Ilyas Zarhoni is the founder of CEAPIRE. He started his career as a teacher of Islamic religion in secondary education. During his studies, Ilyas delved into various traditional Islamic sciences and extremist ideologies such as Salafi-jihadism and the extreme right. Ilyas also specialized in the world of propaganda channels, recruiters, recruitment techniques and conspiracy theories. He was also active in different mosques and socio-cultural youth organizations, where he managed to build a large network. He was soon confronted with several young people who were swayed with the ideology and propaganda of IS and Al Qaeda. This lead to the founding of CEAPIRE. Today Ilyas takes on the role of general supervisor.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
