Media misled over identity of anti-Islam film director
‘Innocence of Muslims’ was apparently the work of a Coptic Christian in California, rather than an “Israeli Jew,” as first reported.
By TOM TUGENDScene of attack on US consulate in Libya 370 (R)(photo credit: Esam Al-Fetori / Reuters)
LOS ANGELES – An anti- Muslim film which has triggered riots in Muslim countries and the death of four American diplomats was apparently the work of a Coptic Christian in California, rather than an “Israeli Jew,” as first reported.Nakoula Basseley Nakoula identified himself to the Associated Press as the manager of the company that produced Innocence of Muslims.Judging from clips of the film shown on YouTube, the film depicts the prophet Muhammad as a homosexual who approved the sexual abuse of children.Initial reports described the filmmaker as Sam Bacile, a self-described “Israeli Jew” and now a Los Angeles property developer, who said that the $5 million movie was financed by donations from 100 Jews.Bacile supposedly phoned his story from an undisclosed location where he went into hiding, but The Jerusalem Postreported immediately from Los Angeles that no one had ever heard of the name.
