The
first actress to speak out against the director of the incendiary anti-Islam
film that prompted global protests is now fearful for her life after receiving
multiple death threats.
Cindy
Lee Garcia was quick to announce that she and the other actors had no idea that
the film's producer, who they knew at Sam Bacile but who is now known by his
true name of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, wanted to use their acting to create an
anti-Islam film but now she is being threatened.
'I’m
getting horrible death threats over the Internet, people saying they’re going
to cut me up, chop me up and kill me and my family,' Ms Garcia said on Tuesday.
Her
personal Facebook page, her professional modeling page, and the page of the
Flame of Fire Outreach Church where she serves as an ordained minister have all
been inundated with threats from individuals angered by the movie.
One
such threat highlighted by The New York Daily Newsreads that a man named Ahmad
Nazir Bashiri said the actress is lucky that he is nowhere near her because
'otherwise I would have cut your head no matter what your country or lawmakers
would have done to me'.
In
her first interview, when she spoke to Gawker and explained that she never saw
any references to the Prophet Mohammed (s.a.ww) or Islam, Ms Garcia thought
that she was actin in a film called Desert Warriors.
‘It
was going to be a film based on how things were 2,000 years ago. It wasn't
based on anything to do with religion; it was just on how things were run in
Egypt. There wasn't anything about (Prophet) Muhammed (s.aww) or Muslims or
anything,’ she told Gawker.
Her
Facebook page echoes that, as she proudly touts her participation in the film.
'I
have been doing feature films, just finished Broken Roads with Crevice
Entertainment, also just wrapped up Dessert Warriors/ played a supporting
role,' she wrote.
Hiding:
She has received repeated death threats over her involvement with the film
She
lists shooting as one of her hobbies, saying she is 'very good with guns, love
shooting am A Member Of Kern County Gun Club. Spend as much time as I can on
the gun range'.
After
a 14-minute trailer of the film was posted online, protests broke out throughout
the Middle East and U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens was killed inside the Libyan
embassy last week.
The
next day, Ms Garcia called the producer- who she still thought was named Sam
Bacile- in a panic.
'I
called Sam and said, "Why did you do this?" and he said, "I'm
tired of radical Islamists killing each other. Let other actors know it's not
their fault,"' Garcia said.
Changes
were made after shooting the movie to add more disrespect for the Prophet.
‘I
had nothing to do really with anything. Now we have people dead because of a
movie I was in. It makes me sick,’ she said.
Though
she spoke to ‘Sam’ and he acknowledged that none of the actors knew what was
going on, that is not enough for her.
‘I’m
going to sue his butt off,’ she said.
In
her latest interview, Ms Garcia told The New York Daily News that she and her
family are beign forced to go into hiding and she will be taking an assumed
name.
'We're
looking for a new place to live right now. My husband is really worried. All my
family is in hysterics,' she told the paper.
She
said that she called the FBI and left messages reporting the threats she has
been receiving but she has yet to hear back from the agency.
In
the days following the protests, the true identity and criminal background of
the film's producer Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has been revealed.
Nakoula
is an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian. Now living in California, he is a
convicted drug dealer and conman who was last released from jail in June last
year.
Ms
Garcia was the first but not the only actress involved in the project who has
expressed her outrage at the final version of the film.
Anna
Gurji, 21, who plays the Prophet’s (s.a.ww) child bride, spoke yesterday of her
fear of reprisals and how she was ‘betrayed’ by Nakoula.
‘I
was playing the youngest bride of a character named George,’ she said. ‘I had
no idea George would be changed to the Prophet (s.aww). I’m locked up in my
house. I’m terrified people in the Middle East will blame me.
‘I’m
Catholic so they might think I have something against Muslims. I’m taking pills
to sleep. I’ve been crying for days. I feel betrayed. My face is stuck on the
movie clip. People see that awful film and they see me.’
The
film sparked a violent protest at the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of
Benghazi during which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed
on Tuesday. Protests have spread to other countries across the Muslim world.
For
many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed
insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from
officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.
U.S.
officials have said authorities were not investigating the film project itself,
and that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it
cannot be considered a crime in the United States, which has strong free speech
laws.
Two
attorneys visited Nakoula's home hours before he was taken in for questioning.
They said they were there to consult with him.
The
violent protests over the film in Libya caused mob attacks in Benghazi that
killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials.
Nakoula
pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison,
to be followed by five years on supervised probation, court documents showed.
He
was accused of fraudulently opening bank and credit card accounts using Social
Security numbers that did not match the names on the applications, a criminal
complaint showed. He was released in June 2011, and at least some production on
the video was done later that summer.
But
the terms of Nakoula's prison release contain behavior stipulations that bar
him from accessing the Internet or assuming aliases without the approval of his
probation officer.
A
senior law enforcement official in Washington has indicated the probation
investigation relates to whether he broke one or both of these conditions.
Violations could result in him being sent back to prison, court records show.
(Daily Mail)
Edited by PCF Web desk
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