Film consultant: No 'blood on my hands'
REDLANDS, Sep 18, 2012 (Menafn - San Bernardino County Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --As violent demonstrators across the Middle East continued to protest Monday against an anti-Islam film produced in Southern California, a Hemet-based consultant for the project said unequivocally he would do it again.
"I don't have blood on my hands," said Steve Klein, a 61-year-old Vietnam War veteran and insurance agent who worked with Coptic Christian filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula on "Innocence of Muslims," a low-budget project that portrays Islam's Prophet Muhammad in a negative light.
Klein, a former Marine in Vietnam who led reinforced squads in cell warfare near Hamburger Hill, is unabashed in his anti-Islam beliefs.
He said Muslims seek to replace the U.S. Constitution with Shariah law, which is based broadly on the Islamic legal system.
Klein said he met Nakoula while working with Middle Eastern refugees and teaching them about free speech laws in the United States.
Later Nakoula contacted him to discuss the limits of American free speech and asked him to review the script for the movie, Klein said.
"Lady Gaga can wear meat, you can make crazy movies," Klein said he told Nakoula.
He said the movie premiered a few months ago with the title "Innocence of bin Laden" in an empty Los Angeles theater.
Klein had no expectation that the film's trailer, released online, would ignite violence throughout the world, or that he would end up having a handful of FBI agents protecting him.
He said he has received multiple death threats. There is a loaded gun in every room of his house, he said.
Klein was at an undisclosed location here Monday, where he recorded an interview with local radio personality Lou Desmond of KTIE 590 AM. Desmond described the controversial film as "a poor man's version of Monty Python."
Klein added that "the Muslims and the Christians over there don't understand parody."
Still, he said his presentations to the public and contributions to the movie are based on "facts, proof and evidence" about Islam.
Klein founded Courageous Christians United -- which conducts protests outside abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques -- and started Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment, which preaches against Muslims and publishes volumes of anti-Muslim propaganda that Klein distributes.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says they have been tracking Klein for several years and have labeled two of the organizations he is affiliated with as hate groups.
He also has helped train paramilitary militias at the church of Kaweah near Three Rivers, about an hour southeast of Fresno, to prepare for what they believe is a coming holy war with Muslim sleeper cells, according to the law center.
Klein's son Matthew was a 27-year-old Army medic when he was seriously injured in Iraq. His son was awarded the Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for injuries suffered in the attack by a suicide bomber.
The violent uproar against "Innocence of Muslims" has raged across the Middle East for a week, resulting in the death of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, when militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
Hundreds of protestors on Monday torched a press club and a government building in northwest Pakistan, sparking clashes with police that left at least one person dead.
Demonstrations also turned violent outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia.
Klein blames the violence on a weak foreign policy led by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Anybody with any brains is seeing it wasn't the video," Klein said.
Mohammad Hossain, founder and director of the Islamic Center of Redlands, said the violence committed in the Middle East over the film is at the hands of extremist Muslims who misunderstand Islam's teachings.
"It is not justified to kill people," Hossain said. "That is not what the prophet taught us."
Hossain, a native of Bangladesh, said filmmakers like Nakoula and Klein can say anything they want, but Islam is winning "a war over Christianity in total numbers," which should make critics rethink whether Muhammad is a fraud.
Hossain said the protesters went too far in what has become a culture clash between the Middle East and the West.
"People should not be going crazy because (Nakoula) is crazy," Hossain said. "People should not support the attacking and the killing and burning. Those people are not thinking right. They think anything coming from America is bad. That is a common emotion.
People went too far. Muslims, especially the people in the Middle East, their mind is traumatized over and over, so they hyper-reacted."
Klein questioned whether Hossain himself was a part of an alleged Islamic effort to take over the U.S.
"Frankly, you know, there's a 99 percent chance he's in the Muslim Brotherhood," Klein said. "And if you give me a few minutes, I'm sure I can go online and find out he is."
Nakoula left his Cerritos home over the weekend. He was seen wearing heavy clothing to disguise his appearance. Federal probation officers interviewed Nakoula. They are reviewing a 2010 case in which he was convicted of bank fraud.
Nakoula's family left their home at around 3:45 a.m. Monday. Deputies gave them a ride, and they were reunited with Nakoula, then taken to an undisclosed location.
Desmond's interview with Klein will air today at 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. on KTIE 590 AM. josh.dulaney@inlandnewspapers.com
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