- U.S. Army Sgt. Asan Akbar, the soldier being detained
in connection with a grenade attack on his fellow soldiers, told his family
members that he encountered racism as an African-American and a Muslim
in the armed services.
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- His stepfather, William Bilal, who was once married to
Akbar's mother, Quran Bilal, said that his stepson was resentful toward
the military and had complained several years ago that it was difficult
for a black man "to make rank" in the military.
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- "Asan was pushed to this. We've got that clear,"
William Bilal told WBRZ, ABCNEWS' affiliate in Baton Rouge, La. "Everybody's
got a breaking point, to put it that way. Everybody's got a breaking point.
If he did this, he was driven."
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- On ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, Bilal expressed a toned
down version of his previous statements, saying that Akbar was likely misunderstood.
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- "All I'm saying is that Islam has been misrepresented,
and a lot of people don't understand the religion of Islam," Bilal
said. "And the problem is, the stereotyping and the discrimination,
I can't say exactly, directly, if that was Asan's case," he said.
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- Now, the 31-year-old soldier is in custody for an alleged
grenade attack Sunday that killed one and wounded 15 others in the 101st
Airborne Division at Camp New York in Kuwait. He has not been charged with
a crime, but Akbar was the only person being questioned in the attack,
George Heath, a civilian spokesman at Fort Campbell in Kentucky said. Three
grenades were allegedly thrown into three separate tents.
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- According to the Los Angeles Times, soldiers who witnessed
Akbar's arrest said that Akbar yelled out: "You guys are coming into
our countries, and you're going to rape our women and kill our children."
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- Akbar, part of the division's 326th Engineer Battalion,
recently had some problems with his battalion, Heath said.
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- "He was having what some people might call it seems
an attitude problem," Heath said.
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- Akbar's brother, Ismail Bilal, who recently obtained
an early discharge from the Air Force, said he was shocked when he heard
that his brother was accused in the attack. "It was too many emotions
involved to pinpoint one emotion, how I felt at the time, you know? Because
it was like a melting pot of emotions," Bilal said. He said his older
brother, Akbar, seemed fine when he spoke with him one month ago.
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- "He just spoke just like any other soldier, you
know, going overseas. 'Man, we about to go overseas and about to spend
all this time over there.' You know, just the same way every soldier feels
when he get deployed," Bilal said.
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- Officials have not released any motive in the attack,
but said Akbar will be brought back to Fort Campbell for judicial proceedings,
and that the Army could seek the death penalty.
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- Neighbors Say Akbar Was Quiet
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- News of the incident shocked Akbar's neighbors back home
in the small military town of Clarksville, Tenn., who described him as
a mild-mannered man who didn't drink or swear.
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- Akbar proudly wore his uniform, even when he was off
duty, said neighbor Willie Shannell Jr., who spoke to Akbar shortly before
he was deployed.
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- "There was no resentment at all. I don't want to
go, you know, I'm going to run," Shannell said. "No. Zero."
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- Another neighbor agreed that Akbar was no troublemaker.
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- "I was shocked really because he was one of the
quietest ones in the neighborhood, he kept to himself and you wouldn't
expect anything like that from him at all," said Heather Dill.
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- Not From Muslim Teachings
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- Akbar is originally from California, where he lived for
some time with his mother and sisters in Merino County. He was born Mark
Kools, but his mother changed his name after she remarried when he was
a boy. He attended Locke High School in the heart of Los Angeles, and school
sources say he was a model student with a 3.6 grade point average.
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- He was raised Muslim and Akbar and his family attended
the Bilal Islamic Center, across the street from their family home before
he moved to Tennessee for the military.
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- His mother said she changed his name to Asan Akbar after
she remarried when he was a young boy. In some public records, the first
name is spelled Hasan.
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- His mosque's leader says Akbar's actions are a puzzling
contradiction to the messages he learned at the mosque as a boy.
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- "We don't tell them not to join the Army because
they might run into a problem with another Muslim country," said Abdul
Karim Hasan. "That's just the way it is. That's what armed forces
are trained to do. They are trained to fight."
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- Meanwhile, U.S. troops preparing to fight an outside
enemy are now grappling with the reality of an attack, possibly by one
of their own.
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- "When someone is firing at you, you know who the
enemy is," Heath said. "But when they're standing in the same
chow line or using the same shower as you, it's had a detrimental effect
probably on the morale."
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- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/World/iraq_GMA030325Akbar_family_exclusive.html
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