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Michael Martin

Below a handwritten edict demanding that Hong Kong Muslims accept his divinity, Muhammad Tariq stamped a seal saying 'Tariq, prophet of God'. The words are encased in Islam's signature crescent moon and star. 
The Pakistani asylum seeker pushed the rubber stamp onto the standard-rule paper 10 times, the same number of times he plunged a 37-centimetre-long knife into his  flatmate in their Hung Hom flat. 
Fiaz Muhammad, 30, is still recovering from his wounds. 
Muhammad's 'crime' had been to warn Tariq that claiming to be a prophet would anger the local Muslim community who believe that Mohammed was the last prophet on Earth. 
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong court convicted Tariq, 39, of the stabbing and ordered two psychiatric examinations prior to his sentencing later this month to determine if a hospital order is required. 
 Tariq, currently under observation at Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, was found to have developed paranoid schizophrenia several months before the attack. 
Ordering a clarification on the length of medical treatment necessary, Judge Anthea Pang Ko-kam  postponed his sentencing, originally scheduled for last Thursday, until mid-December. 
In a calm monotone, Tariq told his counsel he does not believe he suffers from any mental illness.  
In court last week, seated in a bullet-proof glass cubicle, Tariq wore a faded, striped polo shirt, his long black hair slicked back, and his beard slightly greyer than before.  
It is unclear when Tariq developed a mental disorder. His friends and acquaintances say he didn't talk much about life before Hong Kong, except to say he has an estranged wife and seven-year-old child back in Gujranwala,  Pakistan. He never spoke of political or religious reasons for leaving his native land.
'Tariq was living in a very backward area of Pakistan, very poor,' said his former friend, Ghulam Hussain, also from Pakistan. 'He wanted to bring his son to Hong Kong. He used to say, 'I love him'.' Fiaz Muhammad said his former  flatmate and attacker  was from a part of Pakistan much poorer than Muhammad's native Lahore.
As an asylum seeker in Hong Kong, Tariq was barred from seeking work. He found odd jobs to supplement his living allowance from International Social Services (ISS), a charitable organisation that supports Hong Kong's asylum seekers.
'He was hardworking, or he was once hardworking and then afterward, he started saying these things,' said a business owner who had previously employed Tariq in an under-the-table arrangement.
'Who knows if something bad happened to him?' the former employer said, unable to explain the events that led what he described as a once normal man to carry out a brutal knife attack. 
Tariq confronted several Hong Kong Muslims, from the mobile phone merchants of Chungking Mansions to Hong Kong Chief Imam Muhammad Arshad,  attempting to attract followers to his newfound  religion. 
Members of the Muslim community say that he has claimed to be the latest prophet of Islam, a reincarnation of Jesus (also a prophet in Islam), and an incarnation of Imam al-Mahdi,  a religious figure who it is believed will return to Earth before the Day of Judgment.  
Fiaz Muhammad says when he met Tariq, he had never heard of his multiple religious identities. At that time, Tariq was wandering the streets of Hong Kong, homeless.  
'He said he didn't have a home, so I invited him to come to my home and live there,' Muhammad said. 
During their first few weeks together, the two got along well: 'We never fought,' said Muhammad, 'We were like brothers.' Fond of computer games, Muhammad introduced Tariq to Grand Theft Auto. 
In his spare time, Muhammad said that Tariq would read and write in a journal, which Muhammad later found contained poems detailing Tariq's relationship to God. 
Then something snapped. Muhammad was playing computer games, when he went to the bathroom. Just as he left the bathroom, Tariq lunged at him, stabbing him, leaving him partially disembowelled.
'He said, 'You must repent,'' Muhammad recalls. 
Muhammad successfully persuaded Tariq to call an ambulance, agreeing to tell authorities that  Tariq stabbed him in self-defence. 
Muhammad was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he remained for two months. He continues to wait for refugee status.



The struggling asylum seeker who snapped and knifed flatmate