Man detained for setting worshipers on fire

 On Wednesday, British authorities decided to indefinitely detain a man in a hospital after he was found guilty of attempting to murder two elderly men by setting them on fire as they left mosques in Britain.

Muhammad Abkar, who lives in Edgbaston in central Birmingham, purposely set fires that harmed both Hashi Odawa (82 years old) and Muhammad Riad (70 years old) in separate incidents in February and March of the previous year, as reported by Agence France-Presse.

Last year, a Birmingham court convicted Abkar of two counts of attempted murder. The judge, Melbourne Inman, condemned Abkar’s actions, stating, “You poured gasoline on your victims and then set them on fire… Both attacks were horrifying.”  The judge added while Abkar was watching the proceedings via video from the high-security Ashworth Hospital in northwest Britain.

Speaking to Abkar, the judge believed that Abkar committed these horrible crimes during a period of severe mental illness and without any rational basis in mind for his crimes.

Abkar’s victims suffered severe burns after he sprayed gasoline on them near mosques in west London and Birmingham back on February 27 and March 20. Odawa sustained injuries to his face and arms, while Riad was also seriously harmed in the attacks, thankfully both of them lived.