on to his dumb-ass, third rate, movie as a symbol for us all. What the hell makes you think that just because some idiot some where says something then it represents the rest of us, even if he says he's one of us?
Liberals, does Glenn Beck speak for you? Conservatives, does Jon Stuart speak for you?
No, they don't, and I think you would be insulted if they were taken as such! So, why the hell do you guys feel the need to take this guy's so called Judaism and so called status as an Israeli to pin this on all of us?
Oooooo... "Jews have been saying that anti-semitism is wrong, well, after this they can't complain". Bull@!$%# and you know it. This guy is not "The Jews". Heck *I* am not "The Jews". This guy is not "The Israelis" and neither am I. His actions are the actions of one nutjob and his small group of backers, not even of an elected group of backers or an official group of backers. Just some random people he claims to be Jews.
You're so pissed about some guy somewhere causing your ambassador to die for something that has nothing to do with you? Imagine how you would feel if on top of all that, you were being blamed for his actions as if you sanctioned or supported them.
He, and whoever backed him, assuming they're even Jews or Israelis to beginwith, do not represent us anymore than any random nutjub in the states represents you guys.
So please, calm down and be fair about this.
Hey laughsatlefthalfwits it's Muslim not Moslim.
You not only sound like a bozo you look like one through your posts.
And since people who have left leaning US political tendencies are worse than terrorists , why live here in the USA? Why don't you pack your right wing @!$%# up and go live with the 'Moslem' terrorists?
If you wanna know why our world is going to @!$%# you need only look in a mirror!!!
So is this film still available to watch somewhere on the web?