(JTA) — An actress who was featured in the controversial anti-Muslim film "Innocence of Muslims" has sued the film’s director, as well as Google and YouTube.
Cindy Lee Garcia said in her lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles that she has been the victim of death threats and been unable to visit her grandchildren, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The film ridicules the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. A 14-minute trailer dubbed in Arabic sparked riots throughout the Arab world and in Arab communities in other countries. The backlash led to the killing of four American diplomats in Libya.
The lawsuit would require Google to take down the trailer from YouTube, which is owned by Google.
Garcia said in the lawsuit that she responded to an ad for a “historical Arabian Desert adventure film,” which was later altered with anti-Islamic voiceovers. She called the movie “vile and reprehensible,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The lawsuit names Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California, as the organizer of the film who misled Garcia; it also names Sam Bacile, believed to be an alias of Nakoula. Bacile was named erroneously in the media as the film’s producer and was quoted in reports as saying that he was an Israeli-American real estate developer hoping to help Israel with the film. He also said the film was financed with $5 million by 100 Jewish donors — a claim that also was untrue.
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