Family: Soldier accused in grenade attack respectful person
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
3/23/03 10:46 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A U.S. soldier accused of throwing grenades into tents at a 101st Airborne Division command center in Kuwait was a "respectful" person, his former stepfather said Sunday.
Sgt. Asan Akbar of the 326th Engineer Battalion is accused of killing a fellow serviceman and wounding 15 other soldiers, including the division commander. He has not been charged with a crime.
"He had always been a respectful young man," said William Bilal, reached by phone at his home in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday night.
Bilal, 53, said he was married to Akbar's mother, Quran Bilal, for five years before they divorced. During that period, the family lived in Baton Rouge and Akbar went to Capitol Middle School, Bilal said.
The grenade attack occurred early Sunday at Camp Pennsylvania, the rear base for the 101st near the Iraqi border. The 101st is based at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Asked if he felt Akbar was resentful toward the military, Bilal said racism against blacks is rampant in the military and that his youngest son left the Air Force because of that.
He said he did not want to talk about the allegations against Akbar until after he speaks with his lawyer Monday.
"I don't want to go into too much detail right now, I'm being prayerful," he said. "I want to sleep on it."
He added: "I want to speak from the heart, not about who's right but about what's right."
A woman who said she is Akbar's mother, Quran Bilal, told The Tennessean of Nashville that she was concerned her son might have been accused because he is a Muslim, adding he was not allowed to participate in the first Gulf War because of his religion.
"He said, `Mama, when I get over there I have the feeling they are going to arrest me just because of the name that I have carried,"' Bilal told the newspaper for a story published on its Web site Sunday night.
She said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge that the military had not contacted her and expressed disbelief in the accusations against her son, who she said spells his first name Hasan.
"He wouldn't try to take nobody's life," she said. "He's not like that. He said the only thing he was going out there to do was blow up the bridges."
William Bilal said he is a devout Muslim active at mosques in Baton Rouge.
"People should turn their hearts back to God," he said. "I'm at a point where God is in control and will always be in control," he said.
He said he met Akbar's mother in Baton Rouge, where she was born and raised.
He was critical of the war in Iraq, but said it may be a "blessing in disguise" because "difficult times bring out the best in us."
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