Anti-Islam film: As Muslim world erupts, PTA scrambles to block video

[Devil Soul]

Anti-Islam film: As Muslim world erupts, PTA scrambles to block video
By Our Correspondents
Published: September 13, 2012
ISLAMABAD / KARACHI:
After protests erupted across the Middle East and Afghanistan blocked video sharing website and social media network YouTube, the site took off “Innocence of Muslims”, a film that claims to take a satirical view of Muslims and Islam.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) officials confirmed that they had received information about the video and had received directions from the Ministry of Information Technology on Wednesday afternoon to block the video.
“We started blocking the video within 10 minutes of receiving instructions from the ministry [of information technology],” a senior official at the PTA, who did not wish to be named, told The Express Tribune.
Explaining the action further, he said that operators were proactively working to block the offending video “wherever it appears” on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry condemned the airing of the video clip in the US, saying it maligned the ‘revered and pious personality of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)’ on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11 attacks.
“Such abominable actions, synchronised with commemoration of atrocious events like 9/11, provoke hatred, discord and enmity within societies and between peoples of various faiths,” said a statement issued by the foreign ministry.
Hundreds of protesters had stormed the US embassy in Cairo on Wednesday to protest news that a 13 minute clip of the two hour film, by Californian filmmaker Sam Bacile, would be screened at a church in Florida along with being streamed live on their website.
On Wednesday, the US ambassador to Libya and three other US embassy staff members were killed when infuriated protesters attacked the US embassy in Benghazi.
The film, made in 2011, was partly available on YouTube with short 90 second-long trailers and an 11 minute clip from the film. YouTube removed the longer version and a message now greets viewers reading: “This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams, and commercially deceptive content.”
The Afghan government on Wednesday banned YouTube from the country for the first time to prevent people from watching the anti-Islam film.
“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”.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide protests Friday against the film.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, condemned the film which it described as “a racist crime and a failed attempt to provoke sectarian strife between the two elements of the nation: Muslims and Christians.”
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2012.

 

[RazorMC]

Joint diplomatic pressure by all self-respecting nations is the way forward here (IMO), not rioting or burning tyres and flags.

 

[Spring Onion]

PTA failed. its available and its all rubish showing those who made it are really fil.thy people with sick mind and sick upbringing

 

[Thorn]

Even if they ban it,will it make any difference now,US is already in libya's waters now.

 

[Zarvan]

(CNN) -- The 80 cast and crew members involved in the making of the movie that has roiled much of the Islamic world said Wednesday they were "grossly misled" about its intent and expressed sorrow over the resulting violence.
"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," they said in a statement to CNN about the movie, "Innocence of Muslims."
"We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose," continued the statement, which was sent to CNN by a member of the production staff who asked not to be identified for security reasons. "We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."
Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed Tuesday in Libya amid a regional furor over the film, which mocks Islam's prophet.
A casting call published in July 2011 in Backstage magazine and in other publications for actors identifies the working title of the movie as "Desert Warrior" and describes it as a "historical Arabian Desert adventure film."
An actress in the film who asked not to be identified said the original script did not include a Prophet Muhammed character. She added that she and other actors complained that their lines had been changed.
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
The actress said she spoke Wednesday with the producer, who is identified in the advertisement as Sam Bassiel. "He said he wrote the script because he wants the Muslims to quit killing," she said. "I had no idea he was doing all this."
Obama, Romney spar over Libya response
"I would never be involved in a film to ever hurt or bring harm to anybody," she told CNN. "This makes me sick to my stomach to think that I was involved in that movie that brought death to somebody else."
Questions surround incendiary Islam film
The actress said the character of Muhammed in the movie was identified as George when it was shot, and that she returned afterward and read other lines that may have been dubbed into the piece.
Feinstein: I think this is premeditated
A member of the production staff who worked directly on the film and has a copy of the original script corroborated the actor's account, adding that it mentions neither Muhammed nor Islam.
The Wall Street Journal identified the filmmaker as Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real estate developer. The Journal reported that, in its telephone interview with Bacile, he characterized his film as "a political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam."
"Islam is a cancer," he told the newspaper. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a religious movie."
CNN has not been able to contact Bacile and cannot verify that he made the movie. A CNN search of public records on Sam Bacile came up empty.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it doesn't know who Bacile is.
McCain: 'Their enemies are our enemies'
Reaction: Libya, West condemn killing
Ambassador killed in city he helped save
"This guy is totally anonymous. At this point no one can confirm he holds Israeli citizenship and even if he did we are not involved," ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "No Israeli institution, government department or office has any involvement in this. This guy acted on his own behalf."
Wolf Blitzer reports on deaths in Libya
In Egypt and Libya, mobs targeted U.S. missions and blamed America for the film. In the end, Stevens and three other Americans in the Libyan city of Benghazi were dead, although it was not clear whether that attack was solely incited by the film.
Consultant Steve Klein told CNN he worked with Bacile on the movie and said the filmmaker had gone into hiding.
"He's very depressed, and he's upset," Klein said Wednesday. "I talked to him this morning, and he said that he was very concerned for what happened to the ambassador."
Klein, however, said it was not the film's fault that protests had turned bloody.
Casting further doubt on the filmmaker's identity, The Atlantic quoted Klein as saying Sam Bacile is a pseudonym and "he did not know Bacile's real name." CNN could not immediately reach Klein for his response to that report.
An online trailer for the film depicts Islam as a fraudulent religion bent on getting rid of nonbelievers.
Cartoonish scenes show Muhammed as a womanizer, child molester and ruthless killer. Other scenes show security forces ordered to do nothing as rampaging Muslims destroy Christian homes, and a donkey anointed the first Muslim animal.
Many Muslims find any depiction of Muhammed to be offensive -- a Danish newspaper's publication in 2005 of Mohammed caricatures triggered riots -- and derogatory depictions of the prophet are considered by some to be worse.
"The film is offensive to the prophet and immoral," said Egyptian Prime Minister Hashem Kandil. "We call on the great people of Egypt to exercise restraint when expressing their anger."
Muslim sensitivities around Prophet Mohammed
The prime minister called on the United States to take legal action against the makers of the film, though it was not clear that it violates any U.S. law.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bacile said he raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors to make the two-hour movie in California last year. Based on the trailer, the movie appears to have been produced on a low budget.
The movie, which was posted in July on YouTube, got more notice after Egyptian television recently aired segments and anti-Islam activists, including Egyptian-born Coptic Christian Morris Sadek, promoted it online.
Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose Quran-burning last year sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan, said he had been contacted to help distribute the film.
"The film is not intended to insult the Muslim community, but it is intended to reveal truths about Muhammed that are possibly not widely known," Jones said.
"It is very clear that God did not influence him (Muhammed) in the writings of the Quran," said Jones, who went on to blame Muslims' fear of criticism for the protests, rather than the film.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones on Wednesday to ask him to withdraw his support for the film, according to Col. David Lapan, Dempsey's spokesman.
"Jones' support of the film risks causing more violence and death," Lapan said.
Tensions mounted Wednesday as the United States deployed Marines to Libya.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood -- the former party of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy -- has called for peaceful protests against the film on Friday, Islam's day of religious observance.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban charged that the movie was made with the permission of the U.S. government. The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with free expression.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the film as abhorrent and an act of desecration. "There could be many deaths once news of this video and Pastor Terry Jones' comments get out," said Karzai's deputy spokesman.
The issue is sensitive in Afghanistan, where throngs of people this year protested NATO's burning of Qurans at Bagram Airfield. U.S. President Barack Obama said the act was unintentional, but the uproar nonetheless was huge.
In America, a Muslim advocacy group called the movie "trashy" and said its producers represented neither the United States nor the Christian faith.
"We urge that this ignorant attempt to provoke the religious feelings of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking world be ignored and that its extremist producers not be given the cheap publicity they so desperately seek," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Facebook sprouted several pages dedicated to condemning the film, including one called "Israelis, Jews & Americans Against Sam Bacile's 'Innocence of Muslims' Film."
A post on that page simply said: "IM-Bacile."
Witnessing protests in Libya or Egypt? Share your photos on CNN iReport.
Staff and crew of film that ridiculed Muslims say they were 'grossly misled' - CNN.com

 

[Devil Soul]

Mystery Over Filmmakers Behind Anti-Islam Movie
LOS ANGELES, Sept 12, 2012 (AFP) -Mystery remained Wednesday over exactly who was behind the anti-Islam film which sparked deadly protests in the Middle East, amid conflicting claims of Jewish or Coptic Christian involvement.

The film's director, who called himself Sam Bacile and said Tuesday he is American-Israeli and had Jewish financial backing, went into hiding after the protests in Egypt and Libya over his low-budget movie "Innocence of Muslims."

But doubts about his identity grew, culminating in US media reports pointing to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes, living outside Los Angeles.

Adding further to the puzzle, the cast and crew of the movie voiced anger at having been exploited, with at least one saying that offensive parts of dialogue had been dubbed over their own words, as filmed.
US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Steve Klein, a consultant on the movie, denied that Israeli authorities were involved in the film, and said Bacile -- which he acknowledged was a pseudonym -- was mortified to hear of the US ambassador's death.

"He's very upset that the ambassador got murdered," he told AFP.

In a Wall Street Journal interview published Tuesday, "Bacile" took straight aim at Islam.

"Islam is a cancer," he said, adding that he had raised $5 million to make it from about 100 Jewish donors, and used some 60 actors and 45 crew to make the two-hour movie in a three-month period last year in California.

The film was screened in one Hollywood movie theater about three months ago, and sank without trace, until an Arabic-language dubbed version was released last week and footage was aired by an Egyptian TV station, triggering protests.

But the cast and crew voiced anger Wednesday, according to CNN, which cited a joint statement as saying: "The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer.
"We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose... We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved.

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who plays a woman whose young daughter is given to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) to marry, said she did not know the film was anti-Muslim propaganda, adding that dialogue had been overdubbed after filming.

"It was going to be a film based on how things were 2,000 years ago," Garcia told the gossip website Gawker. "There wasn't anything about Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) or Muslims or anything."

Indeed, the over-dubbing of dialogue is obvious to even to a casual viewer of a 14-minute clip for the movie available online, with words crudely inserted in the middle of sentences.

Online reports cited in the New York Times blog suggested Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian, and his ally Terry Jones, the Florida pastor notorious for previous Koran-burning stunts, had cooperated in promoting the movie.

But later Wednesday a report cited by US media identified Nakoula Basseley Nakoula as saying he managed the company that produced the film, and that he was a Coptic Christian.

The 55-year-old, who was sentenced to 21 months in jail over federal bank fraud charges in 2010, denied however that he was Sam Bacile, even though a cellphone used for a media interview Tuesday was traced to his address.

Klein said he did not know the filmmaker's nationality -- and denied that Israeli authorities had anything to do with the project.

"I know there's some rumors out there, that Israel did it. No. Israel's not involved... This was private people, private money."

Klein warned that the director could suffer the same fate as Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was assassinated in 2004 after triggering protests with an anti-Muslim film.

"He could get killed, really easily," he said.

Pastor Jones meanwhile denied that the film was against Muslims. "The film is not intended to insult the Muslim community, but... to reveal truths about Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) that are possibly not widely known," he said in a statement.

"The fruits of the religion speak for themselves. For example the recent outbreak of violence and deaths is not because of the film, it is not because of the activities that we have done, and that we will continue to do."

The top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, called Jones, whose previous threats to burn the Koran ignited deadly riots in Afghanistan, to urge him to disavow the film.

 

[Black Widow]

14 minute clip is available on youtube, It is very low quality movie, The Anti Islam comments were added later .