Los Angeles Wildfire: Between Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil and the Rejoicers

It is no news that the United States of America (US) is the giant enabler of genocide in Palestine. This has shaped the thought of Muslims around the globe about the US. To the Muslim world, the US is a Leviathan that must be unreservedly despised for its bloody role in Palestine; for its hawkishness and bellicosity. It is  the superpower that literally supervises the killings, or rather slaughterings, of thousands of innocent Palestinian children—to say nothing of other Palestinians—just because they are not wanted on their ancestral land which they had occupied for millennia before Islam and for about a millennium and a half after Islam.

Given the above background, many Muslims, worldwide, readily accept the Los Angeles (LA) wildfires as Divine Punishment. Thus the wildfires are not only seen as comeuppance but as a calamity to be ‘retaliatorily’ celebrated just as the US ‘celebrates’ the genocide of Muslims in Palestine. The Palestinians are undebatably and unjustly genocided for decades for the struggle to regain their occupied territory. They deserve the support, at least moral support, of every sane person (anywhere around the globe).

Having said that, I am struggling to see the nexus between the genocide in Palestine and the LA wildfires. How is it a Divine Calamity in the first place so much so that Muslims would need to celebrate? I totally disagree that the LA wildfires are Divine Punishment. For how does one conclude that wildfires in California or any of its counties are God’s Punishment for the US support for genocide in Palestine?  Are we really familiar with history and geography? The occurrence and re-occurrences of wildfires in that part of the US far predated the creation of Israel.

This is where I find Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil’s intervention instructive even if many find him and his opinion on LA wildfires controversial—including some of his online followers. Sheikh Khalil is a Kano based cleric. He is among the most senior clerics in Nigeria, not only in depth of scholarship but also in age of scholarship. What marks him odd among other clerics, if I may say, is that in addition to being a senior cleric, he is a politician. Plus, he is cosmopolitan in some of his views perhaps due to his global exposure and his mastery of classical Islamic texts.

When asked about LA wildfire which many Muslims believe to be God’s Punishment, Sheikh Khalil quipped: “this is sheer ignorance.” Wildfire, tsunami, and other forms of such eruptions are natural occurrences that can be explained from the perspective of science (geography). He asked if there are no Muslims, clerics, and mosques in LA. He mentioned three major markets in Kano State that had severally being gutted and destroyed, then asked if those infernoes were also God’s Punishment.

One of the most vocal critics of the West and the Arab world for  their complicity and silence on the genocide in Palestine respectively is Khaled Abou El-Fadl of the Usuli Institute, a professor of Law. The Institute which brags of 100, 000 Islamic texts until recently was based in LA. This gives a hint that there is quite a number of Muslims in LA.

If God is angry with the US for its role in orchestrating genocide in Palestine, why would His Wrath descend on LA but not on the White House in Washington DC or the US-backed Israeli soldiers in Gaza and their weapons of mass annihilation? According to Al Jazeera’s January 16 report, “At least 21 Palestinian children and 25 women are among 87 people killed in Gaza since the announcement of a ceasefire deal expected to start on Sunday as Israel’s relentless air attacks intensify.” Yet, God’s Punishment turns away from these killers to descend on Angelenos. What exactly is the sin of the Angelenos? Apparently, there are things we get wrong and there are events we interpret wrongly.

Many do not understand the difference between the government and the citizens of the US. While the government is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinians, that cannot be said of the generality of American citizens. We also ignore the difference between Jews as religious-cultural people and Zionists—the politically ideologised Jews who are intent on creating a Jewish state by blood of innocent Palestinians.

In 2024 alone, there are three pro-Palestinian protests I am aware of in LA by Angelenos (there could be more than three). In May, 2024, a news headline reads: ‘California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA.’ According to Reuters, hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles where protests over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement.

A month after, in June, CNN reports a pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles. Chants of “Free, free Palestine—from the river to the sea,” and “long live intifada,” could be heard from among the pro-Palestinian protesters. Participants blocked traffic during the protest.

Two months later, in August, we read in Los Angeles Times how pro-Palestinian protesters, If Not NoW, shut down 405 Freeway in West L.A. It should be noted that “If Not Now” is a national organization of American Jews who advocate for “the end of the US support of Israel’s apartheid system,” according to its mission statement. The group said its protest was directed at Vice President Kamala Harris as it calls for the Democratic Party to reject the the pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

If Angelenos have been protesting against the genocide in Palestine, my question to these clerics of Divine Punishment thesis and their followers is: why did God send His Wrath against Angelenos who had been pro-Palestinians for some time? Put differently, why did God send His Wrath to uproot the roots of Islam that had been rooted in Los Angeles since the mid-1800 through wildfires?

LA is said to have one of the largest Muslim populations of any city in the Americas, with recent estimates placing the number at close to half a million people. Why does God’s Punishment choose to  allow the Israeli soldiers to continue the genocide against the Palestinians but target Angelenos, including half a million of Muslims,  for the sin of American government? Why are our religious people often driven by emotion rather than a careful study and understanding of realities? If one listens to some of these clerics (mis)quoting verses of the Qur’an to support their thesis of Divine Punishment of America through the wildfire in Los Angeles, one would think Los Angeles and California are mentioned in the Qur’an and singled out for Divine Calamity. One would also think they are spokesmen of God. To give some credibility to the shallow thesis of Divine Punishment, we find in circulation a viral video of a mosque allegedly saved from the wildfire. This is a blatant lie—a big fat lie.

These Muslim rejoicers over LA wildfire are similar to some Christian rejoicers over the killings in Palestine. In their disturbingly unfortunate ignorance, these Christians think all Palestinians are Muslims who should be killed not knowing that they are equally rejoicing over the killings of their brethren—the Palestinian Christians—by the  blood-sucking Zionists who do not see any difference between Christians and Muslims in their rabid adventure for Palestine’s territorial acquisition. We should give Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) credit on this. He is the most enlightened public figure I know—with informed opinion among Nigerian Christians—about the genocide in Palestine. So, he finds some Christians’ jubilation over the killings of Palestinians nauseating.

For the record, California—in which Los Angeles is a county—is a wildfire-prone state in the US and the most common source of wildfire in the US is said to be lightening. Lightning is a significant natural cause of wildfires, particularly in dry and wildfire-prone regions. This is how it happens: when lightning strikes a tree or plants, it can ignite them especially if they are dry, and wreck havoc. Here again, considering some of these natural phenomena, one wonders how anyone would conclude God does not exist. Just imagine that a spark of lightning is capable of wiping out a whole generation. Think about it!

It should be noted that wildfires are regular natural occurrences in California. The ongoing one in Los Angeles is not the worst at the moment and hopefully it will not be. The August Complex Fire that occured in August 2020 is said to be the worst that burned about 1,032,648 acres across six counties. It reportedly took firefighters 87 days to contain the fire. Again, one wonders how firefighters would dare to fight God’s Punishment. What is wrong with our religious thought? Like Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil, a Syrian jihadi cleric Abu Yahya Al-Shami wrote: “The Los Angeles wildfires are a normal act of nature, do not pay much attention to it.”

All said, humanity is lost in us when we celebrate the killings of innocent people like the Palestinians or natural disasters like the one in Los Angeles. May the Almighty grant the Palestinians victory against their tormentors. May He contain the wildfires in Los Angeles and comfort all the victims of the wildfires over their losses.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com