FORT HOOD — An Army psychiatrist who authorities say went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood was so conflicted over what to tell fellow soldiers about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that a local Islamic leader was deeply troubled by it, the leader said Saturday.
Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said he was disturbed by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s persistent questioning and recommended the mosque reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at the sprawling Army post.
Danquah said Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence, but during the second of two conversations they had over the summer, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, he said.
“But what if a person gets in and feels that it’s just not right?” Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.
“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you,”’ Danquah told The Associated Press during an interview at Fort Hood on Saturday. “I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.”
Authorities accuse Hasan of firing more than 100 rounds Thursday in a soldier processing center at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 29 others in the worst mass shooting on a military facility in the U.S. At the start of the attack, Hasan reportedly jumped up on a desk and shouted “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” Hasan, 39, was seriously wounded by police and is being treated in a military hospital.
The military has said Hasan was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, but family members suggested he was trying avoid serving overseas.
Hasan’s relatives who live in the Palestinian territories have said they had heard from family members that Hasan felt mistreated in the Army as a Muslim.
“He told (them) that as a Muslim committed to his prayers he was discriminated against and not treated as is fitting for an officer and American,” said Mohammed Malik Hasan, 24, a cousin, told the AP from his home on the outskirts of Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. “He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge.”
The Army major also had previously questioned the U.S. war on terror.
A former classmate has said Hasan was a “vociferous opponent of the war” and “viewed the war against terror” as a “war against Islam.” Dr. Val Finnell, who attended a master’s in public health program in 2007-2008 at Uniformed Services University with Hasan, said he told classmates he was “a Muslim first and an American second.”
“In retrospect, I’m not surprised he did it,” Finnell said. “I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were.”
Danquah said his conversations with Hasan occurred following two religious services sometime before Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that started in late August. He said the soldier, who transferred to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in July, regularly attended services at the Killeen, Texas, mosque in his uniform.
During his talks with Hasan, Danquah, 61, said he told him that Muslims were fighting each other in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories and that American soldiers with objections to serving overseas had recourse to voice such concerns.
“As a Muslim, you come into a community and the way you integrate normally — I didn’t see that kind of integration,” he said. Danquah, a retired Army 1st sergeant and Gulf War veteran, did not tell the military about his conversations with Hasan.
“I didn’t think it rose to that level of concern,” he said, adding that he thought the military “chain of command should have picked it up” if Hasan had issues.
Most of the wounded from Thursday’s attack remained hospitalized, many in intensive care. Hasan was transferred Friday to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood. Army officials late Friday gave no indication of his condition except to say he was “not able to converse.”
The bodies of the victims arrived at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base on Friday night and autopsies were being formed, said Dover spokesman Air Force Maj. Carl Grusnick.
The White House said President Barack Obama would attend a memorial service Tuesday at Fort Hood. Earlier Saturday, Obama said in his radio and Internet address that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths and ended the rampage at Fort Hood.
Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers Friday night at the post hospital. On Saturday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry also visited the wounded and said the soldiers he met with were honored to serve their country.
“What I heard time after time in those hospital rooms is they’re honored to be able to serve our country,” Perry said during a news conference.
————
Associated Press Writers Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, and Jessica Gresko in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Local News
Muslim leader had troubling talks with suspect
- Local News
-
-
Fresh Face at City Hall
-
New Waverly VFD saves house
Emergency responders quickly extinguished a fire before it caused serious damage to a home in southern Walker County on Tuesday afternoon.
-
Crawfest back for 7th year
For the past seven years, Walker County residents have been cracking claws for a cause.
-
Museum photo contest back
The Sam Houston Memorial Museum has announced it is now accepting entries for its 2012 photo contest.
-
Region VI education participants receive certificates
Through the Adult education program, Region VI provides instruction in Adult Basic Education (ABE), Adult Secondary Education (ASE), General Education Development (GED) preparation and English as a Second Language (ESL), to individuals that did not complete high school, desire to increase academic skills, would like to obtain a General Education Development (GED) certificate or who simply desire to become more proficient in speaking English.
-
Award for criminal justice legislation
- Sheriff’s Office releases crime map to public
-
SHSU graduates join Army as officers
Fifteen ROTC cadets at Sam Houston State University, including 12 criminal justice majors, were officially commissioned as officers in the U.S. Army during a ceremony last week.
-
STAFS donors remembered
The Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility honored 27 individuals, including six veterans and a cancer victim whose final weeks were documented in a KTRK news story, for donating their bodies for research at the facility during the 2011-2012 academic year.
-
SHSU honors staff
Four Sam Houston State University employees who have demonstrated excellence in service, commitment, meritorious performance and a high level of motivation have been selected as recipients of the 2012 Staff Excellence Award.
- More Local News Headlines
-



