The first few years of the twenty-first century have verified that the recruitment and radicalization of young combatants is not just affecting one single region in the world. The phenomenon has spread throughout urban and rural communities, from the heart of Syria and northern Nigeria to the suburbs of Paris and Brussels. With the advent of Jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Boko Haram and the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the impact on vulnerable youths is notable, and diversifying the strategies to prevent extremism has become a necessity. How and where do Jihadists get radicalized, though? And what tools can be developed to neutralize the toxic narratives for luring them in and to reintegrate repentant Jihadists back into society? The conference will deal with these challenges and the ways to channel the action to be taken.

Participating in this conference are Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation (Lebanon); Hanif Qadir, executive director of the Active Change Foundation (United Kingdom), and Fernando Rivas, an analyst from the Center for Intelligence Against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO). The event will be moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Politics Coordinator.

Ayman Mhanna
Since 2011, he has been the executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation, a notable organization that defends freedom of the press in the Middle East, with its headquarters in Beirut. From January 2016 to February 2017, he was the director of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), a network of 200 organizations which provide support for journalism and media development, with headquarters in Brussels. Prior to that, he worked at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (2007-2011) and was a professor of Policy Development and Communications at Saint-Joseph University’s School of Economics in Beirut. He has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris. He is also a member of the steering committee of the pilot study Reception and Perception of Radical Messages.

Hanif Qadir
Qadir is the executive director of the Active Change Foundation in London and has been acknowledged as one of the world’s most important specialists in the field of positive transformation of violent extremists. He actively participates in providing consultation and assistance to the main parties responsible for the reformulation of policies in the agenda for Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE). He was formerly a radical Islamist himself and joined Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2002. Discouraged by the crimes he saw being committed against civilians, he returned to the United Kingdom to start up Active Change, an entity devoted to supporting youths who are exposed to extremism. He is the author of the book Preventing and Countering Extremism and Terrorist Recruitment.