dagblog - Comments for "Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California"

Filmmaker behind anti-Islam

artappraiser — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:46:28 +0000

In reply to Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

Filmmaker behind anti-Islam video is arrested
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man behind 'Innocence of Muslims,' is arrested on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation, including allegedly lying about his role in the film's production.

By Victoria Kim and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2012

The filmmaker behind the anti-Islamic video that has sparked violence across the globe was arrested Thursday on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation, including allegedly lying about his role in the film's production.

Magistrate Judge Suzanne H. Segal ordered Nakoula Basseley Nakoula detained, citing a "lengthy pattern of deception" by the man, adding that he poses "some danger to the community." Nakoula could face up to three years behind bars.

The hearing occurred amid high security, with the public allowed to watch only through a video feed in a separate courthouse blocks away. Before his arrest Thursday, Nakoula and his family had been in hiding, and his attorney said he had received threats to his safety.

Nakoula, who was on supervised release from a 2010 conviction for bank fraud, faces eight charges of probation violation, including making false statements to authorities about the film "Innocence of Muslims." When probation officials questioned him about the video, Nakoula allegedly claimed his role was limited to writing the script, and he denied ever using the same "Sam Bacile" in connection with the film, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Dugdale.

Dugdale said there is evidence Nakoula's role in making "Innocence of Muslims" was "much more expansive" than penning the script. Prosecutors said Nakoula could face new criminal charges for lying to federal officials.

Dugdale said none of the violations Nakoula is accused of relate to use of the Internet, even though his probation terms specify he is not permitted to possess or use a device with access to the Internet without permission from his probation officer [....]

Human Rights First press

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:16:19 +0000

In reply to Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

Human Rights First press release:

Court sentence in Egypt sends wrong signal on freedom of expression
September 19, 2012

New York City – Yesterday, an Egyptian court sentenced a Christian to six years of prison for disrespecting Prophet Muhamed and for insulting Egyptian President Morsi and a plaintiff lawyer on social networking sites. According to Egyptian news reports, the man in question, Bishoy Kamel, was arrested and detained by authorities in late July for posting cartoons on the web that insulted Islam. He has refuted charges against him, claiming that his account had been hacked. Human Rights First urges U.S. government officials to condemn this most recent example of abusive blasphemy laws.

“This sentence could not come at a worse time, where anger over a video that mocks Islam has caused bloodshed and sparked violent protests across twenty countries,” said Human Rights First’s Joelle Fiss. “Now is the time for the Egyptians to step up to the historical and colossal task of strengthening democracy and the rule of law – not to restrict rights. The sentencing of this man sends a wrong and worrying signal by the Court that freedom of expression is further eroding in Egypt.”

Governments such as Egypt and Tunisia, are currently proposing to introduce and strengthen blasphemy laws in the process of re-writing their constitutions and revising their national laws. However, blasphemy laws are inconsistent with international human rights standards, which are designed to protect individuals, not abstract ideas or religions. Far from protecting religion, they actually empower extremists and facilitate the persecution of religious minorities.

Human Rights First calls on blasphemy laws to be removed from criminal law. “The concept of blasphemy should be narrowly defined and interpreted to avoid abuses against religious minorities. Also, victims of these laws must benefit from adequate legal protection if they are brought to trial,” concluded Fiss.

For more information on global blasphemy laws, see Human Rights First’s report Blasphemy Laws Exposed: The Criminalization of Defamation of Religions, which documents over 100 blasphemy cases in 18 countries.

And this is a good older

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:10:18 +0000

In reply to Whether you agree with his

And this is a good older summary from Al-Jazeera:

How did obscure hate film earn global wrath?
What started as little-seen trailer posted on YouTube in July has now incited violence and outrage across Muslim world.
13 Sep 2012

Dan, I think it's much more

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:06:41 +0000

In reply to Looks like Google Tube is

Dan,

I think it's much more like a parent filtering the internet or TV for a child (Even to the point where the parent knows the savvier kids can get around the filter if they want to.) And I hope it eventually gets to the point where countries are ashamed of Google deciding to filter out something for their audience, as if they are not as grown up as other countries and can't handle it.

Pre-emptive if you're going to raise the censorship on DagBlog issue: I would disagree that they are equivalent. The "Google Tube" is not an edited information product like a website published by an individual or individuals (especially one published under the person's own name and not a pseudonym), it is the world library card catalogue.

Free Speech in the Muslim

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 03:56:15 +0000

In reply to Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

Free Speech in the Muslim World? Ask the Egyptian TV Station That First Aired the Anti-Islam Movie
By Steve Inskeep, The Atlantic, Sep 19 2012

The story of Al Nas TV shows that there is room in Muslim societies for tolerating religiously offensive ideas.

For all the damage that mobs and armed groups have done in majority-Muslim nations in the past week, there is one target that they missed. The mobs in Cairo, one of many cities where protests followed the Innocence of Muslims video ridiculing the Prophet Muhammed, overlooked the Egyptian TV station that had actually broadcast it, Al Nas TV. Egyptian prosecutors have now issued arrest warrants for eight people in the United States with connections to the film -- but they, too, overlooked the TV station.

While the film's creators have received the attention they craved, it's more illuminating to focus on Al Nas TV, which made them famous. The station's story even suggests one possible answer to the problem of offensive speech in a number of volatile majority-Muslim societies [...]

Looks like Google Tube is

Dan Kervick — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:51:41 +0000

In reply to Free Speech in the Age of

Looks like Google Tube is increasingly acting like a branch of the government.

Free Speech in the Age of

artappraiser — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:47:56 +0000

In reply to Google plays global

Free Speech in the Age of YouTube
By Somini Sengupta, New York Times Sunday Review, September 22/23, 2012

[.....]

The company [Google] pointed to its internal edicts to explain why it rebuffed calls to take down the video altogether. It did not meet its definition of hate speech, YouTube said, and so it allowed the video to stay up on the Web. It didn’t say very much more.

That explanation revealed not only the challenges that confront companies like Google but also how opaque they can be in explaining their verdicts on what can be said on their platforms. Google, Facebook and Twitter receive hundreds of thousands of complaints about content every week.

“We are just awakening to the need for some scrutiny or oversight or public attention to the decisions of the most powerful private speech controllers,” said Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor who briefly advised the Obama administration on consumer protection regulations online.

Google was right, Mr. Wu believes, to selectively restrict access to the crude anti-Islam video in light of the extraordinary violence that broke out. But he said the public deserved to know more about how private firms made those decisions in the first place, every day, all over the world. After all, he added, they are setting case law, just as courts do in sovereign countries.

[.....]

Behind closed doors, Internet companies routinely make tough decisions on content.

Apple and Google earlier this year yanked a mobile application produced by Hezbollah. In 2010, YouTube removed links to speeches by an American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, in which he advocated terrorist violence; at the time, the company said it proscribed posts that could incite “violent acts.”

ON rare occasions, Google has taken steps to educate users about offensive content. For instance, the top results that come up when you search for the word “Jew” include a link to a virulently anti-Jewish site, followed by a promoted link from Google, boxed in pink. It links to a page that lays out Google’s rationale: the company says it does not censor search results, despite complaints.

Susan Benesch, who studies hate speech that incites violence, said it would be wise to have many more explanations like this, not least to promote debate [.....]

Google plays global

artappraiser — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 01:15:29 +0000

In reply to Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

Google plays global censor
By Martin J Young, Asia Times Online, Sept. 22, 2012

HUA HIN, Thailand - As anti-American unrest gathered momentum across the globe following the release of a video deemed insulting to Islam, Google enforced its role as arbiter of free speech by blocking access to the content in certain countries on its YouTube video sharing website.

The low-budget movie angered followers of Islam for its mocking of the Prophet Mohammed and Muslims. Google's decision to restrict access to it is one it claims to have made itself; the company stated that it had determined that the video did not violate its terms of service regarding hate speech, because it was against the Muslim religion, not Muslim people. Rather, it said it temporarily blocked the video in Egypt and Libya of its own volition in response to the delicacy of the situation.

In addition to Google's self censorship in Egypt and Libya where violence has broken out, resulting in the death of the US ambassador and three of his colleagues, the video has also been blocked, following government requests, in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Russian and Israeli politicians and lawmakers have also taken similar steps by seeking a ban to stop the film being distributed within their respective countries. The White House asked Google to re-review the video and consider pulling it in the United States; however, at the time of writing, Google has said it will stay online in the US.

Pakistan and Bangladesh took matters into their own hands and blocked the entire YouTube website, along with a number of unrelated associated Google services and products leaving those that rely on them less than amused. [....]

Trope, they're running a

artappraiser — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:44:29 +0000

In reply to Artistic freedom does not

Trope,

they're running a pretty decent continuing panel discussion over at the New York Times/Arts on what we were starting to get into here:

Shock Value: Does art retain the power to shock? Must artists contrive to provoke?

Note that they've also got this sidebar there of examples:

Can art shock? Vote for the most shocking moment in its time or tell us in the comments what we missed.

Whether you agree with his

artappraiser — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 05:08:08 +0000

In reply to Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

Whether you agree with his message or not, this essay includes a great roundup of links to reports and facts on the story of the video itself, embedded in his text, as the news developed:

Peace Be Upon You
Internet videos will insult your religion. Ignore them.
By William Saletan, Slate, Sept. 14, 2012

Dear Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Jews,

You’re living in the age of the Internet. Your religion will be mocked, and the mockery will find its way to you. Get over it.

If you don’t, what’s happening this week will happen again and again. A couple of idiots with a video camera and an Internet connection will trigger riots across the globe. They’ll bait you into killing one another [....]