Amman: A man who claims to be the producer of an anti-Islam movie that has sparked protests across the Arab world and in several Muslim-majority countries says he has no regrets about making the film.

However, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old Egyptian Copt living in California, told an American-Arabic radio station, Radio Sawa, that he was “saddened” and felt “guilty” over the violence, which resulted in the deaths of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans in an attack on the US consolate in Benghazi.

“No, I do not regret the film,” said Nakoula. “I am saddened by the killing of the ambassador but I do not regret making it.

“I am the one who leaked the 14 minutes and put it on the internet and I am thinking about releasing the full film (entitled ‘Innocence of Muslims’). Nobody manipulated my film.”

Asked if he felt guilty that the violence is being directed against US citizens, Nakoula said: “Yes, I feel guilty. America has nothing to do with this subject and is suffering the consequences of a film that has nothing to do with it.”

He continued: “I had published a book in 1994 (on Islam) and it impressed certain parties who asked me if I could turn this book into a movie and this is what I did.

“I have a message for the whole world and not for Muslims. I hope that you watch the movie in full before you judge it.”

He described himself as “an Arab thinker interested in Islamic affairs.”

The low-budget movie, in which actors have strong American accents, portrays Muslims as immoral and gratuitously violent.

Mystery remains, however, over exactly who is behind the film, amid conflicting claims of Jewish or Coptic Christian involvement.

The film’s director was initially identified as Sam Bacile, who claimed to be an American-Israeli who had Jewish financial backing.

He reportedly went into hiding after the protests erupted in Egypt and Libya.

But doubts about his identity grew, culminating in US media reports pointing to Nakoula, a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes, who lives near Los Angeles.

Steve Klein, a consultant on the movie, denied that Israeli authorities were involved in the film and said Bacile, which he acknowledged was a pseudonym, was shocked to hear of the US ambassador’s death.

Online reports cited in the New York Times blog suggested Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian, and his ally Terry Jones, the Florida pastor notorious for previous Quran-burning stunts, had cooperated in promoting the movie.

But later a report cited by US media identified Nakoula as saying he managed the company that produced the film and that he was a Coptic Christian.

Klein said he did not know the filmmaker’s nationality.