VANCOUVER – A “grassroots Canadian organization” is hoping to arrange a screening of the controversial film about the Prophet Mohammed in cities across the country.
Ron Banerjee of Canadian Hindu Advocacy said Canadians want to see Innocence of the Muslims.
“It’s not a Hindu group,” Banerjee said in a telephone interview from Toronto. “It’s a regular Canadian grassroots organization.”
Banerjee said his advocacy group — which he claims has “several hundred members and supporters across Canada” — has received several inquiries about screening the movie in Canadian cities.
“We have got e-mails and phone calls from organizations in 13 different cities in both Canada and the U.S. that are interested in doing a simultaneous screening. The trouble is we are all trying to find the original copy of the film. That’s a little difficult given the peculiar circumstances of the producer of the film.”
The anti-Islam video, produced in the U.S., has triggered a wave of demonstrations and riots in the Middle East and beyond. It portrays the Prophet Mohammed as a child molester.
“We have the freedom to show a movie like that and we shouldn’t succumb to threats of violence,” said Banjeree.
LOS ANGELES (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 and 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 September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.