Ilyas Zarhoni
Founder, CEAPIRE
2024
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.
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
