Global Community Voice

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is the man accused of the mass shooting that took place on Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Tex. The incident was one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base. Thirteen people were killed; 28 were wounded.

Major Hasan began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.

He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.

Clad in a military uniform and firing an automatic pistol and another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding, chubby-faced man with heavy eyebrows, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.

Major Hasan was wounded and taken into custody by the Fort Hood police after the shooting rampage.

Major Hasan, 39, was born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrants from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem. His parents operated an upscale Middle Eastern restaurant and a convenience store in Roanoke. The oldest of three boys, he graduated with honors from Virginia Tech in biochemistry in 1995.

Against the wishes of his parents, relatives said, Major Hasan enlisted in the Army after graduating from college and entered an officer basic training program at Fort Sam Houston, Tex. He was commissioned in 1997 and went to medical school at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., a selective and tuition-free program.

After graduating in 2003, he did his internship and residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then completed a two-year fellowship in preventive and disaster psychiatry, earning a master's degree in public health.

During his time at Walter Reed and the Uniformed Services University, Major Hasan became increasingly vocal in his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the past five years, he also began openly opposing the wars on religious grounds.

He tried to get out of the Army, relatives said, and apparently believed it to be impossible, though experts say he was probably given inadequate advice.