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Gadfly (Kinda Sorta) Warned L.A. City Council About Inflammatory Anti-Muslim Film
Before the film "Innocence of Muslims" set off riots in the Middle East and gained international notoriety, it was shown at the Vine Theater in Hollywood in June with relatively little fanfare.
But there was one person who got pretty worked up about the screening: Los Angeles City Council gadfly John Walsh.
He addressed the City Council: "There's an alarming event occurring in Hollywood on Sunday. A group has rented the Vine Street Theater to show a video entitled 'The Innocence of Bin Laden.'"
Now Walsh wants to take credit for warning about the "terrorist film." Walsh told the Times today: "I cried wolf and there was a wolf."
But his concern at the time wasn't that the film would anger Muslims abroad and lead to (or fan the flames of) anti-American rioting. He worried that—because of a different title—it was an anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying film.
Here's a link to Walsh's speech to the City Council. (I'm having technical difficulties making it bigger but you can head over to TPM for a better video):
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