Filmmaker Who Created Anti-Islam Film Changes His Name

Oct. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- A short, low budget movie titled “Innocence of Muslims” sparked global controversy recently.  The film portrays a group of Muslims attacking Egyptian Christians and shows the Prophet Muhammed having sex, looting, and approving sexual abuse of others.  It also implies that Muhammed’s wife created the Koran by distorting and combining the Torah and the New Testament.  The Koran forbids any depiction of the prophet Muhammed, so his mere inclusion in the film itself is blasphemous, but the film is particularly offensive to Muslims because he’s depicted as an immoral villain.  The suggestion that his wife created the Koran implies that the book is not the direct word of God, further enraging the Muslim community.  
   
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Protests around the Middle East have led to approximately 50 deaths, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.  Just last week 19 people were killed in conflicts with police in several Pakistani cities.   The protestors ravaged banks and Western restaurant chains like KFC, but Pakistani police held them from attacking U.S. diplomatic buildings.  Earlier this week, thousands of protestors in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Iraq burned American flags to express anger at the film.
So who is the person responsible for the extremely disagreeable film?  The man behind it, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is an Egyptian born Christian turned U.S. resident.  He did not use his real name in association with the film, however; he used the name Sam Bacile.  Claiming to be a “researcher of Islamic thought,” Nakoula has a checkered criminal and financial history.  The U.S. government has filed various liens against him for unpaid taxes, and he served jail time for intent to manufacture methamphetamine.  In 2010, Nakoula pleaded guilty to bank fraud for creating over 60 bank accounts with 12 fake names and then depositing bad checks and withdrawing funds from the accounts before the bank realized the accounts were fake.  He also obtained approximately 600 credit cards to assist the fraud.  A condition of his probation was that he was not permitted to use any false names.  
Nakoula was arrested just this past week for violating his probation.  In a hearing for the violation, he told a judge his real name was Mark Basseley Youssef, having changed from Nakoula in 2002.  A petition approved by the Orange County Superior Court verified this, stating that he changed his name because he thought Nakoula was a girl’s name.   The U.S. prosecutor who handled his bank fraud case stated that Youssef had not used the new name in court then and that his driver’s license stated his name was Nakoula.
Would he have made the inflammatory video if he absolutely had to attach his legal name to it?  There’s a good chance he wouldn’t have because the global outrage has caused many to call for his head, and he has sold his home.  With his track record, he might assume a new name regardless.