With the growth of Gulen schools worldwide. We had requests from around the world to start a second blog on the Gulen Turkish Schools worldwide. From Mexico to Iraq, and Africa to Afghanistan we will post the news stories and as usual amuse you at the same time. To contrast and compare we invite you to http://www.gulencharterschoolsUSA.blogspot.com http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com http://www.charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com
Gulen Schools Worldwide
Restore the Ottoman Caliphate. Disclaimer: if some videos are down this is the result of Gulen censorship which filed a fake copyright infringement to UTUBE.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/secular-turkish-cypriot-teachers-aghast-plans-islamic-school/20110630 SECULARIST Turkish Cypriot teachers’ unions and educationalists expressed anger yesterday after a mainland Turkish religious association announced plans to open an Islamic school or madrassa in the north. “They have judged our beliefs and come to the conclusion that we are not Muslim enough,” Turkish Cypriot teachers’ union (KTOS) boss Sener Elicil yesterday of the Theology and Islamic Institute Graduates’ Association’s (TIYEMDER) plans to open the religious high school on the island. He added that Turkish Cypriots were “quite happy with their beliefs”. TIYEMDER’s plans became public earlier this week after its head Selahattin Yazici published on the association’s website a report he had sent to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling for a religious school to be opened in the north. In the report he criticised the north’s administration for not making Islamic instruction a compulsory part of the school curriculum and bemoaned the fact that if children in the north want courses in Islam their parents have to ask for it in writing. “For 35 years Cyprus has been neglected,” Yazici wrote, adding that his association had already begun fighting this neglect by handing out Korans to families in the north as part of a campaign to have a copy of the holy book in every household. “In Cyprus the word religion is forbidden, and this is what we have to struggle against” Yazici complained in his report to Erdogan. Turkish Cypriots are indeed renowned for their staunch secularism. The report also hit out at the Greek Cypriots, saying that educational authorities in the south were “slyly” offering free education to Turkish Cypriots in order to make them “enemies of Islam”. As a way of opposing this, the association had hosted hundreds of youngsters from the north on religion courses held in Istanbul. Turkish Cypriot secondary school teachers’ union (KTOEOS) Tahir Gokcebel head said yesterday he disagreed there was demand for such a school in the north, and expressed that the reasoning behind the establishment of one was part of a wider political and economic objective that involved spreading the influence of Fetullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic preacher known to be close to the Turkish PM. Gulen, who resides in the US, is also believed to be connected to an educational conglomerate that has, amid much controversy, taken over the running of a major educational establishment in Famagusta. “Gulen’s green capital model is clearly being imposed on north Cyprus, and this is unacceptable,” the union boss said yesterday, adding that the Turkish government was sending Imams to the north in order to spread the idea that religious schools were a necessity. “Their aim is to raise people who believe in political Islam,” Gokcebel said, adding he belief that there existed a need to protect the “religiously tolerant” identity of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Wall Street Journal article explores the sagging educational system in Germany and mentions their large Turkish population. Also note the country ranking included with the article how Turkey is ranked at the bottom in percentage of higher education graduates.
Can someone explain how the Gulen Movement has conned local school districts in the USA that Turkey has some sort of superior education? BALONEY!!!
Germany, the birthplace of kindergarten and the modern university, has long been admired for its commitment to education and for good reason: For generations its specialized schools produced more than their share of Nobel Prize winners, as well as the highest skilled tradesmen—high-octane fuel for Europe's economic powerhouse.
Today, however, Germany is coming to grips with a much different report card—that of an academic underachiever. Almost one-fifth of Germany's 15-year-olds can't read proficiently, and just 29.8% of young adults have a higher-education degree, below the European Union average of 33.6%. Many students who attend the country's lower-tier high schools don't leave with the skills they need to get additional training in a trade, according to the government's 2010 education report.
For a country whose primary asset is brain power, Germany can hardly afford to lag behind in education. Fearing that large swaths of the future work force may soon be too uneducated to maintain Germany's export-driven economy, much less support its fast-aging population, policy makers have wrestled with a range of reforms in recent years despite deep support within society for the current educational system.
"Being just OK is not good enough for a country with high living standards, wages and technology," says Jörg Dräger, board member responsible for education programs at the Bertelsmann Foundation, a German think tank.
Many policy makers believe Germany's early-selection school system—one of the few in Europe that splits children up at around age 10—is at the heart of the problem. After four years of primary school in most German regions, the smartest go on to Gymnasien, top-level high schools for university-bound students, while average students are directed to Realschulen, a path usually to white-collar or technical trades. Those with the lowest grades go to Hauptschulen, schools traditionally meant to prepare students for mid-to lower-level vocational training but that over time have become reservoirs for immigrant children and others who have fallen through the cracks.
More than in most other developed countries, however, the biggest determinant of a German child's educational track appears to be his or her family's socioeconomic status. Even with similar grades, children with college-educated parents are at least three times more likely to go on to Gymnasien than those from working-class families, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That's of particular concern as Germany's poorly assimilated immigrant population swells—some 20% of Germany's school children come from Turkish or other immigrant families. While the rest of the system scores average or better in many education standards, "the 20% or so that gets lost is a catastrophe," says Mr. Dräger.
Nevertheless, the three-track system continues to have deep support within society, partly because of Germany's past education and economic success. Most prized—and staunchly defended—are Germany's academically rigorous Gymnasien.
"The idea is that homogenous learning groups are better at helping children perform," says Katharina Spiess, education and family research director at the German Institute for Economic Research, of the early-selection system.
But Germany received a rude shock nearly a decade ago, when its teens unexpectedly scored in the bottom third of a widely watched OECD study, well behind many European peers.
German states, which control the education system, have made modest changes, and academic improvement, since then. In some regions, Hauptschulen arebeing combined with Realschulen, and in most cases, students at the combined secondary schools still have the option of pursuing a course toward a diploma that would allow them to attend a university.
But the collapse of a plan to reform schools in the port city-state of Hamburg last year underscores the difficulty of pushing through bolder reform. There, the city's conservative-Green ruling coalition pitched a plan to extend primary school by two years, waiting until after the sixth grade to divide children into different schools. The idea was to give children more time to determine the best education path, and let poorer and slower learners benefit from mixing longer with faster ones.
The result was a fierce backlash, especially among university-educated parents who feared their children's education would suffer by shortening the Gymnasium phase of it. Voters decisively rejected the plan in a referendum last July, leading to the resignation of Hamburg's mayor.
The defeat has discouraged political leaders in other German states from broaching more radical school reform. North-Rhine Westphalia sought to sidestep a similar battle by allowing individual municipalities to decide whether to form schools that kept children together until up to the 10th grade as part of a pilot project.
That didn't stop protests among some parents and teachers. In April, a judge blocked one of the first moves to form a so-called community school, putting the effort in legal limbo.
Still, many Germans argue its education system needs to become less rigid to adapt to an ever more global economy and give its people more opportunities to broaden their skills.
Sabine Lochner-Zerbe, a 51-year-old mother of two in Berlin, learned firsthand the difficulties of changing education course when as a youth she was sent to Realschule.
"I had the grades, but my father didn't think it was so necessary for girls to go to Gymnasium," she says. After training to become a florist, she realized she wanted to go to college. To do so, however, she had to go back for three years of high school to get the necessary diploma. At age 25, she began her university studies, eventually receiving a physics degree in Scotland.
But her tenacious efforts to pursue a higher degree haven't always been looked upon favorably. "People just view it as indecision," she says.
In Berlin, children already wait until after the sixth grade to take a specific school path. Ms. Lochner-Zerbe's 10-year-old daughter will learn next year whether her primary school recommends her for Gymnasium—"a lot of stress," she adds. "But I think it's better that they have more time than I did."
Ms. Fuhrmans is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Berlin. She can be reached at vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com.
Students in Austria may soon be able to graduate in Turkish.
The federal education ministry of Social Democrat (SPÖ) Claudia Schmied announced today (Tues) the language may become the 14th foreign language learners in the country can pick at their final exams. Turkish has been taught as an optional subject in many secondary modern schools which have focused on languages for some time, but can currently not be chosen as a final exam subject.
The education ministry’s announcement comes on the back of news that Graz University plans to introduce Turkish as a subject for teachers-to-be. Other universities are expected to follow the example, while the ministry stressed it saw no deadline or timeframe for improving the status of Turkish among school subjects by allowing students to opt for it at the so-called Matura exams.
The Greens called the developments "reasonable and overdue", while the Freedom Party (FPÖ) warned that such a reform would "create parallel societies" among people living in Austria. The right-wing party – which looks back on a series of strong election performances – has been campaigning against "immigrants who are unwilling to integrate" for years.
FPÖ boss Heinz-Christian Strache recently made headlines by travelling to Israel. Political analysts see tendencies of the FPÖ and other right-wing parties across Europe to win the support of members of Jewish communities – and attack allegedly radical Muslims at the same time.
The Austrian Greens claimed raising the importance of Turkish in Austrian schools by making the language a possible Matura exam subject would give young immigrants the chance to act as "bridge-builders" between Austria and Turkey. The opposition party argued it was about time that Turkish follows the native languages of other main groups of immigrants like Serbian and Bosnian. According to education experts English, French and Spanish are nevertheless expected to remain the most popular foreign languages for final exams.
The issue is set to become another aspect in an ongoing argument among political leaders in Austria about whom to blame for the rise of the FPÖ after its near demise in 2005. The two government coalition parties – the SPÖ and the People’s Party – have been criticised by its supporters for failing to make their points of view on immigration issues clear while the FPÖ succeeded in linking foreigners with soaring crime figures.
Around 10 per cent of the Austrian populace are foreigners. Germans are the largest group with around 213,000 members ahead of people from Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro (207,000) and Turks (183,000).
Especially Vienna has developed into a melting pot of ethnic groups, according to some commentators and sociologists. Around 44 per cent of all people living in the capital have a migration background, meaning that they were born abroad or in Austria but to migrating families. While the Viennese FPÖ’s controversial policies helped the party to increase its share in the city election last October by nearly 11 per cent to 26 per cent, Vienna’s SPÖ-Greens coalition has launched various initiatives to improve the understanding between Austrians and members of different ethnic minorities.
READ ABOUT HOW THE OTTOMANS WERE STOPPED AT THE GATES OF VIENNA
Only 1 percent of Turkish students were found to be at the required level for their age group in science and literature
Gulen Movement needs to clean up their schools in Turkey before they profess to know what is best for the children of the world. But then...it's never been about education has it?
Turkish education system lacks in many aspects, report says
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Children are not only suffering from the current exam system, but also from an inefficient learning process, as nearly half of students under 15 years old are unable to solve basic math problems, according to an annual education report.
Entitled “Monitoring education system report 2010,” the report released Tuesday said that despite some new policies implemented by the Ministry of Education, imbalanced conditions remain in every aspect of the system and the university exams, language of the education, as well training programs for teachers.
The exams are the most obvious problem, but there are deeper issues in the education system disabling students from reaching information and their potential, said Batuhan Aydagül, a coordinator at the Education Reform Enterprise, or ERG, that prepared the report.
“According to International OECD Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, Turkey is ranked 32nd in scientific literacy among 34 countries,” said the report.
Only 1 percent of Turkish students were found to be at the required level for their age group in science and literature, the PISA report said, adding that 30 percent of the students are unable to use their skills to answer basic questions in these subjects.
Calling on the authorities to escape temporary solutions on the issue, the report emphasized that one of the problems of the Turkish education system is to find sufficient teachers. Teachers need to be provided with more extensive and improved training and need to be supported regularly in order to reach the most efficient results, the report said.
Experts, while targeting policies of the Ministry of Education, said that despite spending billions of Turkish Liras on education technologies, new policies did not help to improve the main philosophy to develop the structure. “Between 1.5 million and 3 million liras were spent on the project called ‘The Increasing Opportunities and Improvement of Technology Movement,’ or Fatih, however as they settled the technology without researching how these projects could merge with the current education programs,” said Aytuğ Şaşmaz one of the project specialist, during the conference.
Professor Üstün Ergüder, the director of the ERG said education in mother tongue should be allowed as their report indicated some students quit secondary school education due to the language problem.
“Many students cannot be trained in Turkish as they speak Kurdish at home causing these people to quit their education,” said Ergüder.
According to Aydagül, the school administrations should be decentralized to help problems be solved in the easiest way. “Ankara is trying to solve a heating problem in one of the schools dwelling the Eastern province of Elazığ, which is absurd,” said Aydagül.
Professor Ergüder said the central administration straitjackets school administrations by not giving freedom to the school managers or teachers to develop solutions against the problems that they face with.
Urging the Ministry of Education to be transparent on the developments, Ergüder said these reports will improve the structure of the education system.
In 2008, the Dutch current-affairs TV program "NOVA" did a segment on the Gülen movement’s activities in the Netherlands. The program was entitled “Parliamentary majority demands investigation into Turkish movement” (“Kamermeerderheid eist onderzoek naar Turkse beweging”). This occurred during a time when the Gulen Movement's activities in the Netherlands were being questioned and investigated by the government. Public funding for Gulen schools was reduced subsequent to this. Some material relating to this program is available on the NOVA website. One page is of particular interest, as it contains statements made by 3 ex-members of the Gulen Movement. These statements are in Dutch, but an English translation is provided here (below).
Statements from former members Statement 1
July 4, 2008
As a student I have for 8 years been present among the Nurcus in the Netherlands.
As a matter of fact, the Nurcus are divided in several different groups, the sect in which I was a member is the movement of Fethullah Gulen,who is currently living in the United States.This large organization has, as is well known, formed the media group Zaman; one of the largest TV channels in Turkey.Also one of the largest political groups in Turkey.Furthermore, they have a newspaper distributed also in the Netherlands with a circulation of one million. And many boarding schools such as Het Centrum ("The Center") in Rotterdam.These are matters which are all public information. However, this is the only thing that is publicly known.
The core of the organization is secret and it has many aspects including;
(1)teaching groups, in almost every country in the world including of course the Netherlands,
this well-camouflaged group is very active at 3 levels:
(i) elementary school children who are accompanied by secondary school students
(ii) secondary school children who are accompanied by and indoctrinated by university students.
(iii) student groups with student organizations among which the most well-known is Cosmicus.
All universities and HBOS (secondary schools) in the Netherlands have students who in turn recruit new members if they do not come from boarding schools throughout the Netherlands where secondary students live.In and of itself, the homework assistance from fellow students is very good;
However, this group is organized as a sect with a groupthink outside of which these students cannot think, one of the important characteristics of a sect.
Also the parents of the elementary students as well as the parents of secondary schools give an annual gift to the organization. This money-collection is called “hizmet Toplantısı” (“service meetings”). Parents and students are stigmatized if they do not make a reasonable contribution, one of the characteristics of a sect.These monies are not registered and are in the greatest part sent to countries where this enormous organization is also active, for example Turkmenistan or Nigeria, or Indonesia, or the Balkans, etc.
The conditions of middle school children which are fully indoctrinated with so-called Islamic ideals are very poor, on the other hand, the parents are glad that they are not burdened with their adolescent children, everyone is happy except the poor students; they sleep together with several boys; there is no question of any privacy. After years living in the boarding school it is psychologically impossible to pull yourself away; you get guilt feelings. Furthermore, it forces the students to live, think and do as the Big brothers instruct them to.Furthermore, through psychological pressure, these students are told which choice of career is the best they can make for the sake of high ideals.
Another very bad aspect is that students no longer respect their parents and they do not listen if the parents do not live by the standards imposed by the group; they are psychologically distanced from their parents; here you have your little soldiers that march only to the orders of their Abis. The Abis are obliged to obey the provincial leaders, who in turn must obey the national leaders, who in turn obey Fethullah Gulen.
(2) a commercial group, which rents houses and boarding schools that parents pay for. Furthermore, everything is purchased by merchants for the boarding schools.Moreover, parents are also indirectly pressured to do all their shopping with their affiliated commercial group.
(3) The political branch of this mafia-like organization; the Turkish Government. Also, the military have a lot of senior people in their midst.These people occupy positions in all levels of society.
The same structure is almost ready in the Netherlands.Many of their members are active in Dutch politics; at present mainly local governments; federal control through parliament members will follow.Their political network in all political parties is quite large, but at present still local. Islam and dialogue, I find this the worst part; another mafia structure that is abusing my inviolable faith for their very important goals, namely:(1) political power around the world; they are getting there fast, and (2) financial power; they are already the richest group in Turkey, this group excludes others from participating in the Netherlands;
Everything is done through the indoctrination of the students who form a separate group, also they will always disavow anything that contradicts what Islam wants; openness, fairness to all, whether or not religious let alone whether or not Muslim; there should be no distinction. Also, the family is a major cornerstone of society, in which you should not take away the responsibility of the parents, they do this also.
Furthermore, starting with puberty, children have an extra need for privacy, which they deny; They create good obedient young soldiers for their purposes, those few students who wake up are regarded as apostate and monitored so that they do not disclose their secrets. therefore it is [sic].
Statement 2
I have known this movement in the Netherlands since beginning of 1990’s.In Turkey, I was for 7 years active as a pupil.They have been organized in five branches.
1: Education for example: boarding schools in various cities in the Netherlands such as: Rotterdam, Amsterdam Dortrecht and Nijmegen.They are known as the Akyazili boarding School and The Center in Rotterdam and students of associations Cosmicus, White Tulip and Lucerna.
2: Islam and dialogue. By misusing Islam they come in contact with various Christian and humanist organizations. As an example, they recently set up a Dialogue Academy through which they make contacts.And through these organizations they launch what appears to be a whole modern and integrated mosims [sic, probably should read “Muslims”]. Although within the group the members are indoctrinated in anti-integration and are subjected to awful negative views of the Dutch way of life and distrust of Dutch society.
3: Political network. They are represented by various parties. The second agenda is one of good thoughts. This real network abuses Dutch goodwill and uses it to suit its purpose. 4: Commercial network.They are very well organized in all countries of the world.A good example is the way they arrange trips to Turkey for Dutchmen so that they can then brainwash them.They even have various entrepreneurs' (businessmen's) networks in the Netherlands.The best known are Hogiaf and Anifer. Recently they too have organized travels.
5: Media. The best known are Samanyolu TV international, Feza TV and the newspaper Zaman. Zaman is published monthly, weekly and daily.The weekly reaches 10 thousand families in the Netherlands; this in the Netherlands.This is especially propagated by Milli Gorus in the Netherlands.Many of these papers are distribuuted free everywhere.Many Dutchmen are honored to be mentioned in this newspaper.
Statement 3
I declare that I have been a member of the Nurcu community for 5 years.During this membership, I held different positions within the community.And I declare the following:
I declare that:
The Nurcu community is not an officially registered community but that it is known as the Nurcu's by the Turkish community.
This community has Islamic ideals although the existence of such an Islamic group was always denied by the members.
This strategy of denial is arranged so to appear that they are not part of the Islamic community if ever any negative aspects appear in the news.Another reason for this denial is to make sure that they cannot be identified.
The leader of this community is Turkish born, and lives now in the United States and his name is Fethullah Gulen.
This community is active world-wide.The headquarters and 'birthplace' of this movement is in Turkey.
In Europe they are active in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands this community has tens of foundations, such as SEMA in Nijmegen, the Center and Akyazili in Rotterdam.Lucerna in Tilburg and Foundation White Tulip in Almere. Time Media Group, which publishes the newspaper Zaman, the TV station STV, Cihan Haber Ajansi, the periodical Aksiyon.They are all the media organ of this community. Foundation Cosmicus and Dialogue Academy are two other organizations that have official ties to this community.
Nurcu's, also named Hizmet by the members, is especially active in education and the media.
In the Netherlands they have at least one school established in Rotterdam under the name Cosmicus Class.
The main purpose of this community is to convert non-Muslims to Islam and so increase Islamic power.
The community has a complicated organizational structure.There is one person who has the final responsibility for the activities in the Netherlands. This person reports toFathullah Gulen.
From my experience the quality of the education that this community offers is bad. The education does not promote integration.
The members of the community are under social and psychological pressure. There are life rules that each member must follow.The imam of the region in which you live decides with whom you get married. Those life regulations include the reading of particular books, observation of Islamic rules, not going outside frequently, and always listening to your superior, obeying your superior and yet much more.These rules are imposed so that they can have control over the members.
This community collects in various manners hundreds ofthousands to millions of Euros in the Netherlands alone.Nothing is reported to the tax collector.
(1) The original Dutch text contains some irregularities, likely reflecting the fact that it was written by non-native speakers. For this reason, the English translation above may appear somewhat awkward in places.
(2) The term “Abi” is a Turkish word (colloquial form of ağabey, which means “big brother”) that when used within the Gülen movement refers to junior members of the movement, sometimes tutors, who are supposed to lead a group of students, befriend them, and work towards converting them.
(4) "Nurcu" is a term referring to followers of Said Nursi, and is sometimes used for the Gulen Movement. Gulen's followers are sometimes called the "Nurcular." Technically speaking, not all followers of Said Nursi are necessarily followers of Gulen, but the Gulenists are clearly dominant in this group today.
Turkish Businessmen builds largest mosque in Southern Hemisphere and donates it to Gulen Trust.
Turkish businessman builds largest mosque-complex of southern hemisphere in Midrand, South Africa and donates it to a Gülen Trust • Eighthundred boys will receive islamic education here • 'separating the sexes leads to better academic performance' • 'Boys and girls mixing and communicating for any reason other than in classroom for academic purpose' forbidden • 'Indecent behaviours including dancing & operating of musical equipment' forbidden
From the Fethullah Gulen Network, a critical Perspective
The American Islamic College is expected to gain operating authority from a state education body early next month, a move likely to ignite controversy because of the college’s ties to a murky and far-reaching international movement led by Turkish religious leader Fetullah Gulen.
Supporters see the opening of the college as an important step for Islamic instruction in the United States, where scores of Gulen-backed charter schools have gained a reputation for academic achievement and a commitment to spreading Turkish language and culture.
Yet the Gulen schools have sparked widespread concern about possible manipulation of immigration laws and misuse of taxpayer dollars. Gulen himself is shrouded in mystery, too. An extremely wealthy and well-connected Turkish spiritual and political leader, he lives in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania while his followers in Turkey have ignited controversy with their efforts to increase the role of Islam in public life.
The Chicago college, founded in 1981 in the Lakeview neighborhood but dormant since 2004, would become the second Islamic educational institution in the country to offer college-level credit. For area Muslims, it would be a rejoinder to those who depict followers of Islam as uncivilized and prone to extremism.
“It looks like a resurrection of the college, which is great,” said Zaher Sahloul, head of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. “It’s very important to have an institution of higher learning run by the Muslim community. It fills a need in the Chicago area and the Midwest.”
But top officials at American Islamic College have been linked to Mr. Gulen’s movement, which has been accused of fundamentalist teachings in some countries and of covertly building a more Islamic society in Turkey. In a cable obtained by Wikileaks, America’s former ambassador to Turkey characterized the Gulen movement as a potentially destabilizing influence in Turkey that some more secular Turks see as trying an effort to bring about a fundamentalist Islamic state.
Called Hizmet, a Turkish word meaning “service,” the Gulen movement promotes public service and education and runs think tanks, universities, media outlets and one of Turkey’s largest banks. The organization seeks to spread Gulen’s influence internationally through a network of 1,000 schools in 130 countries.
Hizmet operates more than 120 publicly funded charter schools in the U.S.
Yet administrators of these schools often deny any official connection to the movement, which has no formal organization or official membership.
“It’s safe to assume that A.I.C. will be influenced by the Gulen movement,” mainly through the selection of AIC’s instructors and administrative staff, said Hakan Yavuz, a political science professor at the University of Utah and co-editor of a 2003 book on the organization.
SAYLORSBURG, Pa. -- Fetullah Gülen has been called the world's top public intellectual and the face of moderate Islam. He has held court with Pope John Paul II and received praise from former President Bill Clinton.
"You're contributing to the promotion of the ideals of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fetullah Gülen and his transnational social movement," Clinton told audience members during a video address at the World Rumi Forum in 2010.
Yet others have branded Gülen a wolf in sheep's clothing and a modern day Ayatollah Khomeini. CBN News recently took a closer look at the the life of the reclusive imam who directs a global Islamic movement from the Pennsylvania mountains.
Master Teacher or Deceiver?
Gülen's story takes him from a small town in Turkey to founder of a multi-billion dollar Islamic movement bearing his name.
Despite a grade school-level education, the Turkish imam leads a worldwide following of some 5 million devotees. They refer to him as "Hoca Efendi," or master teacher.
"What is the endgame of this movement, which constitutes a multi-billion dollar budget, which constitutes thousands of high schools all around the world, to universities, NGOs, markets, banks?" Turkish journalist Tulin Daloglu asked, voicing a question many have raised.
Gülen claims to represent a moderate brand of Islam compatible with the modern world. He emphasizes interfaith dialogue and the pursuit of science.
Yet one expert told CBN News there's much more to the story.
"It's not just a religious movement; it's the Fetullah Gülen movement. They call themselves that. So it is, you can say, a cult. It is a highly personalized movement," Ariel Cohen, a Middle East analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said. Cohen has been tracking the Gülen movement closely.
"This is clearly the world according to the Koran, the world according to Islam, the world according to Fetullah Gülen," he told CBN News. "But what he's talking about is not the caliphate, is not the sharia state--he calls it the New World Islamic Order."
Far from Mainstream?
Cohen said some in the U.S. government and academia support reaching out to Gülen's followers as a way to counter al Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
"The idea being, just like people who say that we should have a good relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, that these are 'mainstream Islamists,'" he explained.
But according to leading French-Turkish scholar Bayram Balci, Gülen's ideas are anything but "mainstream" for a Western society.
Balci writes that the movement "serve(s) to accomplish three intellectual goals: the Islamization of the Turkish nationalist ideology; the Turkification of Islam; and the Islamization of modernity."
"And therefore, (Gülen) wishes to revive the link between the state, religion, and society," he writes.
Critics claim Gülen wants Islam to play a more active role in societies, breaking down barries between mosque and state while also promoting Turkish nationalism and identity.
Country Club for Islam
The Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center, the worldwide headquarters of the Gülen movement, is located not in Ankara or Istanbul, but on 25 scenic acres of the Pocono Mountains in rural Pennsylvania.
CBN News toured the compound with a staffer but were not permitted to film or to meet Gülen. The 70-year-old leader is in poor health and rarely gives interviews.
Gülen came to America in 1998, reportedly to seek medical treatment. Since then, he's directed his global empire from Pennsylvania. A federal judge granted him a green card in 2008.
Shortly after he left for America, a series of secretly recorded sermons featuring Gülen aired on Turkish television. In one of them, he told his followers:
"You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers...You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it..."
"You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey … Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all in confidence. Know that when you leave here -- as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here."
After the tapes aired, Turkish authorities indicted Gülen on charges that he was plotting to overthrow the secular government of Turkey. The charges were eventually dropped.
Targeting America's Youth
Meanwhile, the Gülen movement continues to expand its influence through the construction of schools worldwide, including in America.
Currently, there are about 125 Gülen schools spread out over 25 states. One school in Philadelphia receives some $3 million annually in taxpayer money.
"They work through the education system. Their main tool is educating kids," Cohen told CBN News.
Gülen charter schools have nondescript names, like "Truebright Science Academy," and focus heavily on math and science.
Many of the teachers hail from Turkey. Federal authorities are reportedly investigating whether some employees kick back a portion of their salaries to the Gülen movement.
Classified documents released by WikiLeaks show that U.S. officials have concerns about the Gülen schools.
"We have multiple reliable reports that the Gülenists use their school network (including dozens of schools in the U.S.) to cherry pick students they think are susceptible to being molded as proselytizers," U.S. Embassy officials in Ankara said in a 2005 report.
"And we have steadily heard reports about how the schools indoctrinate boarding students," they said.
Meanwhile, in its birthplace of Turkey, the movement continues to grow. Gülen followers are said to make up at least 70 percent of Turkey's federal police force, ostensibly devoted to their master teacher half a world away in the Pocono Mountains.
He's Even In Germany -- and So Was Hitler
The following article appeared in a major German newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel, on May 28, 2009: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/Fethullah-Guelen-Guelen-Bewegung-Muslime;art122,2808616
Modern Muslims With Math on the Way to Allah by Claudia Keller and Thomas Seiber
For 30 years the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen has taught that Muslims should accept modernity, educate themselves, and at the same time remain pious. In the meantime the Gülen movement is behind 150 tutoring institutes and 12 schools
Potsdam - Potsdam - It is not often that so many men and women with Turkish names are present in the lecture hall of the University of Potsdam . But that will change, if things go the way of Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen.
The 68-year-old has taught for 30 years that Muslims should accept modern ways, educate themselves, and at the same time remain pious. His followers operate thousands of tutoring institutes, schools and universities worldwide. In Germany as well, Fethullah Gülen is finding more and more followers. Parents of Turkish origin send their children to what is by now 150 tutoring institutes and 12 schools run by the Gülen movement. Meanwhile, the tutoring facilities can be found in nearly every major city. In the Spandau borough of Berlin , schools run by the supporting organization TÜDESB belong to the network. Up to now, these religiously-inspired educational institutions have sought to hide from the public the fact that they belong to the Gülen network.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the Berlin FID, a Gülen-associated society for the development of intercultural dialog, and the Institute for Religious Studies of the University of Potsdam are hosting an international conference on “Muslims between tradition and modernity: The Gulen Movement as a bridge between cultures.” They enlisted the cooperation of the German Orient Foundation, Abraham Geiger College and the Evangelical Academy as partners.
The program stated that the Gülen movement was to be subjected to a "scientific study". Unfortunately, however, the meeting turned into a purely celebratory event. Much could be heard about Gülen's commitment to "world peace" and the "Dialogue of Civilizations," about the importance of his philosophy for the integration of the local Muslims, and about how vital it is for contemporary western society which, although technically adept, suffers from moral neglect. Scarcely any critical voices were present on the podium; the only critical questions from the audience came from journalists. "Of course I'm not a critic of the Gülen movement, otherwise I would not be here today," said Dutch theologian Pim Valkenberg, who compared Fethullah Gülen to the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. Moreover, it was not revealed, which speakers themselves belonged to the Gülen movement.
Thus many questions remained unresolved. It is not only in Turkey that Fethullah Gülen is regarded with a mixture of fascination and suspicion. Gülen, who comes from East Anatolia , made his name as an imam in the 1960s through his preaching. In the mid-1990s many Turkish politicians and intellectuals praised him as a modernizer of Islam, because he advocated a union of religion and science. Nature, in Gülen’s view, is the Book of Allah, which as a scientist one must learn to read. Science and modern technology are for him not the enemies of Islam, but rather sources of religious revelation. Gülen has met with leaders of other religions, including Pope John Paul II.
The army and judiciary in Turkey have always regarded Gülen with suspicion, and felt their suspicions confirmed in the late 1990s, when a recording of a speech surfaced in which Gülen called on his followers to engage in a sort of “march” on institutions, with the goal of seizing the power of the state. Patiently, and without open conflict with the secular establishment, pious Muslims should work to gain important positions, said Gülen accordingly. Prosecutors viewed this speech as a call to revolution. Gülen maintained that he did not want a Muslim theocracy, but that instead, parts of his speech had been deliberately cut up so as to foment this impression. Gülen fled to the United States , from where he continues to lead his movement. It includes not only schools but also trade associations and the Turkish World Media Group, with the religiously conservative quality newspaper "Zaman" among others. Last year, the verdict against him was lifted in Turkey .
The Gülen movement seeks to generate, through their own educational institutions, a Muslim elite which will find its way in the globalized world and also be pious, said Bekim Agai, an Islamic Studies expert, at the conference. That a stealthy Islamization of Europe could occur in the processwas something he did not consider possible. The private schools follow a secular curriculum; teaching of Islam is not on the program. Students who, however, turn out to be religiously inclined are passed on to Gülen-associated universities and student bodies.
Rabbi Walter Homolka, director of the Abraham Geiger College , said that the struggle of Gülen’s supporters to combine their religious identity with education and integration into the secular environment reminded him of the development of liberal Judaism in the 19th Century. Because of this he was willing to participate in the organization of the meeting. "It is unfair to measure religious Muslims against the most liberal expression of our values," said Homolka. Even among Christians and Jews, there are environments that cannot bear up to these standards.
