The film that has become the latest excuse for Islamist mayhem was, according to the FBI, created by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a character on probation for “financial crimes” living in California.

Watching the trailer is enough to convince any sane person that the entire film must be execrable tripe. Tripe or not, Islamist reaction to it was predictably demented and, even though he made a dismal job of it, it’s pretty clear that Nakoula intended his creation to inflame those eager to vent their righteous indignation by murdering people.

In the almost civilised West, one of the things we do is allow people to say insulting, aggravating things about anything they like – in public. It’s called free speech. The ludicrous thing about what has happened is that Islamists have been set off, not by the best we have to offer, but by an atrocious piece of drivel so badly executed that it should never have seen the light of day.

This is not so much a clash of civilisations as a clash of barbarities.

The clip is below for those with sufficiently numbed sensibilities.

From here:

Federal authorities have identified a Coptic Christian in southern California who is on probation after his conviction for financial crimes as the key figure behind the anti-Muslim film that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

The official said Thursday that authorities had concluded that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was behind Innocence of Muslims, a film that denigrated Islam and the prophet Muhammad and sparked protests earlier this week in Egypt, Libya and most recently in Yemen. It was not immediately clear whether Nakoula was the target of a criminal investigation or part of the broader investigation into the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya during a terrorist attack.