More information about the anti-Muslim filmmaker.

Looks like this group is in trouble. BIG trouble.

Media for Christ, Led by Prominent Anti-Muslim Agitator Joseph Nasralla, Produced Incendiary Film

Rachel Tabachnick

Fri Sep 14, 2012 at 12:54:33 AM EST

According to the New York Times, the Press-Telegram of Long Beach, California, and MercuryNews.com in Silicon Valley, the production organization that received the permit for the movie now titled "Innocence of the Muslims" is Media for Christ. Media for Christ (website offline at the time of posting) was founded and is led by Joseph Nasralla Abdelmasih, an Egyptian Coptic Christian who has been promoted by many of the country's most vocal anti-Muslim agitators. Nasralla has spoken at rallies organized by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer and has partnered in projects with Steve Klein and Gary Cass, including the 911 Defend Our Students Campaign. Cass is founder of the Christian Anti-Defamation Coalition, an anti-gay and anti-Muslim organization that includes a who's who of Religious Right luminaries on its advisory board. Media for Christ includes "The Way," a Christian satellite television program in English and Arabic launched in 2010 that includes a show featuring Steve Klein.

The Press-Telegram reported the following,
"Media for Christ, which has its administrative offices south of the 210 Freeway in Duarte, took out a film permit for the production, according to City Manager Darrell George.
...It was filmed in Santa Clarita," George said. He said he obtained the information from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department."

The video embedded below is from the Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller-sponsored 911 Freedom Rally in 2011 and posted by Geller's Atlas Shrugged. Spencer introduces Nasralla as "coming from California, where he operates The Way, a Christian satellite TV station."

Nasralla and the Islamophobia Industry

Nasralla (also spelled Nassralla) participated in the 2010 anti-mosque rally at Ground Zero, also sponsored by Geller and Spencer, and received media coverage because of an incident at the event. The crowd surrounded Nasralla and another Egyptian speaker mistaking them as Muslims.

Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of David Horowitz's Freedom Center. Spencer and Geller founded Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) a project of their American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and the American affiliate of Stop Islamization. The AFDI is the sponsor of anti-Muslim advertisements on buses in Manhattan and San Francisco. Spencer and Geller describe their inflammatory activism as being "pro-Israel."

It was Spencer and Geller that organized the 2009 rallies around Rifqa Bary, the Muslim girl who ran away from home with the aid of her Christian proselytizers. See previous posts on this issue, including the role of controversial pastor Terry Jones, also known for burning Qurans.

Media for Christ received its non-profit designation with the IRS in 2009. According to the organization's 990 tax forms, Nasralla (listed as Joseph N. Abdelmasih) is the president, Kamal Rizk of Raleigh, N.C. is vice president and CPA, and Rania W. Mossad is secretary of the non-profit. Income increased from 65,000 dollars in 2007 to over one million dollars in 2011. The latest available 990 showed a "program expense" of $10,500 dollars for "TV broadcast" in Egypt.

I have been unable to find additional information on the other two registered officers of Media for Christ, but Kamal Rizk's brother's 2011 obituary describes him as "the son of a furniture shop owner in Cairo." Kamal Rizk is quoted in the obituary,

Kamal Rizk described his brother as a devout Christian who attended a Jews for Jesus worship service on weekdays and a regular church service on Sundays. He was also an active supporter of Israel and traveled to Washington each July to work with a group led by evangelist John Hagee to lobby Congress for support of Israel.

The Way TV includes a show hosted by Steve Klein called "Wake Up America." Klein has told press that he "consulted" on "The Innocence of Muslims" movie, but denied to the press that Media for Christ produced the film. Klein and others have pointed to a "Sam Bacile" as director of the film, apparently a fictitious name. See the SPLC's report on Steve Klein.
Klein, Nasralla, and Gary Cass are partners in an anti-Muslim student outreach effort titled 911 Defend Our Students, which has included handing out fliers to students as they leave their schools. A Christian Newswire press release describes the program in the words of Cass,

"Muslims are trying to convert and radicalize our young people. By telling them the truth about the dangerous doctrines of Islam and the and wicked practices of Mohammad we are protecting our children."
Cass co-founded the Christian Anti-Defamation Coalition with General William S. Hollis. Projects have included a series of videos titled "Seven Reasons Barack Obama is not a Christian." The advisory board includes Matt Staver, Rick Scarborough, Lou Sheldon, Dick Bott, Ted Baehr, Don Wildmon, Leslee Unruh, and other Religious Right luminaries.
The photo at right is Joseph Nasralla (left) and Morris Sadek (right) at the 2011 rally sponsored by Spencer and Geller. Morris Sadek leads the National American Coptic Assembly and is reported as promoting the "Innocence of the Muslims" video in Egypt.

Another name that has emerged in the production of the movie is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who has been described as the "manager for the company that produced" the film by ABC News. Nakoula was located by press that tracked the phone number of the possibly fictitious Sam Bacile to Nakoula's address. Nakoula was convicted of bank fraud in 2010.

If the information from the Press-Telegram and other sources is correct, and Media for Christ produced the movie, then it is a product emerging from the heart of the Islamophobia industry in America.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/9/14/05433/1020/Front_Page/Media_for_Christ_Led_by_Prominent_Anti_Muslim_Agitator_Joseph_Nasralla_Produced_Incendiary_Film