NEW YORK: An Israeli filmmaker based in California, who made a film belittling Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that has ignited riots in the Middle East and led to the death of the US ambassador in Libya, says he is in hiding.

Sam Bacile, who described himself as an “Israeli Jew” who develops real estate in California, told reporters by phone that he had gone into hiding on Tuesday after assaults by conservative Muslims on US missions in Egypt and Libya, the Los Angles Times reported on Wednesday.

“Islam is cancer, period” maintained Bacile in an interview with Associated Press.

Chris Stevens, a career diplomat named as ambassador to Libya in May, had travelled to Benghazi from Tripoli for a commemoration of the Sept 11, terrorist attacks when the consulate came under attack.Bacile said he had made the film for $5 million, raised among private donors. The trailer depicts scenes with amateur actors reciting stiff dialogue about the prophet (PBUH).

Though Bacile was apologetic about the loss of life as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, told AP that the filmmaker was concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm that.

Klein said he helped Bacile make the movie but warned him that “you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh.” Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by an extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.

“We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen,” Klein said.

Anwar Iqbal adds: The anti-Islam film has never been shown in the United States, Muslims living in North America say.

And many Americans who watched its trailer after the protests said they “found the video offensive”, National Public Radio (NPR), a US radio network, reported.

“This is the first time I am hearing that such a movie has been made,” said Khalid Ahmad, a resident of Springfield, Virginia. “I checked with dozens of friends and they are as surprised as I am.”

Mohammed Osman, a shopkeeper at Chicago’s Devon Avenue, who is active in the Democratic Party, said he also checked with his American friends and they too had never heard of this film.

Shahida Talat, a software engineer in San Francisco, said she learned about the film only after mobs in Libya killed the US ambassador and three other diplomats.

“Do we realise that our reaction is making this film popular?” she asked.

“Many people now want to watch this film, which they had no desire to watch before the protests.”

“Most Americans knew nothing about the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” before it “set the Muslim world on fire”, noted NPR.

The New York Times reported that the film excerpt had drawn little attention since being posted in July, but was picked up after a version dubbed into Arabic was put online last week.

Other media reports said that people became enraged after “a scene from the film was broadcast on the Egyptian television channel Al-Nas, although it was never aired by any US channel.