The maker of the anti-Muhammad film that sparked mayhem in Egypt and protest in Libya has gone into hiding, leaving questions over his identity.
He has been widely named as Sam Bacile – with his age varying from 52 to 56 – but conflicting reports suggested that Bacile was a pseudonym for a California-based anti-Muslim zealot who appeared to have intentionally stoked fury in the Arab world.
The Associated Press, which interviewed him over the phone from an undisclosed location, described him as "a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew". However, the California Association of Realtors told the Guardian he was not a member and appears not to have a real estate licence. He does not appear on the state's Department of Real Estate's database.
"A lot of things don't add up here about the claimed identity of the filmmaker," wrote Sarah Posner, an editor at Religion Dispatches.
The Israeli consulate in Los Angeles did not immediately respond to interview requests but official Israeli sources elsewhere indicated he was not Israeli but part of the Egyptian Coptic diaspora, but a cleric with the Coptic Orthodox Church diocese of Los Angeles, who declined to be named, said he did not recognise the name Sam Bacile.
Hollywood producers and screenwriters said they were mystified over his film, The Innocence of Muslims, which was reportedly screened once to a largely empty cinema earlier this year before fragments surfaced on YouTube. Bacile wrote and directed the film purportedly with $5m (£3m) donated by 100 unnamed Jewish backers. The goal was to show "Islam is a cancer", he told the Wall Street Journal.
The Hollywood Reporter said the ramshackle production values of the 13-minute clip posted online cast doubt on Bacile's claim of a $5m budget. Industry figures had not previously heard of him or the film.
Bacile has virtually no footprint in the Hollywood community. The writer-director-producer has no agent listed on the IMDBPro website and no credits on any film or TV production.
Steve Klein, a "consultant" on the film, describes himself as a Vietnam veteran, counter-terrorism expert and board member of an ultra-conservative group, Courageous Christians United. In 2010, he self-published a book, Is Islam compatible with the Constitution?, which assails Islam's treatment of women.
Bacile was also linked to Morris Sadik, an Egyptian Coptic Christian based in California who runs a small virulently Islamophobic group called the National American Coptic Assembly. He promoted a clip of the film last week.