Anti-islamic film search leads to coptic Christian in California

By artappraiser on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 10:04pm |

By Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, guardian.co.uk, 12 September 2012

The hunt for the maker of the anti-Islamic video that inflamed mayhem in Egypt and Libya and triggered a diplomatic crisis has led to a Californian Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who lives outside Los Angeles, confirmed on Wednesday he managed and provided logistics for The Innocence of Muslims.

Nakoula, who pleaded no contest to federal bank fraud charges in 2010, told AP in a brief interview outside his home that he considered Islam a cancer and that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement assailing the religion.

He denied being Sam Bacile, the pseudonym for the video's purportedly Israeli Jewish writer and director, but AP said the cellphone number it called for a telephone interview with Bacile on Tuesday matched Nakoula's address.

His outing solidified growing evidence that members of Egypt's Coptic diaspora, who complain of persecution by Egypt's Muslim majority, were behind the making and promotion of the video.

Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the US, promoted it on his website last week. Within days it was fuelling outrage in Arab countries [....]

URL:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/13/anti-islamic-film-us-nakoula

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Bacile, Basseley, how clever (not.) But Stephen Braun and Gillian Flaccus of the Associated Press deserve some kind of old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism merit points.

I love this part:

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.

by artappraiser on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 10:27pm

I watched the 13 minute trailer. I've seen better acting in porn flicks. I can see why Muslims would be insulted but I found it hilarious. Not to trivialize the deaths it may have sparked but it seemed to me like a blooper real.

by ocean-kat on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 11:55pm

Thing is, Muslims who get violent rage about this kind of thing don't tend to be very selective about artistic quality (or even size of audience) one way or the other.

It is ironic that right before this happened, Salman Rushie finally published an account of his first days and weeks after the fatwa in 1989 at The New Yorker (date of publication says Sept 17, but I' read the article in the dead tree version Monday.) There wasn't any real blasphemy in The Satanic Verses, not that any sensible Islamic scholar could support. Reading his article got me thinking how virtually all of these cases, including the recent one of the disabled Christian girl in Pakistan, turn out not to be real blasphemy but the attempt of demagogues of all varieties, from major leaders to minor schlumps, to gin up anger in a bunch of uneducated people for some other reason.

So now, double irony, here we have Mr Basseley/Bacile Nakoula doing a cheesy Counter-demagogue Op as it were, intentional blasphemy, in order to get the same result. They know not what they do, that they are doing what he and his agitator Morris Sadek wanted them to do!

Makes me wonder what Mr. Rushdie thinks about all of this; if I were him, I would be sorely tempted to write a truly blasphemous piece right now.

by artappraiser on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 10:30am

Protests in Yemen, Iran, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, and again in Cairo:

Turmoil Over Film Spreads to U.S. Embassy in Yemen
By NASSER ARRABYEE and ALAN COWELL, New York Times, 8:50 AM ET

SANA, Yemen — Turmoil in the Arab world linked to an American-made video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters attacked the American Embassy, two days after assailants killed the American ambassador in Libya and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo.

News reports also spoke of a separate protest in Tehran, where around 500 Iranians chanting “Death to America” tried to converge on the Swiss Embassy, which handles United States interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. Hundreds of police officers held the crowds back from the diplomatic compound, witnesses said.

For a third straight day at the American Embassy in Cairo, protesters scuffled with police firing tear gas, witnesses said, and the state news agency reported that 13 people were injured. In Iraq, a militant Shiite group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, once known for its violent attacks on Americans and other Westerners, reportedly said the video “will put all American interests in danger.” Protests were also reported at American missions in Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, where the police also fired tear gas to disperse [....]

by artappraiser on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 10:03am

Pakistan orders anti-Islam video block on YouTube (same in Afghanistan)
AFP, 3 hours ago

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday blocked access to an anti-Islam film as security measures beefed up around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

The Afghan government earlier ordered an indefinite ban on the entire YouTube video sharing site to prevent access to the film made in the United States, which Kabul said was offensive to Muslims.

“Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has proactively blocked and is vigorously preventing all access to the anti-Islamic video placed on the worldwide web via YouTube with the name of ‘Innocence of Muslims’,” it said in a statement.

It said “the authority is in close liaison with all the service providers for immediate blocking of the provocative video”, adding that “proactive monitoring and blocking is being done, round the clock” [....]

Pakistan tightens security for US diplomatic missions
AFP | 9 hours ago

[....] “We have beefed up the security for the possible threats to the US embassy,” Khurram Rasheed, a senior police official responsible for diplomats’ security in Islamabad, told AFP. “We expect some protests against the embassy tomorrow and we are preparing to handle that.”

The US embassy in Islamabad lies inside the city’s heavily-fortified diplomatic enclave, and Rasheed said the entrance would be closed and extra security forces deployed [....]

by artappraiser on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 4:36pm

Federal probation officers and Nakoula have a talk:

Man Linked to Film in Protests Is Questioned
By IAN LOVETT, New York Times, September 15/16, 2012

LOS ANGELES — One of the men behind the anti-Muslim film trailer on YouTube that has set off violent protests at Western embassies across the Middle East was taken in for questioning by federal probation officers on Saturday morning, law enforcement officials said.

The man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was questioned at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in Cerritos, where he lives. He was not placed under arrest.

“This was a voluntary interview he did with federal probation officers,” said Kim Manatt, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy [....]

by artappraiser on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 4:06pm

The accompanying photo shows he went to this confab dressed Salman-Rushdie style, circa 1990:

Credit:

Bret Hartman/Reuters

by artappraiser on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 4:11pm

One might feel compelled to poke at a hornets' nest, and one might have the right to poke at the hornets' nest should one feel so compelled, but it still remains a hornets' nest.

by Elusive Trope on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 4:17pm

He gets a prison of his own making. Where Salman Rushdie hadn't a clue that such offense would be taken, Nakoula sought to offend. I'd be willing to bet there won't be any fellows/gals in the film arts coming to his defense, not even Larry Flynt. (Maybe Glenn Greenwald? I haven't checked..)

by artappraiser on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 4:35pm

"While everything is permitted, not everything is acceptable." - Albert Camus

by Elusive Trope on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 8:10pm

Artistic freedom does not mean one is free from criticism. In fact, it is the duty of other artists to hold other artists to standard of ethics and commitment to humanity and life. It is in the discourse that follows this that we move forward as a society (or backwards depending on the quality of that discourse).

by Elusive Trope on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 8:14pm

Artistic freedom does not mean one is free from criticism

Goes without sayin' unless you don't want an audience--unless you don't want anybody to see/read/hear it. Many great artists seek it.

it is the duty of other artists to hold other artists to standard of ethics and commitment to humanity and life.

I don't agree with that, that it's a duty, or even that there should be ethical code for art. My first thought is that you're mixing fine art with craft. Many crafts can be described as a profession, it is difficult to place that label on most fine artists.

If you believe that, then you would side with the official Paris Salon for trying to keep certain standards by rejecting the art later shown at the Salon des Refuses of 1863. If you believe that, then you side with the folks who wanted Diaghilev and Stravinsky hounded out of town after producing "Rite of Spring."

Of course, "avant garde fine art" that is at first insulting to the patron or viewer is a Western invention, 19th century on; there's no other culture where you throw a pie in the face of the audience or at your patron to get them to change their thinking, and the audience welcomes it and the patron pays for it. I wouldn't want to see that change. (That western tradition continues to spread worldwide, so I don't think it's going anywhere; even artists in China have been doing it for at least a decade now, though they still have boundaries, see Ai Weiwei.)

But subjecting individual artists to any kind of communal standards that they might not agree with takes you on the road to the kind of art that you get in communist totalitarian societies. In non-Western cultures, and the pre-19th-century west before the avant-garde tradition, the elite who employ the artists are the ones who decide what shall be made.. And some are quite open to support the revolutionary, i.e.. the Medici. But they wouldn't go so far as paying for a pie in the face or a personal insult. (I should add that in the west, if you are publicly funded, artists are often subjected to standards like that, and I for one have no problem with that when taxpayers are paying, just that the standards should not apply when taxpayers aren't paying. If taxpayers want the inoffensive, mild and mediocre, or things of current mass standards of esthetic beauty only-craft, that's their perogative.)

All that aside, I don't even consider issues about "artistic freedom" to be applicable in this case. I don't consider it sensible to categorize someone like Larry Flynt or Nakoula as an artist, do you? For me, their cases are about freedom of speech, not artistic freedom. Some are hard to categorize either way, like Hogarth, but Thomas Paine, not an artist, mho...Taking that to YouTube, it if you polled all the posters, I doubt the majority think they are making art (I.E..."How to Change Your Own Doorbell," or "The Gait of a Patient with Marie Charcotte Tooth Syndrome," or "Rush Limbaugh is a Fat Pig")

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/16/2012 - 3:18am

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.

by artappraiser on Tue, 09/18/2012 - 5:44pm

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 [....]

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/17/2012 - 1:08am

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

by artappraiser on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 12:10am

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. [....]

by artappraiser on Sat, 09/22/2012 - 9:15pm

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 [.....]

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/23/2012 - 8:47pm

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

by Dan Kervick on Sun, 09/23/2012 - 8:51pm

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.

by artappraiser on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 12:06am

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 [...]

by artappraiser on Tue, 09/25/2012 - 11:56pm

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.

by artappraiser on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 12:16am

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 [....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 09/28/2012 - 4:46am

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— Hanna Notte (@HannaNotte) February 29, 2024

Read the article at https://twitter.com/HannaNotte/status/1763116222256701787

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Events: Heavy gunfire is occuring around the area of the U.S. Embassy and residential compounds adjacent to the Trutier area of Tabarre. All Embassy personnel have been instructed to remain indoors and shelter-in-place until further notice. All others should avoid the area.

Actions to take:

Avoid the area;

Avoid demonstrations and any large gatherings of people;

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It’s not about an UNRWA teacher who held an Israeli kid hostage in his house.
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