NEW YORK, Sept 28: US authorities have arrested the producer of an anti-Islam video for violating terms of his probation in a 2010 bank fraud case.

The video — “Innocence of Muslims” — stirred violent protests across the Muslim world, resulting in at least 40 deaths, 23 of them in Pakistan.

On Thursday evening, a federal court in Los Angeles ordered Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, held without bond.

Judge Suzanne H. Segal, a federal magistrate, called Nakoula “a flight risk and a danger to the community”. He will remain in jail until a probation-revocation hearing is scheduled.

The US media noted that the arrest might have prevented expected violent protests across the Muslim world on Friday.

Nakoula’s inflammatory, crude video is considered a trailer for a full-length film but his arrest may prevent the film’s expected release on the internet.

The trailer was initially ignored in the United States but the violent Muslim reaction to its contents earned it more than four million hits.

Muslims also demanded his arrest and urged the US government to ban the video.

US President Barack Obama, however, told a UN General Assembly session earlier this week that freedom of speech guarantees, enshrined in the American Constitution, prevented him from taking action against Nakoula.

US authorities, however, used his past criminal records for proceeding against him, including lying to law-enforcement officers and using various aliases to hide his identity.

When he released the video earlier this month, Nakoula introduced himself as an Israeli Jew, Sam Bacile.

He also used other aliases for withdrawing money from various bank accounts.

US Attorney Robert Dugdale told the Los Angeles court that Nakoula had “a lengthy pattern of deception.”

If authorities succeed in proving that Sam Bacile was Nakoula, he can be charged for violating the terms of a 2010 conviction, which restricted his use of the Internet.

Nakoula served about a year of a 21-month prison term for cashing fake cheques from Wells Fargo Bank and was ordered to pay restitution of $794,700.

Attorney Dugdale said Nakoula had a passport that had been issued under the name Mark Basseley Youseff and had a driver’s licence as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. He used a third name during production of the film.

Police also recovered form him 641 credit and debit cards that were not in his own name.—Masood Haider and Anwar Iqbal