An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam's religious character Muhammad sparked angry assaults by extremist Muslims on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya, where one American was killed.
Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an American diplomat. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an
American flag with an Islamic banner.
The two-hour movie, Innocence of Muslims, cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.
The film claims Muhammad
was a fraud. An English-language 13-minute trailer on YouTube shows an amateur cast performing a dialogue of insults in the form of revelations about Muhammad.
The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this
year, said Bacile.
Update: Uncensored by Google
13th September 2012. See article
from in.reuters.com
YouTube, the video website owned by Google Inc, will not remove the film clip that has caused murderous anti-U.S. protests in Egypt and Libya, but it has blocked access to it in those countries.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and
three other American diplomats were killed by gunmen in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday.
The U.S. ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them, an official in Benghazi told Reuters.
In a brief statement on Wednesday, Google officials rejected the notion of removing the video on grounds it did not violate YouTube's policies, but restricted viewers in Egypt and Libya from loading it due to the special circumstances in the
country. Google said:
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.
Update: Blocked in Afghanistan
13th
September 2012. See article from telegraph.co.uk
The Afghan government on Wednesday banned YouTube from the country to prevent people from watching the anti-Islam film, The Innocence of Muslims.
Following instructions by the ministry of information and culture, the ministry of communication
has ordered all service providers to block YouTube access, communications ministry official Aimal Marjan told AFP. He said the block had been ordered until YouTube removes this abusive film .
The Afghan presidency earlier condemned the
film as inhuman and insulting, calling for it not to be broadcast.
Update: Violence Spreads
14th September 2012. See
article from
dailymail.co.uk
Emergency plans are in place to evacuate UK diplomats and their families following a second day of violence in the Middle East.
Protests over an anti-Islam film saw the US embassy in Yemen stormed by a mob numbering in the thousands.
The
unrest has spread to Yemen, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Algeria, Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia.
In Tehran, groups chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans staged a protest outside the Swiss embassy which represents US interests in
Iran.
And in Iraq, demonstrations spread from Baghdad to the second city of Basra with the leader of one Islamist militia warning the film will put all American interests in danger .
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for
nationwide protests today to denounce the film. Up to 70 were injured in a third day of protests yesterday at the US embassy in Cairo with some demonstrators demanding the ambassador's expulsion.
Update: Google Asked to
Consider censorship
15th September 2012. See article
from latimes.com
US Administration officials have asked YouTube to review a controversial video that many blame for spurring a wave of anti-American violence in the Middle East.
The administration flagged the 14-minute Innocence of Muslims video and asked
that YouTube evaluate it to determine whether it violates the site's terms of service, officials said Thursday. The video, which has been viewed by nearly 1.7 million users, depicts Muhammad as a child molester, womanizer and murderer -- and has been
decried as blasphemous and Islamophobic.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sharpened her criticism of the film that led to the protests. She called the film disgusting and reprehensible -- but said that the U.S. would never stop
Americans from expressing their views, and that the movie is no excuse for violence, according to reports from the Associated Press.
YouTube declined comment on the administration request.
Update: Violence Spreads
15th September 2012. See article from
dailymail.co.uk
As a wave of anti-American riots erupts across the Islamic world, Muslims' U.S. flag burning protests spread to Britain.
Elsewhere British diplomats were in fear for their lives, with staff at the embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, locking themselves in
as 5,000 angry demonstrators raged and lit fires in an attack on the German embassy next door.
In London, 150 protesters marched on the US embassy chanting burn burn USA as the American flag went up in flames, soon joined by the Israeli
flag.
In violence elsewhere, the number of dead and wounded grew. In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli police began shooting, killing one man, after a mob set fire to a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise and an American restaurant. Another 25
were wounded in the chaos.
In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, 2,000 protesters set off for the US embassy, only to be stopped short by national security forces firing live rounds, killing one man and leaving 15 injured.
In the Tunisian capital
Tunis, several thousand demonstrators threw stones at the US embassy and set fire to cars, before being fought off with tear gas and gunfire. Three were reportedly killed.
In Damascus, Syria, a 200-strong crowd demonstrated outside the US embassy
-- although it was abandoned in February because of the country's bloody civil war.
Update: Violence in Niger
17th September 2012. See
article from bangkokpost.com
Several Christian leaders are being held in protective custody in Niger after demonstrators angry at an anti-Islam film ransacked a major Catholic church, a local journalist said.
Hundreds of protesters stormed the cathedral in Niger's second city
of Zinder after Friday prayers, and set fire to US and British flags, a local priest and the journalist told AFP:
After Friday prayers, hundreds of protesters broke down the door of the church and totally trashed it,
before setting fire to all the documents and breaking a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The Islamic Council of Niger, the highest religious body in the mainly Muslim country, condemned the US-made film that has triggered protests across
the Arab and Muslim world, but also appealed for churches to be spared.
Update: YouTube Blocked in Pakistan
17th September 2012. See
article from indexoncensorship.org
Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has reportedly ordered the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block YouTube after the video-sharing website failed to remove a controversial anti-Islam film, The Innocence of Muslims.
Blasphemous content will not be accepted at any cost, Prime Minister Ashraf is reported to have said. Earlier today officials said over 700 links to the film on YouTube were blocked following orders issued by the Supreme Court.
Update: Filmmaker in Hiding
17th September 2012. See article from
dailymail.co.uk
The family of a filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie has left their California home in the middle of the night to join the man in hiding.
A spokesman with the LA County Sheriff's Department said that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's relatives, each
with his or her face covered, left their Cerritos home about 3:45am on Monday.
Deputies gave them a ride and they were reunited with Nakoula, then taken to an undisclosed location.