By Jenny McCartney. Published by The Telegraph on 13 September 2012.
A deepening mystery surrounds the personage of "Sam Bacile": the film-maker who allegedly made “Innocence of Muslims”, a film about Islam (which curiously few people seem ever to have watched in its entirety), the crudely insulting "trailer" for which has triggered such a violent reaction in Libya and elsewhere. "Bacile", which seems to be a pseudonym, reportedly described himself to the press as an "Israeli Jew" who lives in California and worked in real estate.
Israel says it has no record of anyone under that name: indeed, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry described the film-maker as "a complete loose cannon and an unspeakable idiot". A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said that "Bacile" was neither Israeli nor Jewish and that he did not even know his real name, but that those involved in the production had anticipated that it would cause unrest: “We went into this knowing what was probably going to happen.” Well, not quite everyone, it seems. The actors and actresses appeared to think they were taking part in another kind of production entirely, and have now found themselves caught up in a horrific international controversy.
Does "Sam Bacile" even exist? Inquiries have led to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian living in California who has been convicted of bank fraud and who admits involvement in the film, but denies that he is "Bacile". Perhaps, in the weeks to come, he and Mr Klein may be able to enlighten the public further.
Of course, the blame for the attack on the US consulate at Benghazi which killed four US citizens – including the US Ambassador Chris Stevens – rests with those who carried it out. Of course, in an ideal world, individuals would be free to say even deliberately unpleasant and insulting things about any religion without inciting a murderous response.
But we live in the real world, and the Middle East is a political powder-keg, already rendered even more unstable than usual by civil war in Syria, the collapse of long-standing regimes in Libya and Egypt, and the international intensification of tension about Iran’s nuclear programme. What the makers of the trailer for "Innocence of Muslims" – rather like their fellow-traveller, the Florida pastor Terry Jones who made a stupid show of Koran-burning – have done is to throw a match into that powder-keg, igniting a blaze which has devoured other people.
There is a clear difference between displaying courage in facing down extremist interpretations of Islam (one thinks of Salmaan Taseer, the late Governor of the Punjab, who was murdered after he opposed Pakistan's blasphemy laws) and making a crude, deliberately inflammatory attack upon the religion itself. The former is the action of of a brave individual, and the latter of a dangerous clown playing with fire. We should not be tempted to mix them up.
Related reports:
Sam Bacile/Bassel is not an Israeli-American, and his attempt to pass himself off as one is a potentially deadly slander. His film—if there really is any footage beyond the 14-minute clip—did not cost anything like $5 million to make. There is no cabal of Jewish donors who put up the money. Sam Bassel, or whoever used that name as a Facebook alias, speaks and writes fluent Arabic and likely has an Egyptian background. The name Abanob Basseley is, as one Egyptian friend tells me, as typically Coptic as, say, Mohammad is Muslim or Shlomo is Jewish. (St. Abonoub is a Coptic saint named after an Egyptian child martyred by the Romans.) The fact that the film was publicly promoted by Morris Sadek, the head of the National American Coptic Assembly, also suggests a Coptic connection to the film.
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