Get a load of the Times’ lead:
Fuming for two months in a jail cell here, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has had plenty of time to reconsider the wisdom of making “Innocence of Muslims,” his crude YouTube movie trailer depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a bloodthirsty, philandering thug.
Let’s see. The man was publicly identified by the federal government, and then rousted at midnight in front the media for questioning. He has been in jail for two months, after no less than the President of the United States blamed him for the murder of a US ambassador and three other Americans. The president went on to say that the future would not belong to those who “slander” Muhammad. Nakoula is in jail on technicalities — parole violations, using an alias and using a computer. Should he regret criticizing Muhammad, as the Times suggests? Did Muhammad lead war parties? Yes, he did. Did he have multiple wives? Why yes, he did. Since when do facts form the basis for slander, and since when does the President of These United States get to dictate to whom the future may or may not belong?
The Times continues:
Does Mr. Nakoula now regret the footage? After all, it fueled deadly protests across the Islamic world and led the unlikely filmmaker to his own arrest for violating his supervised release on a fraud conviction.
So it’s his fault that some people went nuts? The Times should consider its logic, because it has just justified acts and threats of terror.
Not at all. In his first public comments since his incarceration soon after the video gained international attention in September, Mr. Nakoula told The New York Times that he would go to great lengths to convey what he called “the actual truth” about Muhammad. “I thought, before I wrote this script,” he said, “that I should burn myself in a public square to let the American people and the people of the world know this message that I believe in.”
In explaining his reasons for the film, Mr. Nakoula, 55, a Coptic Christian born in Egypt, cited the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Tex., as a prime example of the violence committed “under the sign of Allah.” His anger seemed so intense over the years that even from a federal prison in 2010, he followed the protests against the building of an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero in New York as he continued to work on his movie script.
The Fort Hood massacre is still classified as “workplace violence,” both so the Obama government can get away with saying that there have been no terrorist attacks on US soil on his watch, and so it can deprive the survivors of their due benefits if it was called an act of terrorism. Which is what it was.
Coptic Christians have been subjected to Islamist violence in Egypt for centuries, as have Christians across the Muslim world. Perhaps that is what makes Mr. Nakoula so angry. Maybe the Times could look into all that, once it takes the black villain hat off of the political prisoner’s head.
h/t Ann Althouse
“Does Mr. Nakoula now regret the footage? After all, it fueled deadly protests across the Islamic world and led the unlikely filmmaker to his own arrest for violating his supervised release on a fraud conviction.”
Does that rape victim now regret wearing that short skirt and low cut blouse? After all. . .
This.
And I don’t ever want to hear another goddam word from any MSM source about any “chilling effect” on the free speech of any leftist or minority “activism.” Ever. Not unto all eternity.
“The Times should consider its logic, because it has just justified acts and threats of terror.”
You do know they’ve been doing that for decades, right?
That NY Times piece really pisses me off. Fills me with rage, really. Hmmm…
– for your service, NN !
The amount of fear and respect for Islam which runs through that article is amazing and should sound alarm bells.
If this had all been about Christianity it would have played out in a completely different way and you never would’ve heard about it. Sinead O’Conner can rip up a photo of the Pope and get a reaction that ranges from mild annoyance to unflinching support. If she’d done that to a photo of Mohamed she might still be in hiding.
Suffice it to say that Monty Python had no problem finding people to work on “Life of Brian” nor was the project made in secret. The same would hold true today.
The reason alarm bells should be ringing is that this is America. Instead of our comedians and satirists having Islam on the run, they themselves are conspicuously silent – out of fear. There is no such fear or respect for Christianity.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Nakoula is scum-of-the-earth. He committed bank fraud and embezzlement and got caught. He made a parole deal with the feds that in the end he could not keep (staying off computers and the internet was a condition for staying out of prison). When the heat came on for the video he pretended to be a Jew with 100 Jewish donors, thus exploiting the innate anti-semitism endemic in the global Muslim community. I do not wish him well and believe he fully deserves all the suffering he now endures. More please and faster, ya’ pathetic f^@#!
That said, the free speech encroachments furthered by the NYT on this matter are troubling. No, Nakoula was never in jail because of any video. The First Amendment, above all else, protects every American’s right to be an offensive @$$. The Administration and its media flackies do immense violence to every notion of personal freedom by implying that the video had anything whatsoever to do with his continued incarceration. And, in answer to your question; “Since when do facts form the basis for slander” just recall how John Kerry was “swiftboated” by veterans telling the truth about his service.