List of Left Behind characters

Suhail Akbar is a supporting antagonist in the ''Left Behind'' series. A native of Pakistan, he is a prominent member of the Global Community. He is 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 fears he would be competent enough to stymie the Tribulation Force. Akbar is 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 receives 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 commits the abomination of desolation. For his mark, he gets a giant black ''42'' dominating his forehead. Later he is 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 are unharmed. He has the esteem of the Supreme Potentate that he is entrusted with organizing "the most massive offensive in the history of mankind" to drive the Christians and Jews from Jerusalem and Petra. Carpathia tells Director Akbar that the practically limitless monetary and military resources afforded to him for the endeavor would make every other historical military strategist hang his head in shame. In ''Glorious Appearing'', even though he is entrusted to command the overwhelming forces to overrun Petra and Jerusalem of the Global Community One World Unity Army, Akbar is publicly shamed for daring to mention the destruction of New Babylon in front of Carpathia in his underground bunker in Solomon's Stables. He is later beaten to death on Carpathia's orders by another Unity Army Officer with a rattan rod.

Akbar is loyal to Carpathia, always zealous to carry about his directives, even though the directives come in a pique or at a whim. In ''Desecration'', he sees Carpathia personally murder high-ranking loyal personnel – such as Loren Hut and Walter Moon – for failing to fulfill Carpathia's orders, even though they act competently and give an earnest effort. For those murders, Akbar loans Carpathia his sidearm when Carpathia vehemently requests it. On his own initiative, he also orders the execution of two fighter pilots who fail to incinerate the stronghold of Petra due to divine protection of the inhabitants, even though the pilots hit their targets and the bombs detonate. Akbar ironically dies under similar circumstances for a minor infraction just hours before the Glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ.

Akbar is willing to stand up for competent personnel under him. When one of the pilots attacking Petra seemingly sounds insubordinate while communicating to mission command at the Global Community palace, Akbar defends him when Carpathia is offended by the pilot's tone and Leon Fortunato demands the pilot be reprimanded. However, Akbar has no qualms in killing his pilots when Carpathia expresses his disappointment in their performance and when they pridefully refuse to conform to the Global Community party line.

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 God's will as constituting the basis for morality or truth. He may comply with Carpathia's directives out of personal and professional expediency instead of sincere reverence; loyalty to Carpathia is what has advanced his career to the point where he becomes Global Community Director of Security and Intelligence. When questioned by Carpathia about whether the execution of two innocent people bothers his conscience, Akbar says that Carpathia is the "father of truth", reiterating Carpathia's remarks after he finishes the lie detector test, where Carpathia reports some obvious falsehoods that are assessed to be truthful replies. When one of the stewards on Carpathia's plane refers to Leon Fortunato as "Mr. Fortunato", Akbar corrects him, saying that it is "Reverend Fortunato"; he does not mind but states the steward should not make that mistake in front of "His Excellency". When the steward replies, "or the Most High Reverend Father", Akbar chuckles. Akbar 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, there was a picture of Akbar present on the wall during meals. Provided by Wikipedia