Judge Won’t Order Removal of Anti-Islam Film

(CN) - A Los Angeles County judge on Thursday refused to order YouTube to take down "The Innocence of Muslims" video, despite an actress's claim that she was tricked into appearing in the inflammatory film.

Superior Court Judge Luis Lanvin ruled that Cindy Lee Garcia failed to show that she would likely prevail on the merits of her request, the Los Angeles Times reported.

YouTube owner Google had opposed Garcia's emergency request, but Garcia's lawyer, M. Cris Armenta, said Garcia would keep fighting to have it removed, according to the Times.

In her complaint Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Garcia claimed that she was duped into acting in the "hateful anti-Islamic production."

The YouTube clip, parodying the Prophet Muhammad, has triggered violent anti-American riots and protests in more than 20 countries, and has led to at least 28 deaths, including the killing of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Garcia's lawsuit against Google, YouTube and filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, also known as "Sam Bacile," accused Nakoula of misrepresenting the movie at casting and during filming.

Garcia said she responded to a casting call for a film called "Desert Warrior," which was "represented to be an 'historical Arabian Desert adventure film.'"

She claimed that Nakoula "intentionally concealed the purpose and content of the film."

"There was no mention of 'Mohammed' during filming or on the set," her lawsuit states. "There were no references made to religion nor was there any sexual content of which Ms. Garcia was aware. Mr. Bacile represented to her that the film was indeed an adventure film and about ancient Egyptians."

When Nakoula posted the roughly 14-minute trailer on YouTube in July, Garcia said her work had been "grotesquely changed to make it appear that Ms. Garcia voluntarily performed in a hateful anti-Islamic production."

Calling the film "vile and reprehensible," Garcia claimed she "never called the founder of Islam a child molester." She said her voice had been dubbed in Arabic, making her out to be a religious bigot.

Garcia says she has been "embarrassed and humiliated" by the film, and has received numerous "credible death threats." She was also fired from her job and barred from seeing her grandchildren, whom she babysat regularly, for fear of their safety, according to her lawsuit.

She said the lawsuit "is not an attack on the First Amendment nor on the right for Americans to say what they think," but that she simply wants the film removed from YouTube.

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