People took to the streets of Kabul in Afghanistan and Jakarta in Indonesia to protest against the anti-Islamist film "Innocence of Muslims," on Monday which sparked an uproar in the Muslim world last week, resulting in the death of the US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens along with three other staff members during an attack on the US embassy on Benghazi.
Today people across Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation and Afghanistan have gathered on streets, in some areas according to Reuters protestors are burning things down and vandalizing shops and cars on the road side. "Death to America" seems to be a popular chant as angry Muslims are demonstrating the movie which ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad.
"We will defend our prophet until we have blood across our bodies. We will not let anyone insult him...Americans will pay for their dishonor," said one protestor in Afghanistan to Reuters.
On Saturday morning, the Los Angeles police escorted a man allegedly responsible for making the anti-Islamic, "Innocence of Muslims."
The film sparked Tuesday's deadly attacks on the US embassy in the city of Benghazi in Libya in which three embassy staff members and the US ambassador Christopher Stevens have been killed has been attributed to Islamist fundamentalist angered by a US film which derided the Muslim religion and prophet Mohammad.
According to reports, the movie was created by an amateur filmmaker on a budget of around $5 million, most of the money coming from 100 unidentified Jewish donors, according to the Wall Street Journal. The film is called, "Innocence of Muslims," and was posted on various Internet sites, including YouTube.
The movie was initially said to be made by an Israeli-American named Sam Bacile. Bacile is 52 years old and works as a real-estate developer according to the Wall Street Journal. Bacile told the WSJ, "Islam is a cancer," he said in a telephone interview from his home. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a religious movie."
However, recent reports suggest that Sam Bacile was merely an alias name and the identity of the man has not yet been confirmed. Now police say that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who was convicted of bank fraud in 2010, is the man behind the film.
The movie was endorsed by the same U.S. pastor who became infamous for encouraging the burning of the Quran. Tony Jones has become notorious for voicing his anti-Islamist sentiments. In the movie, the Prophet is mocked, being depicted as scatterbrained, a child molester as well as a killer.
The video created uproar among fundamentalists in Libya as well as Egypt. US embassies in both Benghazi and Cairo have been under mob attacks Tuesday. Late Tuesday evening, US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were declared dead as a result of these attacks.
President Obama, along with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, condemned the attacks as "outrageous," as reported by NBC.
Stevens was the US ambassador to Libya since June 2012. He was 52. Sean Smith has, a US veteran of the State Department has been identified as one of the other three who were killed in the attacks. The remaining two have yet to be identified.
