LOS ANGELES: An actress who was hired to be part of an anti-Islam film that sparked violent protests in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday has said she was not told the entire story as to her role in the film. Cindy Lee Garcia, who is briefly in the film, told Reuters news agency that she answered the casting call for a movie she was told would be titled “Desert Warrior” and had no idea it was to be an anti-Islam film. “It looks so unreal to me, it's like nothing that we even filmed was there. There was all this weird stuff there,” Garcia told Reuters in a phone interview. In Egypt, protesters climbed the US Embassy's wall and took down the American flag, replacing it with an Islamic flag that read: “There is no God but God and Mohamed is His Messenger." While the Egyptian protesters remained nonviolent, in Libya's Benghazi, violent attacks took place against the American consulate in the city, which left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American staffers dead. Coptic Christian youth, led by the Maspero Youth Union, announced they would hold a vigil in front of the US Embassy in Cairo later on Wednesday evening to protest against the film that “insults Muslims." Clashes between protesters and security forces erupted late Wednesday evening as protesters attempted to get near the American embassy. Eyewitnesses told Bikyamasr.com that police fired tear gas at the crowd in an effort to disperse the demonstration. “The film, clips of which are available on the social website YouTube, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres," The Associated Press reported. The Israeli filmmaker who has sparked protests in Egypt and Libya, the latter of which turned violent and left the US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other staff members dead, reportedly went into hiding in the United States on Wednesday after the violence erupted. His film attacking Islam's Prophet Mohamed left Muslims across the Islamic world angry and they demanded action from the American government over the film, which portrays the Prophet as a pedophile, promoting violence and a sex addict. Writer and director Sam Bacile told The Associated Press by phone that Islam was “a cancer" and that the film was intended to be a political comment that condemned the religion. The film was promoted and supported by members of the Jewish, Christian and Coptic Christian community based in the United States, reports in Egypt have stated. In Egypt, protesters climbed the US Embassy's wall and took down the American flag, replacing it with an Islamic flag that read: “There is no God but God and Mohamed is His Messenger." While the Egyptian protesters remained nonviolent, in Libya's Benghazi, violent attacks took place against the American consulate in the city. “This is a political movie," said Bacile. “The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas." Bacile, who is based in California and works as a real estate developer told the AP that he said he was an “Israeli Jew" and hoped the film would “expose" Islam to the world. “Islam is a cancer, period," he was quoted as saying over and over. According to the AP, the two-hour movie, “Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and “was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors."
