Man sent to psychiatric ward over Facebook insults to Islam

A Facebook user who posted images insulting to Islam will be sent to a psychiatric institution.

ABU DHABI // A man who posted images insulting Islam on Facebook was driven insane by an unhappy youth spent reading communist books and should be sent to a psychiatric institution, a court decided today.

Psychiatric tests conducted on the Egyptian graphic designer proved he was not responsible for his actions.

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court requested the tests after the man admitted it was "possible" that he was suffering a psychological illness.

He confessed to posting the images, telling Chief Justic Sayed Abdulbaseer, head of the court, that he would withdraw his actions if he could.

The court also heard the man had suffered an unconventional upbringing after his father died when he was seven. The man's father was a communist and this influenced the man to read an excessive amount of communist literature that eventually drove him insane, the court heard.

Police arrested the graphic designer after members of the public complained about the posts. In one of them, he posted a photo of three naked women next to An-Nisa (women) chapter. In another he posted a photo of a table topped with alcoholic drinks next to Al Maeda (table) chapter, and in another, a cow next to Al Baqara (the cow) chapter.