LOS ANGELES, Sept 20 (Reuters) – A California judge denied a
request on Thursday to remove an anti-Islam film from YouTube
that has spawned violent protests across the Muslim world.
Actress Cindy Lee Garcia had sought to have the film removed
in a suit against YouTube parent company Google Inc a nd
a California man linked to the film, saying she was duped into
taking part and had since received death threats.
“The request for a temporary restraining order is denied.
The plaintiff has not shown a likelihood to prevail on the
merits,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin said.
Garcia’s is the first known civil lawsuit connected to the
making of the video, which depicts the Prophet Mohammad as a
womanizer and a fool, and which helped generate a torrent of
violence across the Muslim world last week, the anniversary of
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The violence included an attack on U.S. diplomatic
facilities in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and
three other Americans were killed. U.S. and other foreign
embassies were also stormed in cities in Asia, Africa and the
Middle East by furious Muslims.
Garcia accused a producer of the movie, whom she identified
as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula using the alias Sam Bacile, of
duping her into appearing in a “hateful” film that she had been
led to believe was a simple desert adventure movie.
“There was no mention of ‘Mohammed’ during filming or on
set. There were no references made to religion nor was there any
sexual content of which Ms. Garcia was aware,” the lawsuit said.
For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is
blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting in the past have
provoked protests and drawn condemnation from officials,
preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.
Garcia, who said she had received death threats after the
video was posted on YouTube, has accused Nakoula of fraud and
slander.
Garcia also named Google and its YouTube unit as defendants
in the suit she filed on Wednesday. She said her right to
privacy had been violated and her life endangered, among other
allegations.
An attorney for Google said the rights of an actor do not
protect that person from how a film is perceived.
“If we viewed it that way we’d say that Arnold
Schwarzenegger as a cyborg in ‘Terminator’ was a factual
statement about Arnold Schwarzenegger,” lawyer Timothy Alger
said.
