D.C. has approved its first Gulen-connected charter school. Fetullah Gulen is the reclusive Muslim cleric who lives in the Poconos, rus a vast political network in Turkey, and is associated with the largest charter chain in the U.S.
D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson is upset because the Gulen Harmony charter has leased a building directly across the street from a traditional public school serving the same age children with the same math-science focus.
“Henderson called Harmony’s move an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars and a sign of a choice that the city is going to have to make: Does the District want to plan for the coexistence of charter schools alongside a system of traditional neighborhood schools? Or does the city want to continue with a laissez-faire approach that Henderson said could give rise to a “cannibalistic environment” in which “somebody gets eaten”?
“Either we want neighborhood schools or we want cannibalism, but you can’t have both,” Henderson said, adding her voice to a growing chorus of people who have called for joint planning between traditional and charter schools and perhaps a limit on the number of independent charter schools in the District.
“A citywide conversation about how many schools do we need, and how do we get to the right number of schools, as opposed to continuing to allow as many schools to proliferate as possible, is probably a necessary conversation to have at some point,” Henderson said.
“Charter schools do not have to specify or propose a location when they apply to the D.C. Public Charter School Board for approval. The board considers applications on their merits, without taking into account the impact on existing schools; once a school is approved, it goes about finding a home, and then must notify the board of its location before opening its doors to students.”
It’s funny, because DC is promoted by ed reformers as an example of two systems operating well together, but that doesn’t seem to be true (or not as true as the national hype and marketing would suggest):
“Across the country, wherever charter schools have taken root, they are known for marketing themselves aggressively. Advocates for school choice, a philosophy that the Obama administration has embraced, say charter schools are forcing traditional school systems to think of families as customers.
“It means we’ve done our jobs,” said Kara Kerwin of the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter advocacy organization.
But others say marketing efforts such as the District’s beg important questions about the unintended consequences of school choice, including whether the push to sell schools distracts from the goal of improving instruction.”
They have a whole for-profit sector growing up around marketing the schools now. Is this one of the “lessons” Secretary Duncan wants us to take from charter schools? That kids are consumers and schools are simply contract service providers?
I don’t want to adopt this. I don’t want marketing and PR and campaign firms to skim 10% off the top of public school budgets. I think it’s a terrible idea to turn kids into consumers in school. Consumer is a LESSER role than “citizen”.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/local/education/facing-pressure-dc-public-schools-gets-more-aggressive-about-selling-itself/2014/07/01/b5c4cc12-fada-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html
Also, and I hate to be such a stickler, but DC is aware that these schools are under FBI investigation in 3 midwest states, right?
The Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio just launched yet another whistleblower series on the schools.
I know they’re hugely political connected, but is there some other rational reason politicians can’t open them fast enough, despite the fact that there are huge questions about them? This is nutty. They seem to be impervious to any oversight, these schools.
Common Core is already a cannibalistic environment that is destroying children. Why do we need to create a feeding frenzy of interlopers?
Ummmm… Politicians can’t open them fast enough?….aliens?….Turkish Muslim political backing?……
I don’t know what it is, but investigation after investigation seems to have absolutely no effect. They’ve been raiding these schools since 2002.
It’s crazy. Politicians better hope none of these investigations are ever completed. There’s going to be a lot of questions, like “where the hell WERE you?”
It goes beyond a lack of oversight at this point. It seems to be almost a deliberate looking away. Is news carried on horseback, or something? Is DC somehow cordoned off from Ohio?
“Soner Tarim, superintendent of the Harmony charter network, said he hadn’t realized that Langley was a STEM school.”
I can see this is all very collaborative and grassroots and “community-based” 🙂
McDonalds does a better job on locating franchises. Maybe they could contract out that “function” too.
I don’t have much sympathy for local leaders who complain they have lost complete control of public ed. I agree! But they were in charge, were they not?
That’s what happens when one “relinquishes” ones role to the private sector. Creating a “choice” website and signing checks to contract service providers isn’t “running” a public school system. It’s abandoning one.
any in NYC? after all they get free space just for the asking. And isn’t there some provision that allows international investors who start schools to get green cards for their family members if they create a small number of jobs? Betcha this pipelines going to grow. Trade a public good for a market place and this is what you get folks….
EB- 5 allows any foreign investor who puts up at least $500,000 to get green cards for himself and his family. The Gulen schools in other countries are funded by the Gulen movement itself. Here in the USA, they open as tax payer funded charter schools. They hire Turkish teachers even to teach English. The teachers have to kick back 40% of their paycheck to Gulen. That is why Fetullah Gulen is worth billions. There are 600 Gulen schools around the world. There are about 140 here in the U.S. The schools in Ohio, where there are 14 Gulen schools, are under investigation now. American politicians love to take trips to Turkey on the Gulen dime. They justify their embrace of this movement as a multicultural exchange to promote peace in the world. The goal of Gulen is actually to reestablish the Ottoman Empire and spread Turkish culture and language…..and religion….throughout the world.
I’m surprised, but happy, that Kaya is professing displeasure. I’m stunned she even has the balls to voice a negative opinion.
Michelle Rhee would have no only flipped cartwheels, she’d have emptied out the public school to accommodate Gulan. I, too, cannot understand the expansion of Gulan schools when it is always in the news about being poorly run, with uncertified/unqualified, foreign/alien teachers and poorly appointed classrooms and lots of churn in both teachers and students. Pretty much every article I have read about Gulan is negative. Who is allowing them this cart blanche? Obama, Duncan, Cuomo, and their political ilk, apparently. Bill DiBlasio has no power at all.
Aside from Fethullah Gulen’s connection to CIA officials, the Gulenists have courted many American politicians, public officials, and other highly influential people. When they stop in for an office visit or extend an invitation to Americans for a trip to Turkey, a dinner event or an award ceremony, they typically present themselves as nice men from Turkey — only. At the outset of the contact, it’s typical that the targets are quite unaware of the GM’s existence and have no understanding that the cult-like group is specifically trying to build a relationship with them. As for the GM’s reach, two Gulen-linked men were among President Obama’s top campaign contribution bundlers in 2012. And US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is one of the hundreds of public officials and VIPs who have accepted awards from the Gulen Movement, one from the Chicago-based Niagara Foundation in 2007 and another from the DC-based Rumi Forum in 2010. Who knows which favors were requested later?
Just scroll through the last several months of photos in this twitter feed to get a small sense of the Gulen Movement’s reach which is absolutely massive. Among the contacts they proudly display are with Cory Booker (May 2014), deBlasio (Oct 2013), and Bill Clinton (Aug 2013). CTAA is one of six members of the Turkic American Alliance (the GM’s national umbrella organization here). The CTAA website once displayed a photo of its president Furkan Kosar w/Cuomo at the governor’s birthday party on the USS Intrepid in December 2011.
https://twitter.com/Turkic_Council/media
After Fethullah Gulen left Turkey for the US in 1999, a video surfaced in which he allegedly advised his followers: “You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers.” Gulen’s entire message was counsel for the manner in which his followers should go about to ultimately gain control of Turkey. But is not the traveling-in-the-arteries advice the same stealth approach the GM has used to get what they want here in the US, too?
Here is an article I wrote for an online publication today. I use many of Sharon’s accurate facts and write from a public policy perspective. Gulen is not just a benign major charter operator in it for the profit. He is a world leader in terms of Islam, the Muslim community, and seeks to impose strict adherence to Koran and Sharia law. We have had people in Turkey comment on this site about how dangerous he is, and that his influence worldwide is alarming.
Why, indeed, does the American government allow him to raise money for a Turkish insurrection on the backs of American taxpayers who finance all his schools? Sharon recently gave us a list of his schools including those in the hopper to be opened in many states. She is the best source of information on the Gulen Movement.
Thank you Sharon Higgins. You are terrific.
——————————————————————————-
Fetullah Gulen : Phantom of the Poconos
The Gulen Movement is advertised by its’ leader and his PR advisors as a “transformational and social movement led by Turkish Imam, scholar and preacher, Fetullah Gulem.” This highly secretive movement is often compared to the Catholic secret society, Opus Dei. Their goal is to be the world’s leading Muslim network, and although it advertises that “it is funded by its’ own members” it is actually funded by American tax payers.
In the real light of day, Fetullah Gulen, who is the single largest charter school operator in the U.S., was chased out of Turkey by current Prime Minister Erdogan and his forces in 1999 and was given refuge in the United States, first by Bill Clinton, then by George Bush, and now by Barak Obama. He lives in a large compound with a fortress-like surrounding and many armed guards in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania. From this protected enclave, and with the further protection of our government, he is fomenting revolution in Turkey to turn his homeland from a secular nation into an Islamist state ruled by strict Sharia law. Even though the Turkish regime wants him extradited to stand trial for promoting insurrection and various other scandals, he is safe in America, calling the shots for extremists in Turkey. He sends huge amounts of money to the Middle East and Turkey to promote his cause.
And this prodigious donation to influence Turkish/Sharia politics is all paid for by We the People, the American taxpayers.
Gulen is the largest owner of charter schools in the U.S. He owns over 147 active charter schools with dozens more awaiting approval in many states including California, with tens of thousands of students who are taken out of public schools to attend his Islamic based charters which teach Turkish language as their prime language and their main focus on Turkish history. He used to also teach Sharia law in these gender segregated schools, but when that became a problem he focused on math and science instead, and now teaches Sharia law on weekend outings for his students. His plan is to educate all students to follow him as their religious and political leader of Turkey, and all of them to return to his homeland with him as his supporters.
Most of his teachers, and all of his principals and other organizational leaders are Middle Eastern men who are allowed into the U.S. on green cards to run this multi billion dollar operation. According to the tax research done by Sharon Higgins who is the best reporter on his activities, he nets about $500 million a year, all on the back of the American taxpayer. (google Sharon Higgins website for up to date facts on Gulen and his charter schools.) Each student gets ADA money, average daily attendance, which the school district is mandated to release since the money for education follows the student. Each school has between 300 – 800 students financed by American tax money at about $7,000 per student, which represents a huge fortune over the past 15 years.
It is this money that is paying for fomenting revolution in Turkey where Gulen plans to return soon to become the nation’s leader and make his country a true Sharia ruled state. This means that girls no longer will be going to school, and all will be forced to wear purdah. Boys will be studying mainly Koran as in madrassas world wide. In a addition to American charter schools, Gulen runs about 1,000 other schools world wide. His goal it would appear is to establish a second Ottoman Empire and all under rigid Sharia law.
Erdogan and his government see Gulen as a danger to their secular nation. He is pressing criminal charges against Gulen for a wire tapping scandal, and he feels that this is not only a religious movement, but it is also political and illegal. He accuses the U.S. of sheltering and supporting Gulen, and he wants him extradited to Turkey to face criminal charges. All of this is factual and further information can be found online(read the Washington Post article The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss 3/27/12 quoting Sharon Higgins).
So the questions are why would three consecutive American administrations let Gulen operate under the aegis of American protection? Also, why is there so little media attention paid to this secret group which, like leeches, is bleeding American public schools and filching the money for their own religous/political purposes, from the pockets of American tax payers?
The LA Times published a front page story on Gulen some months ago, but they did not print a single letter to the editor written by the many teachers in Joining Forces for Education, nor other members of the general reading public which asked these questions. When they got complaints and questions as to why they dropped the whole issue, they were totally and completely silent.
Why is the mainstream media avoiding reporting on all this public information?
Is it that they are colluding with our leaders to keep this man in a protected shell while he continues to be a main player in shaping the politics of the Middle East?
———————————————————————————————
Ellen Lubic, Director, Joining Forces for Education
Educational researcher
Public Policy university educator
Here’s the Akron story from 4 days ago. The investigative series is a collaborative effort by a for-profit media outlet and journalism students at a public university and a community college. The students do all the legwork, tracking down docs, making phone calls, etc. I’m grateful to them but I wish they were getting paid for what is a huge public service. Everyone else in “ed reform” seems to be getting paid. Maybe we could take a chunk of lawmaker salaries and give it to these students who are doing the lawmakers jobs:
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/ohio-taxpayers-provide-jobs-to-turkish-immigrants-through-charter-schools-1.501940
Ohio newspaper columnist Thomas Suddes wrote that Ohio legislators are figureheads with no influence. Only the 3 top Republicans, are decision makers. Given the fact that Columbus doesn’t care what residents’ opinions are, I agree with Chiara, give the reps.’ and senators’ salaries to the students.
Since my district’s rep. thought ALEC was a federal agency, he doesn’t even care enough to inform himself about important issues.
Here’s another Ohio story, from June of this year. Blair is a teacher whistleblower:
“Blair’s request comes just two weeks after the Akron Beacon Journal disclosed that the FBI raided 19 Gulen-affiliated charter schools, including three in Ohio. Gulen manages 19 charter schools in Ohio, second only to Texas, with 44, the newspaper reported.”
http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/06/23/are-kasichs-education-officials-covering-up-charter-school-grade-tampering/
I doubt we see a local paper like the Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal publish a story about the future Speaker of the House’s junket to Turkey. They are apparently more interested in shenanigans within the Republican Party. A story about the alleged false use of a politician’s letterhead is more compelling news for the front page.
I simply do not understand why states continue to approve charter situations that are being explored by authorities in other states, or where a track record of corruption has ensued.
SB 793 Charter School Modifications
On Tuesday, the Senate voted not to concur with the House’s version of the bill, which
included a much-debated amendment from last week that exempted charter school
employees’ names from being published along with their salaries, information that would
otherwise be required under the state’s Public Records Law. Both the Senate and House
appointed conferees on Tuesday, a list of which can be found here: Conference Committee
appointed.
For example, look what NC is doing . . .why do we not learn from other states? It is maddening!
Why does “we don’t want to publish salaries using public dollars” not scream red flag to those in charge of the being good stewards of our state resources.
I don’t get it.
Politicians are given money and free trips to Turkey by the Gulen supporters/charter operators. My child used to attend a Harmony school in Texas. The focus of the school was centered on excessive public relations such as courting community and state leaders and politicians. As a result of this misplaced focus, the school was terribly mismanaged. Turkish administrators were seen walking into the school in the morning while chaos prevailed in the parking lot. Children were almost killed due to the lack of traffic control. Parents had to devise and initiate a plan to address this problem. We finally left Harmony after learning about the questionable and illegal activities at our school, even though our child loved this school. I know at least a few parents and teachers that reported our school to various government agencies, especially for the discrimination of special needs students. Harmony likes to boast about having “miracle schools”. Well, anyone can have a so called miracle school if they can select and deselect the student body!
Ohio’s muckraking website, Plunderbund, identified rural Wilmington, Ohio’s state representative, as one of the politicians taking a junket to Turkey. The rep. is slated to be the next Ohio Speaker of the House. There’s poetic justice in the fiscally conservative Bible belt sending tax dollars to Turkey so that Islamic schools can flourish in Ohio.
Utah’s Beehive School of Science and Technology (Gulen) was nearly closed by the state two years ago. And Utah NEVER shuts down charter schools. It got a reprieve at the last minute, and the more I learn about the Gulen schools, the more I wonder who got what money in order to keep it open…
I thought everyone knew this was about competition.
It makes perfect sense to locate Burger king next to McDonalds
So let the burger wars begin!
Would you like fries and a shake(up) with that Common Core?
What’s Henderson complaining about, anyway? She should just be glad they chose to locate the charter OUTSIDE the public school. In some places (NY, for example), the charters are introduced directly into the public schools, like tape worms that then feed directly off their host.
“Or does the city want to continue with a laissez-faire approach that Henderson said could give rise to a “cannibalistic environment” in which “somebody gets eaten”?
She’s wrong about this, too. The public schools will definitely “get eaten” by the charter schools, but the charter schools will be different, too. Those miracle scores are going to go down when the public schools are all gone and they can’t pick and choose students anymore.
It’s a system. It’s not a public school system anymore, but it’s still a system. Anything that changes one piece moves the rest of the pieces.
I’m continually amazed at how reckless this is. They have no earthly idea how this will play out, who benefits, or even if anyone will get a net benefit.
Depends on who “they” are.
Some of them know precisely who will benefit (they and their companies) and that is precisely why they are doing it.
And in that context, the recklessness is not at all surprising. As with the contractors in Iraq, these reformercenaries have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
They know that they will never be held accountable for anything they do so don’t care in the least about collateral damage.
Get in, get your millions and get out, preferably before the whole thing goes to hell.
REPULSIVE!
Good piece from PA school board on charter school regulation. No wonder they want to shut down school boards.
Some are a little outspoken and not showing the proper deference to national “experts” 🙂
http://www.centredaily.com/2014/07/08/4256255/their-view-the-hijacking-of-the.html?sp=/99/145/
Kaya Henderson said that? Wow. Was she struck by lightning? Does she get it now and we’ll see a Diane Ravitch-type conversion? Or is this just yet another ruse?
Dienne: I suspect that Kaya Henderson foresees some difficulties and criticism coming her way. Hence, a pre-emptive self-protective strike.
From the linked article in the WAPO, note this quote from Ms. Henderson:
[start quote]
“The citizens deserve better, with the dollars that they entrust us with, than this random, haphazard stuff,” Henderson said. “I think this mayor, this deputy mayor, myself, we all support charter schools . . . but I don’t think anybody signed up for the kind of uncontrolled expansion of schools, without rhyme or reason.”
[end quote]
Public school staff along with students and parents have had to deal with a lot of “uncontrolled” behavior from those running DCPS that was “random” and “haphazard” and lacked “rhyme or reason.”
Or fairness or equity or transparency.
She appears to be doing nothing more than complaining about the effects of her own preferred policies possibly adversely affecting her and her enablers and allies and bosses.
If anything good comes out of this dispute between self-styled “education reformers,” fine, but I’m not holding my breath.
😎
Kaya, Kaya, Kaya – Have you not read your Ayn Rand, your Freidman, and your Reagonomics ? This is free enterprise unfettered and on the move !
Could it be a cloaked bit of Islamophobia that has fueled this? Not trying to start a religious war…just seems rather odd that Henderson would be concerned about a charter school opening. It’s probably a good guess that her comments are dependent on the philosophies of those who are backing the charters that promote a certain kind of control over the minority masses.
If 99 to 100% of the Principals running these 140 some Gulen charter schools are men from Turkey, this sure sounds like discrimination in hiring with respect to women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, etc. Raising this concern is not Koran burning Islamophobia.
Some of the reporters at news sources that won’t cover the FBI raids at the Gulen charters bash news consumers that bring up the issue by equating concern over how the schools are run with Islamophobia.
I get that. However, do those whispering in Henderson’s ear get that, or are they acting on pure unadulterated racism? I find her motives suspect. Regardless of the real reasons, this charter chain needs to be properly vetted for the right reasons. Still I say, let them fight among themselves until they all go down in flames. Then we can get back to properly funding public schools.
Ed reformer Chait says “teachers unions” have turned against Democrats.
Someone should tell national Democrats a lot of unions are not real happy with Democrats. It’s a valid complaint. Democrats have done nothing for unions in the past 6 years except join with Republicans to promote the idea that the few remaining unions are this existential threat to capitalism, or something. Which is ridiculous. Unions have never had less power, and monied interests have never had more.
I fact, a lot of working people who are not in a union are also unhappy with Democrats!
Maybe more so than union members, because people who are not in a union depend solely on state and federal governments to actually regulate and enforce basic worker protections!
Which state and federal governments ARE NOT doing.
It must be July of an election year. Democrats have rediscovered labor ! The other 9 months of the year labor is unfashionable and something to be ashamed of, I guess.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/teachers-unions-turn-against-democrats.html?hubRefSrc=permalink#lf-content=86961609:185833477
Yesterday’s New York Times covered the nea call for Arne Duncan’s resignation. The piece also included union-Democratic party problems.
Meanwhile this from Politico, more PR and blame those public school supporters for not wanting to let parents make their own choices among schools.
SCHOOL CHOICE CHALLENGES: More urban parents are choosing their child’s school, but they report uneven quality and difficulties finding transportation. That’s according to a new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which culls from a survey of 4,000 parents in eight cities. More than a third of parents had trouble understanding which schools their children were eligible to attend. About a quarter said they struggled with transportation to schools of interest and said it was difficult to find information about schools. Parents of special needs children were significantly more likely to report difficulty learning about schools.
CRPE urges city and state leaders to put a stop to ‘district vs. charter’ debates and make school choice work for everyone. The report: http://bit.ly/1n53t8n
– How can private school choice proponents learn from the charter school sector and scale up to serve more families? A report by Andy Smarick for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice finds valuable lessons in the charter sector’s network structure, its incubation of high-potential schools and its authorizer-based accountability. Both sectors should also consider more collaboration, Smarick writes: “With regard to political advocacy, human capital and much more, highly effective charter and private schools would do well to team up and identify ways to cooperatively create more seats available to students in need.” More: http://bit.ly/VW9LSo
Just “seats” for students in need. And does the Friedman Foundation have a list of “highly effective” charter schools? Does it keep tabs and publicize a list of corrupt charters and those not worthy of operating at all?
Does Andy or anyone else at the Friedman Foundation really think that private schools are eager to open their doors to students in need?
“The Obama administration’s education reforms have been almost completely absent from the national political debate because neither Party has an incentive to talk about them. ”
The Obama Administration policies are identical to that of Jeb Bush. Of course Republicans “don’t want to talk about them”. Why should they? It’s their agenda. Things are going just great if you happen to be an adherent of Milton Friedman.
Also, ed reformers should stop assuming everyone who supports public schools works in one. It’s insulting to voters. Because they live within this narrow frame of “unions versus ed reformers” doesn’t mean I do.
They’ll recall how they sold this: they were supposed to IMPROVE public schools. If they planned on dismantling public schools and privatizing them, perhaps they should have run on that.
Every once in a while, they might want to mention public schools outside of this campaign against “teachers unions”. The idea would be to tell how voters how they have improved PUBLIC schools. That was the stated goal. That’s the measure. Moving the goal posts to discussing exclusively charter schools isn’t what was promised. They wouldn’t have been elected on a 100% charter school platform.
Gulen Charters use the H-1B to bring in Turkish teachers for American children. This includes Turkish teachers of English. Turkey has produced nothing in the sciences, math, or literature for 1000 years. These teachers indoctrinate US kids with strange ideas. Why does the US government give these schools H-1B clearance, when US teachers are looking for work?
There are 140 or so Gulen charters in the US. Just how “Islamic” are they? I have been unable to find out. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org — arlinc@verizon.net)
What would Americans think if they knew that the largest private-sector, for-profit Charter school chain in the United States was owned and controlled by a member of Islam and might be linked to Islamic terrorists?
The next question should be: Why haven’t we heard about this from Republicans?
My guess is that some politically “concerned” elites who sponsor charters are whispering in Henderson’s ears about this. I say, if they want to fight among themselves, let ’em.
Oddly, the school “choice”/”free market” meme seems to trump Islamophobia. This is anecdotal, but I spend some time hanging around Eric Zorn’s blog on the Chicago Tribune site. Several of his regular commenters are rather Islamophobic, but they’ve hardly batted an eye when I’ve pointed out issues surrounding the Gulen schools. Basically their response is usually something to the effect that the market will take care of it. Which is to say, I suppose, that funneling money into fewer and fewer hands trumps ideology. Islamophobia is simply a useful tool for whipping people up when it’s convenient, but as long as these Gulen folks are among the 1%ers, let’s just turn a blind eye for now.
IMO, it would be best to stop imagining about *terrorism* when it comes to this group. One must think beyond that framework and become familiar with basic Turkish history and current events, with what is going on in Central Asia (as in “The Great New Game”), and with the various groups within Islam. The Gulen Movement is a unique paradigm and social dynamic that’s relatively new to the world. Its central interest is in its own slow-but-steady acquisition of mainstream POWER, with progress so imperceptible it goes unnoticed by others. Keeping things secret is very important.
As Dr. Joshua Hendrick of Loyola U MD explained: “… the most powerful and important organizational strata of the Gulen Movement is the unaware consumer: the student at the school who has no idea that this is connected to any religious community; the consumer of products of a book or a financial product; or a piece of news because it’s in English – and there’s only two options if you are reading about Turkey – and you have no idea what the Gulen Movement is. And that is the biggest and most important, in my opinion, for the continual adaptability and mobilization of this organization.”
http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-gulen-movement-non-transparent.html
The Gulenists, like other Turkish Islamists, hold the 624 yr. old, WW1-losing Ottoman Empire in the highest esteem. They despise many of the reforms introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and would like some of them reversed. They envision a new world power, a modern Islamic one with a religiously conservative Turkey at the lead, which also includes the resource-rich Turkic republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans (no Arabs needed). Fethullah Gulen’s teachings provide the inspiration and guide the way toward this geopolitical goal. In this new world, Turkish will be a very widely spoken language and that is why the GM offers Turkish language and cultural instruction at its schools around the world. It is also why they teach students to perform “Yeni Bir Dunya” (A New World), a song based on one of Gulen’s poems (“Akyol”). Watch the Harmony-connected students performing it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maNAl4xKerg
Any non-Gulenist involved with the performance or sitting in the audience wouldn’t grasp the deeper meaning of the perfect world that is being described. From the Gulenists’ flagship newspaper:
http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail.action;jsessionid=l0Iz1H2bkOv6iETWrR8kRzIJ?newsId=212334&columnistId=67
Absolutely. Wake up, America! There are 600 Gulen schools world wide. Only in the U.S. are they public charter schools funded by you and me, the taxpayers. Fetullah lives on a 28 acre compound in the Poconos guarded by 100 Turkish guards and a surveillance helicopter. He does not grant interviews. He is worth billions. He is a very influential imam world wide. He does not need to be in Turkey physically to effect action there. He is all about quietly training many young people to love Turkey, to know Turkish and to re-establish the Ottoman Empire. The Gulen Movement receives 40% of each Turkish teacher’s paycheck as a kickback. Considering the number of schools and teachers, this is a hefty sum and an ongoing stream of income. There are 140 Gulen schools here in the U.S. The “movement” is going unnoticed for what it really is. Just like Obama is going unnoticed for what he really is.
How many different political groups are there in the world that want to bring back empires from previous centuries—before the spread of democracy?
I am startled to still read comments about Islampphobia, and also asking where to get information on Gulen when we have the most informed commentator right here giving facts. Sharon Higgins is the foremost investigator of the Gulen Movement. And Dawn Hoagland has added to the factual mix. Gulen has over 1000 schools worldwide it is reported, and there is so much information online about him starting with Wikipedia, a source I rarely recommend, but which seems quite accurate. If you go to Sharon’s sites and her
u-tube interviews you can learn factual information instead of dancing in the dark. Read her column on the Ravitch site in March of this year for exact figures on where and how many Gulen charters are located in the U.S.
Your questions could be answered with two or three hours of reading and listening.
The crux of this Gulen story is still why is he, a foreign national with with extradition charges from his native country, allowed to open and run charter schools in the U.S. funded by American tax payers? Why can he use this funding to foment insurrection in Turkey? Could the Mafia open charter schools with impunity? Why is so little reported on all this by the media?
Well, at least the edu-wars provide some occasional mordant amusement, such as seeing vampires like Henderson complain that the cannibals at Gulen don’t play fair.
Hmm: who do you place your bets on, the vampires or the cannibals?
I’m thinking the vampires have more political connections with all the rich and powerful who “suggest” what should be in charter legislation.
Please look at the articles in the Akron Beacon Journal on the Gulen/Turkish schools. (Ohio.com). Excellent articles!! They have used millions of Ohio dollars and have “imported” hundreds of teachers who are not qualified to teach. Our tax money becomes Turkey’s income………http://www.ohio.com/cmlink/1.501940?print=1
I’m so glad more and more people are paying attention to the Gulen Movement and its charter schools! Taking advantage of the readership here, these are my last points:
1) Thanks to our charter school laws, the US is the only country in the world with a system that has allowed the GM to open schools that are fully funded by the host country’s taxpayers.
2) The GM now operates more schools in the US than in any other country besides Turkey. It opened its first school in Turkey in 1982; its first school outside of Turkey in Azerbaijan in 1992; and its first charter school in Ohio in 1999.
3) Historically the GM’s schools, tutoring centers, and dormitories are where relationships are built with susceptible students and where the recruitment process begins. It’s a soft, big-brother type of technique.
4) The GM knows the value of schools when it comes to influencing young people’s minds. The influence can be magnified during extracurricular programs and trips when the *Turkish* teachers have sustained, closer contact with a small subset of students.
5) The GM is a conservative religious group, but it does not engage in overt proselytism and is not trying to convert all of its charter school students to Islam. However, they do want to accumulate an ever-growing body of sympathizers so the charter school money keeps flowing their way.
6) Charter school students are used to help the GM make connections with public officials and other influential people. This is typically documented with photos posted to impress unsuspecting viewers and is very evident if you examine school websites, twitter feeds, etc.
7) The GM has been steadily increasing its ranks in the US by using its charter schools PLUS related companies (their service providers like Apple Educational Services in NJ, or the Accord Institute for Education Research in CA) to import staff members.
8) The charter schools are a way for the GM to spread its taxpayer-supplied wealth to others within its network (school purchases, construction projects, etc.). A small in-group of Turkish/Turkic men is always in charge of the finances.
9) As long as the GM mostly stays under Americans’ radar and controls the message about itself as a group that only wants dialogue, tolerance, and peace in the world, no independent, informed, balanced discussion can take place. The GM likes it this way.
10) It has been of great benefit to the GM that so many Americans — although quite ignorant about them specifically — still have a strong sense of either political correctness or Islamophobia. That way, discussions start with a standoff to lead nowhere.
11) The GM is absolutely unparalleled when comes to marketing and spinning the truth; be extremely wary of information sources and propaganda.
12) Many of the GM’s schools in other countries are private, mostly enrolling children of the elite. Since those students will be in power in the future, the theory is that they will remain loyal to their “Turkish friends.” The GM has very much expanded its presence in Africa in recent years and are selling themselves as the *good* foreign group that cares — unlike the evil ones of the past. It’ll be interesting to see what happens there.
13) The Gulen Movement has goals of its own that are far beyond what Americans could possibly imagine and they are religiously driven to achieve them.
Thanks Sharon Higgins for the excellent research on the Gulen movement and its charter schools. I and a few other former Harmony parents found your website extremely valuable, especially after becoming suspicious of a hidden agenda at our Harmony school.
I believe Henderson had to say something, charters encroaching on public schools “territory” is more than common here in the District. This one is so glaring she had to say something. One thing that boggles my mind is that currently Kaya Henderson is trying to merge Malcolm X elementary (DCPS school) with Achievement Prep a charter school and create “a new monster” as she said. I think this current outrage is damage control before the “new monster” is unleashed.
I’m a little confused here. Some of you folks are saying that these schools teach only Turkish history, they’re gender segregated (which wouldn’t be a bad thing considering that there’s a lot of American research showing that both boys and girls do better socially and academically when given more space for themselves), teach Islam like a madrassa and pay money to a Turkish guy in Pennsylvania? What koolaid are you drinking? You’re nuts. You can’t be taken seriously when you spout off blatant inaccuracies, just fiction. However, you find meaning in spending so much time on this and everyone deserves to have a sense of purpose. So, carry on and keep calm. 🙂