List of Left Behind characters

Suhail Akbar is a supporting antagonist in the ''Left Behind'' series. A native of Pakistan, he was a prominent member of the Global Community. He was hired by Nicolae Carpathia during the last half of the Tribulation period to be his Security and Intelligence chief in control of Peacekeepers and Morale Monitors throughout all the world regions. Jim Hickman was his predecessor. In contrast to the ineptitude of Hickman, upon hearing the appointment of Akbar, David Hassid feared he would be competent enough to stymie the Tribulation Force. Akbar was characterized as a man who is reticent and slow to voice an opinion, but someone who is loyal and effective behind the scenes.

In ''Desecration'', he received the mark of the beast along with his fellow members of the Global Community cabinet – Walter Moon and Viv Ivins – at the Temple Mount a day before Carpathia committed the abomination of desolation. For his mark, he got a giant black 42 that dominated his forehead. Later he was ordered to bomb the gathering of Christians and Jews at Petra, planning for a BLU-82 and a "lance" missile to be dropped on them, but the inhabitants there were unharmed. He had the esteem of the Supreme Potentate that he was entrusted with organizing "the most massive offensive in the history of mankind" to drive the Christians and Jews from Jerusalem and Petra. Carpathia said to Director Akbar that the practically limitless monetary and military resources afforded to him for this endeavor would make every other historical military strategist hang his head in shame. In ''Glorious Appearing'', even though he was entrusted to command the overwhelming forces to overrun Petra and Jerusalem of the Global Community One World Unity Army, Suhail was publicly shamed for daring to mention the destruction of New Babylon in front of Carpathia in his underground bunker in Solomon's Stables and was later beaten to death on Carpathia's orders by another Unity Army Officer with a rattan rod.

Security Director Akbar was loyal to Nicolae Carpathia, always zealous to carry about his directives, even though these directives came in a pique or at a whim. In ''Desecration'', he saw Carpathia personally murder high-ranking loyal personnel – such as Loren Hut and Walter Moon – for failing to fulfill Carpathia's orders, even though they acted competently and gave an earnest effort. For those murders, Akbar lent Carpathia his side arm when Carpathia vehemently requested it. On his own initiative, he also ordered the execution of two fighter pilots who failed to incinerate the stronghold of Petra due to divine protection of the inhabitants, even though the pilots hit their targets and the bombs detonated. Director Akbar ironically died under similar circumstances for a minor infraction just hours before the Glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ.

Chief Akbar was willing to stand up for competent personnel under him. When one of the pilots attacking Petra appeared to sound insubordinate while communicating to mission command at the Global Community palace after he had dropped his ordinance on Petra when he suggested to abort a subsequent missile launch towards because it seemed to be supererogatory, Akbar defended him of the insubordination when Carpathia was offended by the pilots's tone and Leon Fortunato demanded for the pilot to be reprimanded. However, Akbar had no qualms in killing his pilots once Carpathia expressed his disappointment in their performance and when they pridefully refused to conform to party line of the Global Community that they missed their target due to pilot error because they insisted that execution of the attack was impeccable but the Christians survived due to some kind of miracle.

Akbar is not only loyal to Carpathia, but actually regards him as a divine figure; his attitude is similar to a divine command theorist or a theological voluntarist who regards whatever God wills constitutes the basis for morality or truth. He may have complied with Carpathia's directives out of personal and professional expediency instead of sincere reverence because loyalty to Carpathia is what had advanced his career to the point where he became the Director of Security and Intelligence to the Global Community. When questioned by Carpathia about whether the execution of two innocent people bothered his conscience, Akbar said that Carpathia was the "father of truth", reiterating Carpathia's remarks after he finished the lie detector test, where Carpathia reported some obvious falsehoods that were assessed to be truthful replies. When one of stewards on Carpathia's plane referred to Leon Fortunato as "Mr. Fortunato", Suhail corrected him saying that it is "Reverend Fortunato", but said that he did not mind but he should not make that mistake in front of "His Excellency". When the steward replied, "or the Most High Reverend Father", Akbar chuckled. Suhail probably does not hold Fortunato or the role of Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism in high esteem.

In the dramatic audio for the kids series, during Carpathia's entrance in Jerusalem, Lionel Washington says that while he was in the Morale Monitor program, they had a picture of Suhail Akbar staring up at you during every meal. Provided by Wikipedia