Anti-Islamic Film Sparks Outcry in Muslim World: Headline Looks Awfully Familiar

A garishly amateur film, ironically entitled “Innocence of Muslims,” has caused a violent protest on an American embassy in Benghazi where four American diplomats, including Christopher Stevens were killed. American Embassies are on high alert across the Middle East as word of the film’s mockery of Muhammad spreads like a hot sandstorm.

Unless the FBI has decided to patrol the homes, dumpsters, boxes and panel vans of all struggling Californian amateur producers, we can safely assume that “Innocence of Muslims” was produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, a Coptic Christian from Cerritos, California. Never heard of him? Me neither.

Had you seen his film before all of this blew up into murder and a political values war, you might be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. The entire film mostly takes place on a green screen and the acting could make even the worst community theater look downright Oscar-worthy.

Mr. Nakoula pleaded no contest to bank fraud in 2010, and was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $790,000. Not the kind of guy you’d think would want to attract attention, but just the kind of guy you’d think was a failed director. The short film he is thought to have produced, mocking Mohammed and the basic tenants of Muslim belief was an equal fraud, stealing valuable time I could have spent researching why some Muslims not only managed to watch the film with a straight face, but proceeded to kill American diplomats because of it.

If you’re having trouble understanding how a pathetic, childish fifteen-minute amateur film could spark such a violent uprising, stop reading and take a nap; you’ve got this figured out. Muslim or Christian, American or Libyan it all looks like a whole pile of bullshit that unfortunately cost some people their lives.

Religious extremists have once again managed to turn stupid into something stupider. Just as two wrongs don’t make a right, the fact that Muslims carried out the atrocious embassy attack does not excuse Mr. Nakoula from being a glaring idiot either, but I think Americans can all be glad that the idiot residing in America simply made a bad movie, while the idiots residing in Libya burned an embassy and killed four diplomats.

I hope that the American government can be content with that until reparations can be made. Religious extremism is only fun and games until somebody gets killed, and it’s taken too many lives already. Let’s hope the circling American drones and warships headed to Libyan ports don’t lead to further violence. A majority of innocent Americans and Muslims alike with common sense deserve better.