There’s a bit of a mystery surrounding the identity of Sam Bacile, who has claimed to be an Israeli Jew living in California.
Israel Channel 10‘s Nadav Eyal claims that Sam Bacile is a pseudonym and that the film’s creators are ex-Muslims who converted to Christianity – at least one of them Iranian.
The claim is further strengthened, based on statement in the Wall Street Journal, which leads one to suspect that Egyptian Coptic Christians are involved in the film making.
The movie has been promoted in the U.S. by conservative Coptic Christians, including Morris Sadek, who runs a small group called the National American Coptic Assembly. “The violence that it caused in Egypt is further evidence of how violent the religion and people are and it is evidence that everything in the film is factual,” Mr. Sadek said in a telephone interview from his Washington home.
Tzvi Yeheskeli (Channel 10 Arab Affairs Correspondent) questions if the attack on the consulate in Benghazi is actually just about the film, or also revenge for the recent killing of Al Qaeda number 2 in Yemen.