In a strange but not wholly unexpected twist of events, it has been revealed that  Sam Bacile, the man believed to be behind the anti-Islam film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’, which sparked riots in Libya, Egypt and now Yemen, is not an Israeli-American business man at all, as he first claimed. Nor is he Jewish.

Sam Bacile is a pseudonym for an expat Coptic Christian called Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is in his mid-50s, based in California and runs a YouTube channel that promotes hatred of Muslims. He has also been involved in setting up fake bank accounts using stolen identities in order to cash fake cheques.

This revelation only surfaced after a number of journalists went in search for the people behind the film following the tragic turn of events in Benghazi. Suspicions were raised when an Israeli government spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that there was no record of Sam Bacile ever being a citizen of the state of Israel.  

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Other people involved in the production and promotion of the film, mainly militant Christian activists, claimed that Sam Bacile was a pseudonym for a man who was doing his best to conceal his true identity as he sought to galvanise support for his supposedly high-budget amateurish film.

Cast members have stated that they were unaware that the movie was about Muhammad and that they were told that it was about a generic Egyptian who lived 2000 years ago. The name ‘Muhammad’ and references to Islam were only dubbed in afterwards and without the knowledge of the film crew.

So it seems that the fraudster Nakoula not only set out to inflame Muslim sentiments but was also keen to cause sectarian strife and incite anti-Semitism. After all, he was very keen to stress his supposed Israeli origins and that the film was funded by 100 anonymous Jewish donors in his earlier press interviews.

In other developments, YouTube have refused to remove the film from their site on the grounds that it doesn’t violate their rules. However, they have restricted access to it from countries affected by riots. Afghanistan, on the other-hand, has temporarily blocked YouTube access in the hope that riots don’t spread to their country.

Finally, keen to get in on the action Wikileaks tweeted:

“By the US accepting the UK siege on the Ecuadorian embassy in London it gave tacit approval for attacks on embassies around the world.”

Oh Dear!

Ghaffar Hussain is a counter terrorism expert and Contributing Editor to The Commentator