Here are the Top 5 Reasons I instantly knew that the incendiary YouTube movie “The Innocence of Muslims” wasn’t produced by a Jew.
1) It was terrible. No “Jewish Israeli film producer” would ever destroy his or her reputation putting out such garbage, no matter what his or her political beliefs.
2) Associated Press initially quoted the filmmaker as saying he raised $5 million dollars from to make the film. The movie looks like it was shot for $29.95, with actors who were clearly working for snacks, and not even worth that.
3) The filmmakers said he raised the $5 million from “100 Israeli Jews.” Please. It’s close to impossible to raise that kind of money in a short time from anyone—and certainly not from sophisticated people who’d want to see what they're getting for their money.
4) The filmmaker said his name was “Sam Bacile.” No Israeli or Jew our reporters Danielle Berrin and Jonah Lowenfeld interviewed had ever heard of him. Only someone who doesn’t know the Jewish community, who thinks of it as a mythic collection of rich, filmmaking, real-estate selling non-beings called, “Jews,” would think anyone could operate in this community without making a hundred connections, going to a thousand parties and banquets, getting on dozens of lists, making friends and enemies and developing a <reputation. Anybody who thinks 100 Israeli Jews would give $5 million to a stranger never heard the Hebrew word frier— sucker.
5) The film mocked the theology of Islam—which Jews don’t care about. The Jews who are actively anti-Muslim—and there are a hardcore handful– focus their criticism on what they see as the Koranic roots of Islamic intolerance and violence. They don’t care about the truthfulness of the Koran’s stories—they just assume all religious stories are, to put it mildly, a stretch. They don’t care what stories Muslims tell themselves—I mean, who are we to make fun of telling stories– they just want it to leave non-believers in peace.
[BONUS REASON #6]: The film mocked Mohammed as a homosexual. That set off all my kooky right-wing Christian alarm bells. Jews consistently show the highest levels of approval for gay rights. In the most recent Public Religion Research Institute poll last April, 81 percent of Jews supported gay marriage. Could you find 100 Jews to support a film full of anti-homosexual scenes? In Hollywood? Please.]
It turns out I was right. Late this afternoon, AP sleuthed out the real “filmmaker,” a 55 year-old Coptic Christian named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.
I don’t blame Nakoula for the riots and murder of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Islamic extremists did that—and these are people who committed a far greater atrocity on September 11 without a single bad video to spur them on.
But I do accuse him for trying to hide behind “the Jews.” Nakoula engaged in a pathetic sort of blood libel, blaming Jews for a video that led to the deaths of innocents.
Some people have asserted it doesn't matter who made the video, what matters is the world condemn the violent extremists who used it as the latest excuse to rampage and terrorize.
But claiming Jews made it only ensures extra outrage, and further endangers innocent people– people who would have nothing to do with garbage of this sort. With friends like Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who needs enemies?
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