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 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."
The movie was endorsed by the same US 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 an 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.
Watch a clipping of the film here:
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