'Anti-Islam' Filmmaker Blamed for Benghazi Attacks Vows to Finish Controversial Movie
The filmmaker behind the controversial "Innocence of Muslims" film, the trailer for which was initially blamed for the violence that led to four Americans being killed at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012, has said that he is not anti-Muslim and wants to finish up his movie. His mission is to fight terrorism.
"It is not [a] religion movie," Nakoula Basseley Nakoula shared with Fox News. "I have a lot of Muslim friends and not all the Muslims believe in the terrorism culture. Some of them believe in this culture. That's why we need to fight [against] the culture, not the Muslims. My enemy is the terrorism culture; this is my enemy."
In September 2012, Muslim extremists stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, killing U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. After Anti-American protests ranged in front of other Western embassies in the Middle East, reports came out linking a trailer for "Innocence of Muslims" as a motive behind the attacks.
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The movie, which apparently depicts the Prophet Muhammad "as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug," was financed partially by an Israeli-American real estate developer in California, who said that he raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film, and called Islam a "cancer."
The Obama administration initially singled out the film for the hostilities aimed at the U.S. embassies, but then admitted that terrorist attacks were behind the violence. Nakoula, a Coptic Christian born in Egypt who came to the U.S. in 1984, was sentenced last November to one year in prison for lying to his probation officer and using fake names in the production of the film. The filmmaker, who must also serve another four years of supervised release following his prison term, insisted that he is going to finish up the film.
"I am the blood voice for everybody who gets killed, or hurt, in this culture," the filmmaker said. "I dedicate my life to fight with this culture … I'm never afraid."
Nakoula continued, "Of course I'm proud of it. If I could go back, I would do it again. Everybody gets hurt in this culture. We need the world free of this culture. We have to fight it."
The Egyptian-born man thanked the U.S. government for protecting him following the scandal surrounding the film, revealing that they have treated him "very good." Nakoula added he is "sorry to everybody" who got harmed during the wave of violence in September 2012, especially the Americans who died in Benghazi.
