From Jihadist to Undercover Agent: How I Infiltrated the Toronto 18

Mubin Shaikh once embraced the jihadist worldview. Then he went to Syria, and everything began to unravel.In Part two of his extraordinary conversation with East to West, Mubin explains how studying Islam for himself forced him to confront the ideology he had once believed in, and how a Sufi sheikh slowly challenged the ideas that had shaped his radicalization.But his story took an even more unexpected turn when he returned to Canada. Mubin was recruited as an undercover operative, infiltrated jihadist networks and eventually helped authorities dismantle the Toronto 18 terror plot.Today, he uses that same experience to help young people leave extremism behind. He also warns that the ideology he once embraced is no longer simply being “imported” into the West — in his words, it is increasingly growing from within.