Clip of Muslim conversion filmed in November 2023, not motivated by LA wildfires

"Los Angeles police officer converted to Islam," read the Indonesian-language caption of a TikTok video shared on January 25, 2025.

The video shows an imam guiding a man in uniform as he recites the Islamic shahada, or declaration of faith.

According to text superimposed on the video, the police officer in the United States' second largest city converted to Islam "after he saw that Muslims' houses didn't burn during the Los Angeles wildfires".

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Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on February 5, 2025

The video was shared elsewhere on TikTok and Facebook in posts that linked the officer's conversion to what he witnessed during the devastating wildfires which burned for more than three weeks in Southern California in January 2025, killing about 30 people and displacing thousands more (archived link). 

The Palisades and Eaton fires were the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles County, burning more than 37,000 acres (150 square kilometres) and over 10,000 homes, causing damage estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The video circulating online, however, was filmed more than a year before the LA wildfires.

The posts also build on earlier false claims, debunked by AFP, about "miracle houses" untouched by the wildfires supposedly because their owners were Muslim.

Conversion in 2023

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage posted on Instagram on November 5, 2023 (archived link).

"All praise to God, out of nowhere, an American entered At-Thohir Mosque and asked to convert to Islam," read its caption.

Overlaid text on the video says the man is a security guard.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the original video posted in November 2023 (right)

The At-Thohir Mosque is located in Los Angeles (archived link). Photos of the mosque's interior shared on Google Maps also match what is shown in the video (archived link).

The footage was originally posted by Uya Kuya, an Indonesian TV presenter who became a lawmaker in 2024, as part of a longer video about the man's conversion to Islam.

The video also shows a banner about a memorial on November 4 and 5, 2023 for Mochamad Thohir, the father of Indonesia's Minister of State Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, according to Indonesian news outlet Republika (archived link).

The news outlet reported on November 5, 2023 that the conversion took place during the memorial. 

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the LA wildfires here.