SANTA MARIA - One of two men identified as having made the film, Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, is an Egyptian immigrant and convicted felon.
According to the website The Smoking Gun, as well as other press reports, Nakoula spent nearly two years at the Lompoc Federal Prison for bank fraud where he also wrote the screenplay for the controversial movie that's been released online.
Nakoula was released from federal custody last summer right before production began on the film.
Sources close to Central Coast News say Islamic terrorists linked to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 have been housed at Lompoc Federal Prison over the years.
Nakoula is reportedly a follower of Coptic Christianity which has deep roots in Egypt and is also the largest religious minority in the country.
Nakoula is said to now be in hiding in fear for his life and the lives of his family and friends.
He has not yet been seen at a home in Cerritos, California where he lives and where scores of television trucks are not parked outside in the street.
An outspoken anti-Islamic activist who says he was a script consultant for the movie is defending the film.
Steve Klein says the violence the movie has sparked across the Arab world is started by radical Islamic militants and not Muslims in general.
"If I told you about this movie would you go and kill someone, no, would the vast majority of Muslims go out and kill someone, no," Klein says, "would a very small fraction who's DNA, genomes, their psyche, everything revolves around this insane behavior, would they go out and do it, yeah they would do it. Do I have blood on my hands? No."
Nakoula is reportedly also trying to distance himself from making the movie telling the Associated Press he was a logistics manager only and not the film's director.
