A review by ola_wnka
American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent by Kevin Maurer, Tamer Elnoury

4.5

American Radical is the engaging memoir of undercover FBI agent Tamer Elnoury that reads more like a thriller. Elnoury thwarted the 2013 VIA Rail Canada Terrorism Plot by befriending the Al-Qaeda sponsored terrorists planning the attack. The part of the story I find most interesting is that Tamer Elnoury is still undercover continuing his work even after the publishing of this memoir. The name is a pseudonym and Elnoury has only granted a handful of interviews while in heavy disguise and with voice altering. American Radical provides a glimpse into the very secretive world of terrorism and reveals some of the attacker motivations. The memoir briefly focuses on Elnoury’s time as an undercover cop before describing how Elnoury obtained intelligence by meeting, befriending, and working closely with the VIA Rail terrorists, finishing with Elnoury’s testimony in the court proceedings. Elnoury, a practicing Muslim, describes his undercover work through his essential perspective, which provides cultural and religious context to counterbalance the terrorists’ erroneous beliefs.