Innocence of Muslims Mohammed movie by Sam Bacile alias Nakoula Basseley

A lousy movie with Political Impact
A film produced in the U.S. airline film that offended the Muslim religious founder Mohammed has sparked unrest in the Arab world. We summarize the events and consider what teaching film fans can learn from history.

Lessons from 'Innocence of Muslims'
The record so far reads devastating dead protesters in several Arab countries, dead U.S. diplomats, hijacked Western embassies and Vetrauensverlust both at the intergovernmental, and on an interpersonal level. A lousy produced, the Muslim Mohammed Religionsstifer insulting film titled Innocence of Muslims ('The innocence of Muslims') has triggered anti-Western protests in Muslim-dominated countries. American embassies (inter alia Libya, Egypt, Yemen) were attacked, the attacks were later expanded on the diplomatic missions of other Western countries - as well as to the German Embassy in Sudan - from.



If we follow the reporting on these events, it is important to differentiate: Emphasis must be placed on the word trigger. The film is not the reason for the protests. The reasons are of course deeper and explained by complex political, historical, and economic contexts. Still makes the hair, the idea that a direct connection between an abysmal concoction fabricated by an untalented individual, and protests draw with fatalities can. Therefore, it goes without saying that the media attention is devoted not only to the unrest, but the amateur filmmaker and his recordings.

A 14-minute excerpt - Is there really a complete movie exists is unclear - was from Innocence of Muslims actually uploaded two months ago on Youtube. Only after him Islamophobic blogger discovered and provided him with Arabic subtitles, Arab media were aware of him. The film, whose closure is currently being discussed is hot, place in Germany to remain on YouTube. To look at him, however, is a waste of time. Mohammed is depicted as perverse, fraudulent egomaniac, the performances are disastrous and instead scenes are in the background usually simple still images that are reminiscent of Windows desktop environments.

Up to this point the movie is bad and offensive - with the synchronization starts the criminal quality of the concoction. Obviously a large part of the film were dubbed, which is largely independent voices and lip movements announce ongoing. Shortly after the start of the protests, the first amateur actors from Innocence of Muslims intervened. They had been deceived about the real content and had thought to take part in one of ancient Egypt settled Adventure. His Islamophobic statement was only added to the film by dubbing.

To exposure of the 'director' of Innocence of Muslims since the beginning of the unrest took only a few days. The clip was uploaded under the pseudonym Sam Bacile. Soon it became clear that behind the name most likely Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian living in California hides. He was already known to the police as a credit card scam. Which political corner he comes, it turns out when he first - even under a pseudonym - made contact with the press. He gave himself a Jewish background, claiming the film with the money - to have produced Jewish businessmen - supposedly five million dollars. An obvious attempt once again to pour gasoline on the fire of Prosteste. His contacts with the radical Christian Terry Jones, who provoked the Arab world with a public Koran burning illustrates the great brainchild Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is.

Consider this story, which - would not have such a despicable ideological background and such tragic consequences - could pass almost as rogue piece, it is striking: here was a man deliberately played with fire. He has invested money and time, has deceived people to a political message of intolerance -. Spread - in this case by the denigration of Islam The possible consequences of his actions, he could assess it thoroughly. The riots following the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper in 2005, the Egyptian-born Nakoula Basseley Nakoula remained safe in my memory. Even though the extent of the reaction was not exactly predictable, of course, is obvious that generating public outrage was an intention of the film.

What, then, tells us that story? That films can be a means of political influence is well known. Already knew that the Bolschwewiki or the Nazis. Even democratic states exploit the movie sometimes. Campaigns (such as for HIV education) can of course also pursue positive goals. Al Gore wore his film An Inconvenient Truth significantly to a greater public awareness of climate change.

The lesson we can draw from the events surrounding Innocence of Muslims is, unfortunately, much more banal: A single individual (perhaps supported by a small group) has an incredibly poor, cheap concoction exerted influence on world politics. With the help of film climbed untalented and ignorant man on the international arsonists. In the Internet age is that possible. And we are left only to do what we always do when the art was abused: to point attention that the freedom of expression requires Verwantwortungsbewusstsein. A doctrine that applies to 'filmmaker'.