The Misfit Radical

The Misfit Radical is a story that could apply to any of the thousands of South Asian young men who come to America each year, not knowing what to expect from the "land of milk and honey," only that they want to "make it." The social, cultural gap builds up to the point that some fall prey to dark forces of radicalism and even terrorism. This current affairs thriller tells the story of a young Afghan boy, Hassan, who grows up in Kabul, the capital, to an upper middle class family. After putting up with endless rounds of militia fighting in Kabul, the family packs up and takes the tortuous road trip to the Pakistani city of Peshawar, home to countless other Afghan refugees. But the teeming streets of Peshawar, hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, were not a safe place for raising a son whose parents adhered to more liberal ways of life. Thanks to a school friend, Hassan becomes acquainted with a young Ahmad who frequents one of the many madrassas in the city, at first not even knowing what they are but soon developing an innocent sense of curiosity for them. Not long after, and despite his will, Hassan's parents put him on a plane to Washington, DC, to force him away from what they perceive to be his penchant for more conservative traits of Islam. In Washington, Hassan stays with his uncle, who despite having lived in America for many years, has not found his own place in the American society either. After a short stay, the uncle forces Hassan out of the house but helps him get a room at the house of a female friend. And that's when his real American journey starts. Like almost every other immigrant, Hassan works two jobs, including an overnight "graveyard" shift at a fast food restaurant. After months of getting by on catnaps between a night job and a daytime one, he lands himself a job as a Dari-Pashto (Afghan languages) translator at a DC contracting company. The owner is a former Marine. His business partner is a former employee of the National Security Council. This is post 9/11 and they have all the contacts needed to do good business in places where adventurous administrations want to do things Congress and US laws raise eyebrows about. Hassan becomes enamored with the promise of America as a country of milk-and-honey. He aspires to become an American, a "good" American. His foray into the world of espionage is purely accidental, and part of yet another attempt to attain "success" as an American immigrant. The US government has asked Hassan's employer to gather information on fundamentalist and radical groups in Afghanistan, a request that results in sending Hassan to Kabul to work as a translator at the American Embassy's security section. There, he becomes reacquainted with Ahmad, the childhood friend from their days in Peshawar, a man now suspected of ties with radicals. The more Hassan tries to acquire inside information from Ahmad, the more he becomes absorbed in the movement's anti-American sentiments and arguments. Between seemingly genuine affinity for what he sees as America's aggressions in Afghanistan and a system-wide injustice he blames for his inability to reach "pinnacles of success" while he was in the States, he decides to join the jihad and after much convincing, Ahmad helps him to become a recruit at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. But once the masterminds involve him in an operation to attack a police station in the heart of Kabul, he falls short of carrying out orders to kill. His bosses realize that he could better serve as a spy, feeding information to the movement, than be an actual killer. They give him cover to return to his embassy job, which he had left under the disguise of being sick and needing treatment and care of family in areas near Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Back at the embassy, he feeds terrorists with US secrets, Hassan's journey ends quickly when CIA agents arrest him at the embassy compound and transfer to the Bagram air base for interrogation.