LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding after a YouTube trailer of his movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed.

Speaking by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.

In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

"This is a political movie," said Bacile. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas."

Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.

"Islam is a cancer, period," he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented.

The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. The14-minute trailer of the movie that reportedly set off the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons.

It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage.

Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it."

A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said the filmmaker is concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm.

Klein said he vowed to help Bacile make the movie but warned him that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.

"We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said.

Bacile's film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone he doesn't know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera.

The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.


http://news.yahoo.com/anti-islam-filmmaker-hiding-protests-042924045.html

Choi.... Bacile, you are so screwed, cos they will fish you out, no mater how long it takes those kukubimas.... You should'nt have messed with the religion of peace. Let me say my own RIP in advance.

This Bacile guy must be a complete dumbass to blame the death of that ambassador on lax security. He couldn't even be bothered to read that the mob that attacked the embassy had machine guns and grenade launchers before making that dumb and weaselly statement? Or did he assume the embassy actually needed a small army for protection before his movie trailer was released and translated? I don't care either way about the movie since anti-religious slander is protected by freedom of speech and he therefore has the right to express his views freely, but the way he tried to blame what happened merely on inadequate security is despicable.

I love this Film, Thanks to Mr Bacile.

Of course, I slam is a big problem.

Though they are hiding the truth from the "innocent Moslems".

So if something is a cancer, a movie 'll now be the cure abi. Mstcheeeeew.

Bleep

Abeg download link jor

The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.

I wonder why the theater was empty!
Did the 'movie' tell us anything we did not already know?
Gosh! I miss Hitler!

Why is he hiding then? He should walk freely and assess his right to free speech ke.
What a coward!
The beauty of religious bigots! HA!
Make trouble and run for cover.
Mu che che che che che che

HAIL HITLER!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYMJMAESXA

Chanchit: Choi.... Bacile, you are so screwed, cos they will fish you out, no mater how long it takes those kukubimas.... You should'nt have messed with the religion of peace. Let me say my own RIP in advance.

i love the obvious satire in this response.