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| An unidentified person, thought to be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is escorted out of a house by police in Cerritos, California. Photograph: Bret Hartman/REUTERS |
A Californian man believed to be the producer of a crude anti-Islamic film which has prompted riots throughout the Muslim world, is being interviewed by police for probation violations.
A Los Angeles county sheriff's spokesman said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula voluntarily left his home, accompanied by sheriff's deputies, to meet with the officers in the Cerritos sheriff's station. He said Nakoula was not in custody.
"He will be interviewed by federal probation officers," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "He was never put in handcuffs … It was all voluntary."
Nakoula, 55, has been previously convicted of bank fraud before he embarked on making a film under the assumed name of Sam Bacile. The film, The Innocence of Muslims, depicts the founder of Islam in an extremely negative light which has infuriated many Muslims around the world and given others the pretext for violent outbursts.
The US ambassador to Libya, Christ Stevens, and three other Americans were killed in an attack in Benghazi which followed a protest against the film. It is not clear if the assassination was directly linked to anger at the film.
Nakoulasaid in a brief interview outside his home that he considered Islam a cancer and that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement assailing the religion.
Controversial film sparks protests and violence across the Muslim world
President of Libyan parliament sheds tear over deaths in US embassy as unrest spreads in Middle East, Africa and Asia
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Sudanese demonstrators
stand in front of the burning German embassy in Khartoum on Friday.
Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
|
While across the Middle East and wider Muslim world Friday was a
day of demonstrations, burning and violence, in Benghazi tears were
shed. They came from Yousef al-Magariaf, president of Libya's new parliament, as he described the death of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his colleagues.
"Definitely, it was a deliberate attack," said al-Magariaf as the city braced for further protests over the crude video, the Innocence of Muslims. He insisted it was an assassination, and not a riot gone wrong.
"It was a prepared attack in every sense of the word. I was given details of this by witnesses and this makes me 100% sure that this was pre-planned to hit at the core of the relationship between Libya and the United States."
While events in Libya were relatively peaceful, that was not true for other cities that saw violent clashes – among them Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, where the German embassy was burned and the British embassy attacked. Last night, US Marine were reportedly on their way to Sudan.
By Friday morning what had begun as a small protest outside the US embassy in Cairo on Tuesday had set off protests across the Muslim world. In Srinagar, Kashmir, lawyers protesting against the film held placards carrying the slogan: "America your death has come."
As protesters gathered after Friday prayers in Tunis, Khartoum, Cairo and Sana'a, capital of Yemen, some were encouraged by official interventions.
In the Tunisian capital, where the Arab spring began a year ago, members of the country's interim parliament condemned the film before the planned protests.
The Tunis demonstration began in quiet good spirits but ended in violence, as demonstrators breached the US embassy compound walls, lit fires and tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black Salafist banner. Elsewhere in the city, the American school was attacked.
There were also protests reported in Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain. The numbers involved were small in comparison to the vast demonstrations of the Arab spring.
By the end of the day, the back of the Tunis embassy compound was billowing flames and black smoke, while Tunisian riot police, visible inside the compound, appeared to have succeeded in protecting the main embassy building. Later, however, two protesters were reportedly killed and 40 injured during the attempt to storm it.
It emerged that Libya had temporarily closed its airspace over Benghazi airport because of heavy anti-aircraft fire by Islamists aiming at US reconnaissance drones over the city, after Barack Obama vowed to bring the ambassador's killers to justice.
The closure of the airport prompted speculation that the US was deploying special forces in preparation for a raid against the militants involved in the attack.
In Khartoum – where some of the worst violence took place – there were suggestions of direct involvement by the government in encouraging the protests. Richard Woods, headmaster of a Khartoum high school, emailed the Guardian to say transportation appeared to have been provided for demonstrators, including official buses, according to another witness.
"It appears that after prayers, buses and trucks were on hand to transport people," said Woods.
"We have just had afternoon prayers and again you can see people being picked up by trucks and buses around the mosques."
In Cairo there was violence throughout the day around Tahrir Square and one protester died after clashes with police near the US embassy. But others there who had been angry about the film earlier in the week were not prepared to participate.
Among these was Wesam Abdel-Wareth, who organised Tuesday's protest, and said he would not protest on Friday.
"Our demands have been met," he said. The demands included statements by the Coptic Church distancing itself from the film, an apology by the US embassy in Cairo cancelling an alleged screening of the film.
He added that he understood that the US administration is not responsible for the film and praised secretary of state Hillary Clinton for condemning it.
The search engine Google on Friday night rejected a request by the Obama administration to reconsider a decision to keep a clip from Innocence of Muslims online, Reuters reported.
"Definitely, it was a deliberate attack," said al-Magariaf as the city braced for further protests over the crude video, the Innocence of Muslims. He insisted it was an assassination, and not a riot gone wrong.
"It was a prepared attack in every sense of the word. I was given details of this by witnesses and this makes me 100% sure that this was pre-planned to hit at the core of the relationship between Libya and the United States."
While events in Libya were relatively peaceful, that was not true for other cities that saw violent clashes – among them Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, where the German embassy was burned and the British embassy attacked. Last night, US Marine were reportedly on their way to Sudan.
By Friday morning what had begun as a small protest outside the US embassy in Cairo on Tuesday had set off protests across the Muslim world. In Srinagar, Kashmir, lawyers protesting against the film held placards carrying the slogan: "America your death has come."
As protesters gathered after Friday prayers in Tunis, Khartoum, Cairo and Sana'a, capital of Yemen, some were encouraged by official interventions.
In the Tunisian capital, where the Arab spring began a year ago, members of the country's interim parliament condemned the film before the planned protests.
The Tunis demonstration began in quiet good spirits but ended in violence, as demonstrators breached the US embassy compound walls, lit fires and tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black Salafist banner. Elsewhere in the city, the American school was attacked.
There were also protests reported in Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain. The numbers involved were small in comparison to the vast demonstrations of the Arab spring.
By the end of the day, the back of the Tunis embassy compound was billowing flames and black smoke, while Tunisian riot police, visible inside the compound, appeared to have succeeded in protecting the main embassy building. Later, however, two protesters were reportedly killed and 40 injured during the attempt to storm it.
It emerged that Libya had temporarily closed its airspace over Benghazi airport because of heavy anti-aircraft fire by Islamists aiming at US reconnaissance drones over the city, after Barack Obama vowed to bring the ambassador's killers to justice.
The closure of the airport prompted speculation that the US was deploying special forces in preparation for a raid against the militants involved in the attack.
In Khartoum – where some of the worst violence took place – there were suggestions of direct involvement by the government in encouraging the protests. Richard Woods, headmaster of a Khartoum high school, emailed the Guardian to say transportation appeared to have been provided for demonstrators, including official buses, according to another witness.
"It appears that after prayers, buses and trucks were on hand to transport people," said Woods.
"We have just had afternoon prayers and again you can see people being picked up by trucks and buses around the mosques."
In Cairo there was violence throughout the day around Tahrir Square and one protester died after clashes with police near the US embassy. But others there who had been angry about the film earlier in the week were not prepared to participate.
Among these was Wesam Abdel-Wareth, who organised Tuesday's protest, and said he would not protest on Friday.
"Our demands have been met," he said. The demands included statements by the Coptic Church distancing itself from the film, an apology by the US embassy in Cairo cancelling an alleged screening of the film.
He added that he understood that the US administration is not responsible for the film and praised secretary of state Hillary Clinton for condemning it.
The search engine Google on Friday night rejected a request by the Obama administration to reconsider a decision to keep a clip from Innocence of Muslims online, Reuters reported.
Mona
Eltahawy: I tell fellow Egyptians and fellow Americans
it's about us, not about them
After this week's Middle East protests we must move beyond the deceptive simplicity of the question: 'Why do they hate us
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| Protesters set fire to police vehicles during clashes with riot police near the US embassy in Cairo on 13 September. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters |
When my father came home from Friday prayers, I was eager to know what the sermon had been about. We'd all been following three days of protests outside the US embassy in Cairo, ostensibly over a film deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad that was posted on YouTube. More protests were expected in several countries after Friday prayers.
"The regular imam wasn't there, so the muezzin stepped in and told us the best way to honour the prophet was to live by his teachings," my dad said. I carry that breathtaking simplicity in my emotional suitcase with me when I travel back and forth between the US, where I've lived for the past 12 years, and Egypt, the country of my birth, to which I'm returning to fight for the social and cultural revolution we desperately need in order for our political revolution to succeed.
When my fellow Americans ask me that tired question, "Why do they hate us?", my initial response is usually: "It's not about you." When a fellow Egyptian wants to talk about hating the US, I flip that response on its head and tell her: "It's not about America – it's about you." The truth is somewhere in the middle, but too many people are willing to use it as a football in an endless match of political manipulation.
For a slightly subtler response, I tell my fellow Americans that "they" don't hate them for their freedom but, rather, because successive US governments all too willingly and knowingly supported dictators who denied their populations any kind of freedom. As a US citizen, I cherish the first amendment. It's what I whipped out as I stood alongside Muslims and non-Muslims in Lower Manhattan in 2010 to defend the right of an Islamic community centre to open close to Ground Zero. We told those who opposed the centre that that first amendment was what gave them the right to protest and at the same time guaranteed freedom to worship right there on that spot.
How could a country that cherishes such freedom be so willing to support dictators all too eager to deny that same freedom to their people? Even President Barack Obama, who spoke so eloquently about dignity and freedom in his 2009 Cairo speech, disappointingly dragged his feet when it was time to decide between Mubarak and the people rising up for that very same freedom and dignity.
Anti-US sentiment has been born out of many grievances – support and weapons for such dictators as Mubarak, unquestionable support for Israel in its occupation of Palestine, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen that kill more civilians than intended targets.
And, paradoxically – or perhaps fittingly – that anti-US sentiment was played on dictators such as Mubarak, who was happy to pocket US aid in return for maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel and buying US weapons, and yet used the state-controlled media to fan hatred of the US. Mubarak was adept, as were many other US-backed dictators, at playing the sane middle to the "lunatics with beards" he so often used as bogeymen to guarantee the support of foreign allies.
Mubarak is gone, and Egypt's president is from the Muslim Brotherhood movement – long vilified as the "lunatics with beards". It is at this point that I tell fellow Egyptians it's about them, and not about America.
That YouTube film – not made or distributed by the US government – was posted at least two months before ultra-conservative Salafists called for protests at the US embassy. Why? Understanding that the president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, must now occupy that same middle ground as Mubarak did, the Salafists are all too happy to flex rightwing political muscle. Why else did they call their protest in Cairo on the anniversary of the attacks on 11 September 2001?
Morsi, not wanting to concede the moral high ground, remained silent for too long, stuck between his memory of being the opposition and an awareness that he's now the president. That's what I mean when I tell fellow Egyptians that it's about us, not America.
Mubarak could and did ban films. That's why many genuinely offended Muslims in Egypt and other countries so quickly ask why the American government can't do the same. Of course, he also gave the green light to messages of antisemitism and hatred against Egypt's Christians.
As an Egyptian-American, I want both sides of that hyphen to enjoy the forms of freedom guaranteed by the first amendment, as I want both sides of that hyphen to move beyond the deceptive simplicity of the question, "Why do they hate us?"