Anti-Muslim filmmaker who sparked violent protests arrested, actors deny contribution to the film

The man who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a video mocking the prophet Muhammad was arrested today for violating his probation.


Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has been on probation for a 2010 federal cheque fraud conviction that brought a 21-month prison sentence.

Under terms of his probation, he was not to use computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

Arrested: Filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, pictured on the set of Innocence of Muslims, is accused of violating the terms of his probation

Nakoula was taken into custody on Thursday, according to a U.S. Attorney's spokesman.
A U.S. District Court hearing in Los Angeles was scheduled for Nakoula on Thursday afternoon. It was closed to media and the public.

 

Protests have erupted around the Middle East and Africa over a 14-minute trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims that depicts Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester.

The trailer was posted to YouTube in July, but the violence did not break out until September 11 and has spread since, resulting in the death of Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, alongside three other Americans.

In hiding: The filmmaker was driven away by police from his home in Cerritos, California

Nakoula, a Christian originally from Egypt, went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer.
The full story about Nakoula and the film is still very unclear.
The movie was made last year by a man who called himself Sam Bacile. After the violence erupted, a man who identified himself as Bacile called media outlets taking credit for the film and said it was meant to portray the truth about Muhammad and Islam, which he called a cancer.
The next day, it emerged that 'Bacile' was in fact Nakoula, a former gas station owner with a drug conviction and a history of using aliases. Federal authorities later confirmed there was no Bacile and that Nakoula was behind the movie.

Flames: The reaction to the video led to the sacking of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, pictured

 

Protests in Kaduna. Nigeria

A film permit listed Media for Christ, a Los Angeles-area charity run by other Egyptian Christians, as the production company. Most of the film was made at the charity's headquarters.

Steve Klein, an insurance agent in Hemet and outspoken critic of Islam, has said he was a consultant and promoter for the film.
The trailer still can be found on YouTube. The Obama administration asked Google, YouTube's parent, to take down the video but the company has refused, saying it did not violate its content standards.
Meantime, a number of actors and workers on the film have come forward to say they were duped.
They say they were hired for a film titled 'Desert Warrior' and there was no mention of Islam or Muhammad in the script. Those references were apparently dubbed in after filming was completed.


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