Victim set alight at mosque ‘was asked if he spoke Arabic’

A man suspected of setting a worshipper on fire after leaving a mosque in central England asked his victim if he spoke Arabic before setting him alight and “casually walking off”, witnesses said.

Mohammed Abbkr, 28, who had been attending the mosque in Birmingham for about three weeks, was arrested on Tuesday after reportedly returning to pray.

Mr Abbkr from Edgbaston, described as of North African origin, was expected to appear at the Birmingham Magistrates Court on Thursday.

He was charged with two counts of attempted murder after police linked the incident to a similar attack in west London in February.

The attacker sprayed a substance on two men and set it on fire in both cases, in Ealing on February 27 and Birmingham on Monday, police said. Mohammed Rayaz, 70, was set alight on his way back from Dudley Road Mosque in the Edgbaston area of the city at about 7pm.

Witnesses said his son was heard shouting at the scene “my dad’s on fire”.

Shahbon Hussain, the family’s spokesman and lawyer, told The Daily Telegraph he was one of the first on the scene.

“He spoke Arabic to him,” Mr Hussain said.

“He asked ‘do you speak Arabic?’ and he said, ‘no, I speak Urdu or Punjabi’, and then he tried to walk off.

“At that point he threw fuel on him.

Mr Rayaz remains in hospital with severe injuries.

Chief Supt Richard North, commander of Birmingham Police, said that officers were “keeping an open mind to the motive” and that a counter-terrorism unit with “specialist capabilities” has ben supporting the investigation.