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.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Gulen website speaks about Hizmet participation in schools worldwide
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| Gulen the 5th grade educated scholar
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From one of Gulen’s own web sites
The Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen has been living in the United States for 13 years now. An extensive network of supporters has developed there, serving in projects under his name.
There is no sign on the road to indicate the exit and the dirt track which leads you through a foggy broadleaf forest, coloured in all the shades of autumn, to an estate with eight houses. Thirteen years ago, the most influential preacher of Turkish Islam Fethullah Gülen retreated to this secluded place. Back then, the still powerful military had driven him out of Turkey. Stricken with illnesses, he decided to undergo surgery in American hospitals. Since then, he has rarely left the estate despite being issued a visa and a residence permit by the United States.
The voice of the 74-year-old Gülen sounds more powerful than ever, even from afar. It was his voice which has transformed the Muslims of Anatolia into a dynamic middle-class during the past decades. Gülen is the voice of these “black Turks”. Many movements have challenged Kemalism, the ideology of the “white Turks”. The urban, educated and secular upper-class of Istanbul – and later also of Ankara – have for decades ruled over Turkey. They looked down with contempt upon the uneducated, rural, poor and religious people of Anatolia. Inspired by Gülen’s teachings, many of these Turks sought education and became wealthy, yet remained religiously devout. As Gülen effectively challenged the Kemalist elite, he was declared as an enemy of the state. If Gülen was to return to Turkey, it would open old wounds. This is why Gülen, who shies away from conflicts, has decided to stay in Saylorsburg. ( he stays because he is under house arrest, he cannot leave- he is the official boogie man of Turkey that America controls) Are the Kurds of Anatolia (which represent over 70% of the population) thriving?
The 5-and-a-half hectare estate does partially resemble Gülen’s native region of Turkey. He was born in 1938 in Erzurum, in the remote eastern part of Anatolia. Saylorsburg is a place dominated by nature, where deer roam the forest and from time to time brown bears are seen. Soon, the snow will pile up, just as it will in Erzurum. When Turkish entrepreneurs bought the estate for $175,000 in 1993, under the name “Golden Generation foundation”, only a few log cabins were there. The foundation built eight stone houses, created the park, and invited Gülen to settle down here in 1999.
Down at the lake, the visitors’ children are playing football. At noon, everyone gathers in the clearing at the köşk – a type of garden pavilion in which Ottomans used to dine while in the countryside. Traditional Turkish cuisine is on the menu: lentil soup, vegetables pickled in olive oil, köfte meat balls with rice, tea in small curved glasses. Gülen cannot walk even this distance these days. After several bypass operations, his knees trouble him now. He leaves the estate only for medical exams and treatment at the hospital nearby. Gülen takes a life away from people, but his message is reaching millions.
A lift goes up to the first floor of the house which resembles a simply yet elegantly decorated Ottoman house which does not need more than a minimum of furniture. This is the floor on which Hocaefendi -- as he is reverently called by his followers -- lives and works. At his side always is his personal doctor, as well as a few other people in whom he trusts and confides. He very rarely gives interviews. This morning, a normal one, he taught a dozen young theologians who are his personal students. Twice a week, his sermons are recorded and uploaded onto the internet (www.herkul.org), from which TV stations will rebroadcast. Gulencis operate hospitals in Turkey, he can get health care in Turkey but decides to STAY in the USA? Not even returning for his brother’s funeral in October 2012. Gulen doesn’t return to Turkey because he is now the bitch of the USA.
Our interview has been scheduled to take place after the Islamic midday prayer. That is when Gülen receives guests. He specifically asks them about what is going on in the world outside and always has follow-up questions. After this he will read again, write and pray. He is said to get by on very little sleep. Every day is minutely structured. He instructs his followers to use their time well and practises as he preaches, without rushing. His followers say that he combines humility with charisma. On the wall behind him, a clock ticks softly. It is never switched to daylight savings hours. “The [real] time is always the same,” says Gülen.
Beautiful calligraphic writing decorates the walls, complementing Gülen’s words. He does not speak a sober modern Turkish. The Ottomans would have understood him perfectly. It is a challenge for many Turkish people to understand him. In long sentences, he intertwines chapters from the Quran with sayings by the Prophet, the experiences of the mystics with the requirements of the modern world, and unites the world of faith with the reality of life. He explains the relevance of education and success in business, the compatibility of Islam with the modern age and democracy, as well as the incompatibility of Islam and violence. His followers are supposed to create employment and prosperity with their own hands, and should not forget to distribute it among those who are in need. The official language of the Q’uran is Arabic. Now you are saying he follows “Mohammed” before you state he follows the teachings of Said Nursi and Sufism. Incidently Sufi is not recognized in many Islamic groups or countries.
Religious people wanting to live their faith far away from the vibrant cities were always drawn to the State of Pennsylvania. The early immigrants that settled on the fertile grounds of Pennsylvania must have been religious people. If you set out west from Philadelphia towards Saylorsburg, then you will drive through Quakertown and Emmaus. Road signs indicate exits to Hamburg as well as Lebanon and also to New Tripoli. The road to Saylorsburg also leads you through Bethlehem and Nazareth.
Manhattan is only a few hours drive away from Saylorsburg. And yet there are worlds between them.
Alp Aslandogan is looking down from the sixth floor onto the urban canyon out of stone in the 5th Ave. In 1991, he came to New York from Turkey to do his PhD in IT and today he teaches at a university. In his spare time, he works many hours on a voluntary basis for “hizmet” [service] – which is how Gülen’s followers describe their movement. The movement, which in Germany is known as the Gülen movement, is also growing in the United States. Entrepeneurs close to Gülen have founded more than a thousand educational institutions in 130 countries, including Germany and the United States. Aslandogan founded the “Milky Way Foundation” in 1993 to help tutor children of Turkish immigrants on the weekends, so that they could succeed in school. In 1999, the foundation became a private school. Alp Aslandogan is the mouthpiece of Gulen in the USA. His buddy and fellow Gulenist Ardem Arici sits in Federal Prison.
“We neither wanted to emulate the dominant culture, nor isolate ourselves from it to preserve our roots,” says Aslandogan. “We wanted to help parents to understand the American culture, and the children to preserve their parents’ values, but also be productive citizens of this country.” Over two decades, activities such as these in New York turned into an extensive network of diverse social activities. The Turkish Cultural Center in Manhattan and the Peace Islands Institute are two examples.
The cultural centre, for instance, organises English and Turkish language courses, prepares children for exams, helps adults to register themselves as voters and assists those who are self-employed to find success. After a large forest fire in Israel, it helped reforest the area, and built a new school in Haiti after the earthquake. After the terror attacks on September 11th, the Pacific Islands Institute was founded as a platform for dialogue. Under its framework, American politicians and foreign ambassadors have met, rabbis and Buddhist monks talk to each other, and Muslim families invite non-Muslim families home.
The cultural centre and the Pacific Islands Institute are two of the 218 social organizations which are associated with Gülen in the United States, which have united in May 2010 under the umbrella organization, the Turkic American Alliance. Its main offices are in Washington DC, between Capitol Hill and the CNN studios. Just as in its New York offices, the personality cult around Atatürk has vanished, and there is no relief on the wall depicting the forever-smiling founder of the republic. What importance the umbrella organization has already gained can be seen by the fact that at a recent gala evening, seven senators and 53 members of the Congress were present. Fevzi Bilgin, a 38-year-old political analyst and former professor at the University of Pittsburgh, compiles studies about relevant issues in Turkey and the Middle East and assesses the American political sphere in his work. He is the head of “Rethink”, the only private Turkish think tank in the United States.
Emre Çelik, an Australian IT specialist of Turkish descent living in the United States, is another strong supporter of Gülen. He started two decades ago in Sydney, trying to give Turkish youngsters a jump-start in subjects such as math, physics and chemistry in garages. Today, he is in charge of the Rumi Forum, named after a Turkish saint, which is located a stone’s throw away from the White House. On its board sit Jews as well as secular Americans. Prominent politicians or diplomats often speak at luncheons held at the forum, broadcasted by four TV channels.
Çelik considers himself to be a “mainstream Muslim” and this is the type of Islam he wants to foster in the pluralistic society of America. Initially in Australia, he was fascinated by Said Nursi (1876-1960), a spiritual mentor for Gülen. Nursi introduced to Islam raising scientific questions and doubt, taught his students to see the good in Western civilisation and adopt it, and called them to overcome the three basic evils of poverty, division and ignorance. “What Nursi formulated in theories, is carried out by Gülen in practice”, says Çelik. He considers the concept of pleasing God to be the decisive contribution of Gülen. By this, Gülen motivates people to act in this world, in order to gain rewards for the hereafter.
The movement is being attacked from two sides, says Gülen. Gülen describes those who equate the activities of “hizmet” with Islamism as ignorant. When it comes to other Turkish critics, he can only shake his head. They accuse him of being “a traitor to Islam, being a slave of the United States and Israel as well as carrying out propaganda for Christianity and Judaism”. A public prosecutor in Turkey once called him even a secret cardinal in the service of the Pope. The biggest accusation against the Movement is that it wants to carry out a revolution in Turkey, through cultivating a secret Islamist elite. It is also claimed that the movement is not transparent and works as a secret society. These kind of critics of the movement assert a hierarchical structure which does not exist. They attribute this claimed hierarchy to an asserted Islamic sufi lineage. During recent decades, periods where Turkey was ruled by generals, such a structure could be dangerous. “My life and my work are open to everyone”, asserts Gülen. “Nothing is kept secret.” The activities of “hizmet” are carried out in public with people from the entire spectrum of life, from all countries and religions. They have been observed and even under the control of public authorities. “I would like to know what is not transparent.”
Education and building schools are issues particularly close to his heart. He says it is through education that a human being contributes in the most constructive manner to his or her family, society and humanity. "I am convinced that we as God’s creatures will only achieve our full individual maturity through worldly and spiritual education." He has been promoting this idea his entire life, as well as through the construction of schools, which are built by companies that claim to be inspired by him. His name appears neither as a founding nor board member on any of the institutions ascribed to him.
The continuous reference to entrepreneurs does not mean that everything is related to money, but he advises his followers to be successful. A major Turkish business association is ascribed to Gülen. The economic boom in Anatolia is linked to his name. "I have always called for a sincere entrepreneurial spirit," says Gülen. He advises entrepreneurs to carefully assess risks, and encourages them to invest and expand abroad. “I always remind them of their social and societal responsibilities.” And he reminds them to adhere to ethical principles: to avoid involvement in fraud, speculative or black-market trading, stand for trust and reliability, not to display greed and squander God’s riches while enjoying them, to show respect for the rights of employees, not to forget that the society they live in should also benefit from their benefits and to live aware of the fact that ultimately everything is given by God.
Tevfik Emre Aksoy is one of those businessmen who seeks God’s pleasure following Gülen’s advice. He made his fortune as a building contractor in Brooklyn, New York City. Self-employed and successful people like him donate a considerable share of their income to the "hizmet" movement and finance many projects. He is a board member of the Amity School in Brooklyn along with four other businessmen. Tuition fees only partially cover the costs of running the school. The rest comes from supporters like Aksoy.
Yet despite his generous donations, he does not interfere in the day by day operations of the school, whose principal is Cengiz Karabekmez. Founded in 1999, 300 students attend the school. One hundred live in the adjacent student hostel. They come from 17 countries, and represent five different religious faiths. The majority are of Turkish descent. The school advertises that for many years all students have been accepted to college. The best go on to Harvard, Columbia and Yale. “Last year’s 25 graduates got scholarships in the amount of 4 million dollars”, Karabekmez says proudly.
The focus, as with all other “Gülen schools”, is on teaching sciences. “We do not compel religion upon our students”, stresses Karabekmez. “We are not a religious school.“ The course on “personality development” teaches universal values such as respect, altruism and work ethics. Most of the 36 teachers are American citizens. “Language barriers?” Andrea laughs. "Sure, many parents speak only a little bit of English", says a teacher. “But the school community ensures that everyone speaks English very well, starting from year one.” Today in Turkey, The Gulen controlled AKP party has implemented Islamic education widespread. What is the long term goal in the USA and worldwide? More share of power and control of local school districts.
The English teacher, Adamir, knows Germany and the United States well, but he does not know Gülen. His parents fled the war in the Balkans, and along with their children, went first to Germany, and then settled down in New York 12 years ago. He had never heard the name of the “hizmet” movement. He opted for the Amity School because he has more opportunity to express himself as a teacher than at other schools. Worship of God is not compelled. “God loves everyone”, Aksoy asserts. “God loves in particular good deeds.”
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Gulen School in Germany threatens schoolmaster who exposes their links to Gulen
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| Germany's flag and proud Germans will not bow to the threats of Gulen and his cronies. The end is comming for the Gulen Movement and their worldwide schools.
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A german schoolhead discovers that her school belongs to the Gülen movement, makes it known and quits...
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Just imagine to be the head of a school department where immigrant children make up the main part of the population. You like to help them climb up the ladder and also teach them in class. Then one day you discover that your school is part of a worldwide network run by a turkish sect that follows the ideas of a conservative Turkish imam. What would you do?
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When this happened to Elke Wenzel, a teacher at the Carl-Friedrich-Gauss-Schule in Ludwigsburg, Germany, she decided not only to quit the management part of her job as head of the highest level (Gymnasium) department as soon as possible, in a letter she also informed the parents of her students about her motives.
Although Ahmet Ünver, the overall head and financial director of the school formerly known as Forumschule, is a declared admiror of Fethullah Gülen as he stated himself, he threatens to file mrs.Wenzel for slander if she does not stop spreading those rumors. Finally the two parties end up in court, not because of mrs.Wenzel's allegations but because the school could not bear her being around any more and wishes to fire her from the teaching part of her job. The case is In the end settled for a very meagre sum. Probably mrs.Wenzel has got to know her former colleagues a little better in the meantime, and is relieved to leave the whole experience behind her for no more then a symbolic payment. The whole story once more shows how goodwilling, certainly not islamophobic people with a social conscience are knowingly mislead by members of the Gülen movement. In the end this is never going to work. Read more about this at at European Site that is exposing Gulen http://notdeleted.net/en-German-schoolhead-discovered-Gulen-links.html |
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Gulen Turkish School in Nigeria, Africa closed Turkish International School
http://www.peoplesdaily-online.com/index.php/news/news/national-news/5155-kano-shuts-down-turkish-international-school-29-others
The Kano state Private Schools Task Force constituted by the state government has closed down the famous Nigerian/Turkish International Schools and 29 others for violating the rules and regulations governing the educational activities of the state.
The taskforce committee chairman, Alhaji Baba Umar, announced the closure of the schools while briefing newsmen in Kano yesterday.
He explained that the closure of the schools became necessary because the management of the affected schools refused to comply with government regulations governing the operation of private schools in the state.
He said other reasons for the action include indiscriminate increase of school fees without following the approved processes and lack of well-stocked laboratories/libraries in case of secondary schools.
Others are non-functional academic records, log book, register, visitors’ book, syllabus and scheme of work books among others.
He warned that the schools would not be reopened until they fully comply with the directives.
Baba also hinted that most of the affected schools were operating without provisional approval/ certificates
Gulen Imposter, poor actor has the unfortunate fate of looking like Hocaefendi
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| Soap opera Actor of India, unfortunately looks like the world's most hated Muslim Cult leader |
Monday, October 8, 2012
Success of Gulen Movement-inspired schools in Pacific Countries
Fr. Michel is a paid puppet for Gulen Movement and no one of importance within the Catholic or Christian Communities.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Gulenist give famous trips to Turkey to Capetown, Africa area leaders
Gulenists and the famous free trips to Turkey, winning the hearts and minds of the people.
Even though an insider had informed me about a trip by Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Tout-Helmbold with Mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille some time ago, it was a surprise to see Mrs Helmbold Tweeting so actively on behalf of Istanbul, and that a delegation of at least 10 City of Cape Town and Cape Town Tourism persons is in Istanbul, as this Tweet by Cape Town Tourism informed: “Our CEO @MariettedTH is part of a Cape Town trade exchange delegation en-route to Turkey with Mayor @PatriciaDeLille & @Grantpascoe“.
A photograph which Mrs Helmbold Tweeted yesterday showed the team of ten in their Sunday casuals, and includes Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing; Anton Groenewald, who heads up Pascoe’s department in the City offices; City Manager Achmat Ebrahim; Cape Town Tourism Chairman Ian Bartes who is ACSA Cape Town’s Manager of Service Standards in his day job; Enver Duminy, Mrs Helmbold’s right-hand man; Inge Dykman, Marketing and Communications Officer at Cape Town Tourism; a Wesgro staff member; and, surprisingly, Chef Peter Ayub of cooking school and catering company ‘A Sense of Taste’! They will be away from Cape Town for ten days.
Turkey has not been designated as a source of tourism for Cape Town by Wesgro or Cape Town Tourism, so one wonders why Cape Town Tourism sent four representatives on this sight-seeing trip. An article on Turquoise Harmony Institute’s website provides an idea of what the delegation is doing (other than visit endless fruit markets, as per Mrs Helmbold’s Tweets!): “The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Ms. Patricia De Lille has visited Turkey as the guest of Turquoise Harmony Institute. THI regional director Mr Savas Karabulut has accompanied the delegation which held meetings including with the Mayor of Istanbul and visited many sites. Ms De Lille visited skills training institutions run by the Istanbul Municipality adn (sic) also paid a visit to the construction site of the under-sea tunnel which will connect europian (sic) side of Istanbul to Asian part. The delegation also visited numbe rof (sic) NGOs adn (sic) academic institutions and had briefings on teir (sic) activities”.
The only Tweet related to tourism came from Mrs Helmbold yesterday morning: “Out and about with our hosts from Istanbul Tourism to learn more about this incredible city and explore opportunities for Cape Town”, and this morning she Tweeted:”Official trade and tourism exchange day between #CapeTown and #Istanbul with top media, trade and the tourism boards and local government”.
The City of Cape Town issued a media release last Friday, announcing its trip to Turkey, motivating it as a follow-up trip to one earlier this year: “Indeed, we laid a solid foundation with Turkish investors earlier this year in a scoping trip mapping the opportunities for business investment in Cape Town and export opportunities for our own businesses. So positive was the reception that we will be travelling back to Turkey today to cement those opportunities and build on key linkages in the tourism sector. A delegation, led by myself and the City Manager, Mr Achmat Ebrahim, and joined by members of WESGRO, the investments promotion vehicle for the region and Cape Town Tourism, the main vehicle for promotion of the City region abroad. Our schedule is a tight one, packed as it is into only a few days. However, we will be meeting with key industry and government leaders to establish the economic linkages that will open the Turkish market to Cape Town in numerous ways. A key focus of ours will be to market what Cape Town has to offer, not only as a summer destination but a regional leader for businesses looking to establish a presence in the Southern African market. Too often people talk about attracting investment, but do nothing to accomplish it. We cannot expect new markets to appreciate what we have to offer if we make no effort to tell them. It is a fact of business, and of life, that only the most tenacious sales pitches succeed, delivered by people who will not give up”. No Tweets to date have indicated that meetings to achieve the goal of economic linkages have been held!
There has been no media release from Cape Town Tourism to justify this expenditure of monies and time, when Cape Town should be preparing itself for the upcoming summer season and attracting the maximum number of tourists to our beautiful city. It is hardly likely that they will come from Turkey, despite the introduction of four direct flights per week between Cape Town and Istanbul from end October. Instead, it appears that Mrs Helmbold’s active ‘Turkish Delight’ Tweeting for Istanbul will see an exodus of Capetonians visiting Istanbul soon!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Gulen Movement's new Marketing-Tanzanian Education Minister appreciates Turkish schools
"Peacebuilding through education"................tell that to the Kurds
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Gulen Movement - An Example to the 'Committed Core' in Promoting Peace t...
Finally the mouthpiece of the Gulen Movement Alp Aslandogan STARTS to talke about the Gulen Movement/Hizmet and it's influences on schools.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Sex, Lies and Videotape--Gulen Style
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Gulen Movement, As described by an ex-disciple- Faith, LIfe and Islamic Law
The author of this article is an ex-disciple in the movement. He left the movement in 2001, after working at a FG school for one year. However, he entered the movement when he was in pirmary school and was active since the G8 or G9 student.
Sincerely and truthfully written, sent to the administrators of this blog. After reading we felt compelled to print the story of "A" an articulate and emotional writer.
Faith, Life and Islamic Law
It is still going on and it seems there is a long way to the bottom of the well. Whoever writes, speaks or plans to write about Fethullah Gülen or his movement, ends up at police headquarters, their houses are being investigated by the state prosecutors and they spend their following days at custody with no crime other than writing/speaking the truth that they believe. Turkey is increasingly becoming a police state and everyday the news are getting more and more tragi-comic, more and more intimidating. Everything and everybody is somehow connected to the ultra-nationalist group "Ergenekon" whose borders are ambiguously broad and with this magic name, police has right to enter any house and arrest the people living in that house. In recent days, many prominent journalists have been put in custody, their computers and books have been confiscated, their professional careers are brought to the points of break. Now I am writing this article, I am guessing I will be declared as an "Ergenekon" member. Being disgusted of the idea of being associated with such an ultra-nationalist movement, I might feel relieved as at least my effort of writing truth (that I know by my personal experiences) is being recognized by some prosecutors who have no other jobs but following the people who write truths about FG.
In the past, Turkey was implicitly ruled by the soldiers. Although we had democratically elected prime ministers and parliament, there was always the shadow of the military behind any sort of action that the government would like to implement. The generals were -in the name of protecting secularism and nation's unity- did anything they wanted and by doing this they never lost people's faith. This is why military has been the most trusted institution in Turkey for many decades. However, things seem changing in recent years as FG movement is getting stronger in every field of life including in military, police, education, justice and of course the media. As their magazine "Sızıntı" (meaning "The Leakage") suggests, they leak (or sneak) into every powerful area of life in Turkey. I know a lot about them personally as I spent quite a lot of time with them during high school and university years. I was one of the devotee members of FG movement and I had some serious duties while I was with them. This is why I know how they behave in the first place, I know their real goals and I resent the fact that they have a big role in the recent events.
When I was a university student, we used to believe that FG movement is the one the world is expecting and FG himself was Mehdi. Of course, it is not written anywhere or FG never said such a thing about himself. However, this was the talk of the young shakirts (Disciples of FG movement) and they believed it as it is a fact from Qur'an. Whether he is or he is not Mehdi, it actually does not matter much. What matters is the philosophy of their lives and the direction of the movement.
Anyone who read some of the red books written by FG's precedent Said Nursi would know that the movement has three steps which are dialectically related with each other. These are Iman (Faith), Hayat (Life) and Şeriat (Islamic Law). These three steps can be considered in both micro level and macro level. We can consider these steps as the journey a man/a woman should take during his religious life. Or we can also consider it as the journey that society will take from faithless people to the fully Islamic state. The relationship between them is dialectical as each step carries the seed of the following one and once you pass the next level, you do not ignore the previous one. Step one is always there and keeps supporting the other two steps. Step two precedes step 3 and somehow makes sure that step 1 is carried forward continuously. Below, I will investigate the first two steps by my own observations and personal experiences.
Everything starts with faith and without it nothing can be done in the society. This is why Said Nursi banned his shakirts from entering politics or having any interest in political struggles. He simply told them to spread the word of Allah by reading his red books (Risale-i Nur) and making other people read. He did not want his young disciples to get into politics because he considered politics as evil (One of his famous saying was "Spare me from the bad effects of following the satan and entering politics") So his disciples did what he said. They worked hard and spread the words of Risale-i Nur all around in Turkey, in small villages as well as in big cities. What did red books teach? Why did he ask them to read only these books and do nothing else?
The books are only about keeping the strength of faith and having a life around Islamic traditions. There are no fundamentalist advices or any violent-suggesting sentences in these books. Many of the chapters are dedicated to unifying Science and Faith, making it attractive to the educated Turkish youth. What Nursi did was not so different from the medieval Christian writers who wrote about teleological and ontological evidences for the existence of God. In fact, there is nothing new and original in Nursi's books if one reads Thomas Aquinas and his contemporary Christian philosophers. Even many examples he chose are used many many times in these philosophers' books. Since philosophy was not Turkish youth's strongest choice, they loved the books and the unifying power of faith that they learn from their parents and science that they learn in school from their teachers. Despite the fact that Turkish state continuously chased Nursi and his students, continuously tried to put him in prison, continuously put him in house arrest, the movement got bigger like a mushroom growing a few cm below the soil.
Then FG came. They never met but of course FG was a devote follower of SN. He continued applying SN's principles into his life and the people slowly gathering around him. But he also started doing more than just reading books so the schools, tutoring institutions, magazines, the newspaper Zaman, Radio and TV stations all came along with him as part of the second level of the movement's goal. However, FG is a man of wisdom and patience. He knows the mistakes done in the past (like Muslim Brothers in Egypt) so he wanted to conquer the powerful institutions before targeting politics. He knew that it is impossible to get political power in Turkey before getting the power of military, police and justice system. He also knew that it was impossible to enter these institutions without first having a big share in education.
University students lived in the light houses (FG called them this name) and these houses actually served bifunctional: To keep and educate university students for the future jobs like teachers, engineers, lawyers etc. Secondly, the houses has a function to raise young middle or high school students. In the name of science and mathematics, the Middle school students are brought (usually picked from streets with many lively and creative tricks. I was the champion of these tricks) to the light houses. The excuse was to teach them Math and Science so that these kids can go to privileged Science Schools which take students with exams after Grade 8. Once students come home in groups of 3-5, the mutual trust is set up between the young shakirts and the kids' parents. They visit the kids' family, explaining the family why they are doing this for free (I will be a teacher and I want to have experience. When I was a kid someone helped me so I feel I have to give back to society etc...) and making sure that the kid will continue coming to the light house till the end of the year. Time passes, some simple books are given to kids so that they can warm up for the ideas on God's existence, the harmony between Science and Faith, the absurdity of not believing God etc. The famous book in my time was called "Notebook of a Teacher" and it was written in a way of conversation between students and their teachers who keep talking about how silly to deny God and living without faith with the examples from Physics, Chemistry and especially Biology.
Kids come to the house at least 2 times a week at the beginning but this number goes up to 4-5 times a week when the exams get closer. During break, kids stay in the house and start praying with them, start reading red books (without understanding a sentence as the books are written in Ottoman Turkish) and listening to FG's sermons. At the end of the year, if the kid is loyal (this is tested with different and harsh games) and faithful (This is also tested) to the group and his tutor (the university student who is solely responsible from him), then the biggest secret of the movement is offered to him. It is such a big secret that the kid will keep it all his life and won't say a word to anyone even the most important things in his life are on the stake.
Not every kid is introduced to this secret. Only a few of the initial group of 3-5 and sometimes none of them can reach the ultimate end. The criteria are strict at this point: must be smart enough to pass the exams, must be physically suitable, must be a good shakirt, must be very loyal to the movement. All these are checked several times with various tests so that the movement will not be betrayed or things will not go wrong and destroy the entire basket. Then the secret is announced to these special kids.
They will enter military school and they will be soldiers. It does not really matter whether they want to be an engineer or an architect. Since they are loyal to the movement, they obey what their tutor (abi) tells them to do. Then they start preparing for the military school exams, interviews, physical tests. If the boy is too small and weak, he is given fish oil or other supplementary health products in order to make him gain weight. If he is too fat, he is forced to exercise. The interesting thing here is none of these kids knows the other kids. The secrecy is not only towards others, it is also inside the movement. Later in the military school, maybe half of the class is made of shakirts but none will know about the others. Sometimes, two groups of kids come to house and members of the group A does not even know the existence of the group B. They come to the light house at different times, they go at different times, they use the bathroom or the kitchen at different times and they are not allowed to make noise although sometimes it is unavoidable with the kids at the age of 12-14.
Mock interviews are handled by another elder brother. Sometimes he wears soldier uniform, looks very serious and asks kids all sorts of questions that might come in the real interview.
-Who is greater, Kemal Ataturk or Allah? (The answer is “Allah”)
-Do you pray 5 times a day? (The answer is “No, but I go to Friday prayers with my father”)
At the end, the army does not want atheists as much as they don't want extremely religious soldiers. Sometimes a medical faculty student comes to the house and check the boys for the suitability of the military school. This usually happens at the beginning of the year so that if there is something to fix, the responsible abi can take the necessary precautions. Also this is the first elimination process. If a boy has a distorted structure of bones or short of breath (asthma), then it will be known long before that that boy can be only a catalyzor in the group. Of course, if a boy is not qualified for the military school, it does not mean he is useless. Then these boys are guided towards Science schools, police schools, bilingual state schools etc so that the movement can get a strong hold of these schools as well. At the end, the important thing is to win their hearts and to make them live a life of a shakirt. About 80% of these students cannot go to military schools for various reasons. Only 20% can do be physically and mentally ready for such a long and tormenting journey for the teenage kid.
Once the boy enters the military school –I believe every year hundreds of kids from these houses enter the military schools in Turkey if we consider the number of houses in Turkey must be more than thousands-, he is strictly controlled by his tutor abi or someone who has been assigned to the duty.Whenever he has break from the school –usually weekends-, he comes to the light house or meet his tutor outside at a park or at a restaurant. In these sessions, they talk about the events in the school, they read some parts from the red books, listen to some FG tapes, pray and make sure that secrecy is kept under control. These military schools were also controlled by some other abis who have fortnightly meetings with students’ tutors about the problems. I was one of them in my last year at the university and I was responsible from Beylerbeyi Military School, G10. Secrecy was in the house I stayed as well. We did not know each other’s real names, real faculties, real hometowns. We stayed in the same house but we had to work alone when we write reports about each student and their responsible abi. We kept these reports in diskettes (that time there were floppy discs) and hide the diskettes in a place no one can find. We lived in a large, comfortable house but we were not allowed to bring anyone to our house. In fact, in total we had three assisting houses but the member of those houses did not know where our house is located either. We were telling them a location but we were going somewhere very far from what we say.
If we think of these scenario is working in this way for more than 30 years, you can imagine the number of FG devotees in military, in police today. University students are also encouraged to keep a low profile at the school years –not joining any protests, not making a big name on anything- so that once they finish the university, they can take exams at foreign ministry, at justice system. I even had a friend at university who had long hair, always wearing jeans –quite different from general shakirt profile- and joining club activities in university. He was studying International Relations and he was asked to take foreign ministry exams so that movement will have representatives in foreign ministry as well.
Today’s Turkish institutions are full of shakirts from all over the towns in Turkey. It is hard to spot them as they might behave like modern, secular, intellectual individuals. In their private lives, they still keep reading the red books, still listen to FG’s words, still go to meetings with local communities and still obey what their elders order them to do. It is their life and they can put this claim in the boundaries of democracy and personal choice/freedom. Since they constitute majority of police and military force, no one know how strong they are simply because they don’t know each other. It is a military structure in every institution of Turkish life. But in this strictly military structure, the commander is always a civilian, always somewhere from outside, someone who work at a company as an accountant or someone who is an engineer at a car factory or more probably a teacher working at a state school.
Getting back to the three steps, the movement is now somewhere between faith and life. All these struggles in Turkey are the painful birth of the second step from the womb of the first step. They already took the power in many institutions and by cooperating with AKP government, they achieve things they would not be able to think of this quick and this soon. Turkey keeps giving up its secular principles while giving more freedom to Islamic thoughts. If no one stops them, it seems soon the alcohol ban will be announced in all country (it is not good for health so drink grape juice, not wine) with the excuse of health, traffic accidents etc. Who can stop them anyway? Justice is in their hands, soldiers are in their hands, education is in their hands... Then more will be coming. As we are entering the step of life in their calendar, the people with free thoughts, the people with enlightened minds must fight back with any means they can find.
AKP supporters keep saying that Turkish economy is getting stronger and people are wealthier now. But the statistics do not match with what AKP government claims. Still millions of people live under the poverty line with no health coverage, no social security plan. Selling state institutions to foreign investors can boost the economy for a short time but in the long run, an economy needs “production”. Does Turkey produce cars? Do we produce computers? Can we build our own airplanes? If the answers to these questions are “No”, then where the wealth which they keep mentioning comes from? I can tell you. It definitely does not come from the export as trade deficit seems getting larger and larger every year. It cannot be internal power as well as we do not work harder in AKP era. Then the only source is the money comes from FDI, meaning we sell our forests, our resources, our factories, institutions. FG movement is backing these policies as USA is a big supporter of FG, seeing him as a symbol of moderate Islam and neo-liberal economic policies, perhaps not aware of the last step of the movement.
More things can be written about FG movement, more details can be explained. It is now a well-known society with a lot of secrets. With the financial support of middle and upper classes in Turkey and with the moral support of working class, they became a huge power in the country. Now they are threatening the very fundamental principles of the republic. Ergenekon seems to be a camouflage strategy to get rid of anyone who does not support their principles. Today, even in media, the journalists are divided by two main categories: Those who support FG movement openly and those who support FG movement secretly by not writing against it. The remaining journalists are leftist patriots who still believe that Turkey must remain a secular nation, must work on social problems, must solve the Kurdish problem, must create values by producing –not by selling already-existent production units to American investors-, must respect labour as it only creates value.
I hope, I believe or I want to believe that struggles of the enlightened minds in Turkey will bring some change and the whole country will not succumb to the FG movement. Otherwise, soon we will have blacker clouds on our “freedom of speech” and with the proceed to the step 3 (Islamic Law), Turkey will become another South West Asian nation where no alcohol can be consumed, no critics of FG can be written, no woman can drive cars or can go out without a male company… Let’s fight for this and let’s not let these brain-washed people to brain-wash the rest of the country. If we want our kids to live in a peaceful, in a prosperous, in a decent future; we must fight. Otherwise, their green revolution will take over the nation and sweep all we gained in the last 80 years with the principles of the republic.
Reply Forward
Sincerely and truthfully written, sent to the administrators of this blog. After reading we felt compelled to print the story of "A" an articulate and emotional writer.
Faith, Life and Islamic Law
It is still going on and it seems there is a long way to the bottom of the well. Whoever writes, speaks or plans to write about Fethullah Gülen or his movement, ends up at police headquarters, their houses are being investigated by the state prosecutors and they spend their following days at custody with no crime other than writing/speaking the truth that they believe. Turkey is increasingly becoming a police state and everyday the news are getting more and more tragi-comic, more and more intimidating. Everything and everybody is somehow connected to the ultra-nationalist group "Ergenekon" whose borders are ambiguously broad and with this magic name, police has right to enter any house and arrest the people living in that house. In recent days, many prominent journalists have been put in custody, their computers and books have been confiscated, their professional careers are brought to the points of break. Now I am writing this article, I am guessing I will be declared as an "Ergenekon" member. Being disgusted of the idea of being associated with such an ultra-nationalist movement, I might feel relieved as at least my effort of writing truth (that I know by my personal experiences) is being recognized by some prosecutors who have no other jobs but following the people who write truths about FG.
In the past, Turkey was implicitly ruled by the soldiers. Although we had democratically elected prime ministers and parliament, there was always the shadow of the military behind any sort of action that the government would like to implement. The generals were -in the name of protecting secularism and nation's unity- did anything they wanted and by doing this they never lost people's faith. This is why military has been the most trusted institution in Turkey for many decades. However, things seem changing in recent years as FG movement is getting stronger in every field of life including in military, police, education, justice and of course the media. As their magazine "Sızıntı" (meaning "The Leakage") suggests, they leak (or sneak) into every powerful area of life in Turkey. I know a lot about them personally as I spent quite a lot of time with them during high school and university years. I was one of the devotee members of FG movement and I had some serious duties while I was with them. This is why I know how they behave in the first place, I know their real goals and I resent the fact that they have a big role in the recent events.
When I was a university student, we used to believe that FG movement is the one the world is expecting and FG himself was Mehdi. Of course, it is not written anywhere or FG never said such a thing about himself. However, this was the talk of the young shakirts (Disciples of FG movement) and they believed it as it is a fact from Qur'an. Whether he is or he is not Mehdi, it actually does not matter much. What matters is the philosophy of their lives and the direction of the movement.
Anyone who read some of the red books written by FG's precedent Said Nursi would know that the movement has three steps which are dialectically related with each other. These are Iman (Faith), Hayat (Life) and Şeriat (Islamic Law). These three steps can be considered in both micro level and macro level. We can consider these steps as the journey a man/a woman should take during his religious life. Or we can also consider it as the journey that society will take from faithless people to the fully Islamic state. The relationship between them is dialectical as each step carries the seed of the following one and once you pass the next level, you do not ignore the previous one. Step one is always there and keeps supporting the other two steps. Step two precedes step 3 and somehow makes sure that step 1 is carried forward continuously. Below, I will investigate the first two steps by my own observations and personal experiences.
Everything starts with faith and without it nothing can be done in the society. This is why Said Nursi banned his shakirts from entering politics or having any interest in political struggles. He simply told them to spread the word of Allah by reading his red books (Risale-i Nur) and making other people read. He did not want his young disciples to get into politics because he considered politics as evil (One of his famous saying was "Spare me from the bad effects of following the satan and entering politics") So his disciples did what he said. They worked hard and spread the words of Risale-i Nur all around in Turkey, in small villages as well as in big cities. What did red books teach? Why did he ask them to read only these books and do nothing else?
The books are only about keeping the strength of faith and having a life around Islamic traditions. There are no fundamentalist advices or any violent-suggesting sentences in these books. Many of the chapters are dedicated to unifying Science and Faith, making it attractive to the educated Turkish youth. What Nursi did was not so different from the medieval Christian writers who wrote about teleological and ontological evidences for the existence of God. In fact, there is nothing new and original in Nursi's books if one reads Thomas Aquinas and his contemporary Christian philosophers. Even many examples he chose are used many many times in these philosophers' books. Since philosophy was not Turkish youth's strongest choice, they loved the books and the unifying power of faith that they learn from their parents and science that they learn in school from their teachers. Despite the fact that Turkish state continuously chased Nursi and his students, continuously tried to put him in prison, continuously put him in house arrest, the movement got bigger like a mushroom growing a few cm below the soil.
Then FG came. They never met but of course FG was a devote follower of SN. He continued applying SN's principles into his life and the people slowly gathering around him. But he also started doing more than just reading books so the schools, tutoring institutions, magazines, the newspaper Zaman, Radio and TV stations all came along with him as part of the second level of the movement's goal. However, FG is a man of wisdom and patience. He knows the mistakes done in the past (like Muslim Brothers in Egypt) so he wanted to conquer the powerful institutions before targeting politics. He knew that it is impossible to get political power in Turkey before getting the power of military, police and justice system. He also knew that it was impossible to enter these institutions without first having a big share in education.
University students lived in the light houses (FG called them this name) and these houses actually served bifunctional: To keep and educate university students for the future jobs like teachers, engineers, lawyers etc. Secondly, the houses has a function to raise young middle or high school students. In the name of science and mathematics, the Middle school students are brought (usually picked from streets with many lively and creative tricks. I was the champion of these tricks) to the light houses. The excuse was to teach them Math and Science so that these kids can go to privileged Science Schools which take students with exams after Grade 8. Once students come home in groups of 3-5, the mutual trust is set up between the young shakirts and the kids' parents. They visit the kids' family, explaining the family why they are doing this for free (I will be a teacher and I want to have experience. When I was a kid someone helped me so I feel I have to give back to society etc...) and making sure that the kid will continue coming to the light house till the end of the year. Time passes, some simple books are given to kids so that they can warm up for the ideas on God's existence, the harmony between Science and Faith, the absurdity of not believing God etc. The famous book in my time was called "Notebook of a Teacher" and it was written in a way of conversation between students and their teachers who keep talking about how silly to deny God and living without faith with the examples from Physics, Chemistry and especially Biology.
Kids come to the house at least 2 times a week at the beginning but this number goes up to 4-5 times a week when the exams get closer. During break, kids stay in the house and start praying with them, start reading red books (without understanding a sentence as the books are written in Ottoman Turkish) and listening to FG's sermons. At the end of the year, if the kid is loyal (this is tested with different and harsh games) and faithful (This is also tested) to the group and his tutor (the university student who is solely responsible from him), then the biggest secret of the movement is offered to him. It is such a big secret that the kid will keep it all his life and won't say a word to anyone even the most important things in his life are on the stake.
Not every kid is introduced to this secret. Only a few of the initial group of 3-5 and sometimes none of them can reach the ultimate end. The criteria are strict at this point: must be smart enough to pass the exams, must be physically suitable, must be a good shakirt, must be very loyal to the movement. All these are checked several times with various tests so that the movement will not be betrayed or things will not go wrong and destroy the entire basket. Then the secret is announced to these special kids.
They will enter military school and they will be soldiers. It does not really matter whether they want to be an engineer or an architect. Since they are loyal to the movement, they obey what their tutor (abi) tells them to do. Then they start preparing for the military school exams, interviews, physical tests. If the boy is too small and weak, he is given fish oil or other supplementary health products in order to make him gain weight. If he is too fat, he is forced to exercise. The interesting thing here is none of these kids knows the other kids. The secrecy is not only towards others, it is also inside the movement. Later in the military school, maybe half of the class is made of shakirts but none will know about the others. Sometimes, two groups of kids come to house and members of the group A does not even know the existence of the group B. They come to the light house at different times, they go at different times, they use the bathroom or the kitchen at different times and they are not allowed to make noise although sometimes it is unavoidable with the kids at the age of 12-14.
Mock interviews are handled by another elder brother. Sometimes he wears soldier uniform, looks very serious and asks kids all sorts of questions that might come in the real interview.
-Who is greater, Kemal Ataturk or Allah? (The answer is “Allah”)
-Do you pray 5 times a day? (The answer is “No, but I go to Friday prayers with my father”)
At the end, the army does not want atheists as much as they don't want extremely religious soldiers. Sometimes a medical faculty student comes to the house and check the boys for the suitability of the military school. This usually happens at the beginning of the year so that if there is something to fix, the responsible abi can take the necessary precautions. Also this is the first elimination process. If a boy has a distorted structure of bones or short of breath (asthma), then it will be known long before that that boy can be only a catalyzor in the group. Of course, if a boy is not qualified for the military school, it does not mean he is useless. Then these boys are guided towards Science schools, police schools, bilingual state schools etc so that the movement can get a strong hold of these schools as well. At the end, the important thing is to win their hearts and to make them live a life of a shakirt. About 80% of these students cannot go to military schools for various reasons. Only 20% can do be physically and mentally ready for such a long and tormenting journey for the teenage kid.
Once the boy enters the military school –I believe every year hundreds of kids from these houses enter the military schools in Turkey if we consider the number of houses in Turkey must be more than thousands-, he is strictly controlled by his tutor abi or someone who has been assigned to the duty.Whenever he has break from the school –usually weekends-, he comes to the light house or meet his tutor outside at a park or at a restaurant. In these sessions, they talk about the events in the school, they read some parts from the red books, listen to some FG tapes, pray and make sure that secrecy is kept under control. These military schools were also controlled by some other abis who have fortnightly meetings with students’ tutors about the problems. I was one of them in my last year at the university and I was responsible from Beylerbeyi Military School, G10. Secrecy was in the house I stayed as well. We did not know each other’s real names, real faculties, real hometowns. We stayed in the same house but we had to work alone when we write reports about each student and their responsible abi. We kept these reports in diskettes (that time there were floppy discs) and hide the diskettes in a place no one can find. We lived in a large, comfortable house but we were not allowed to bring anyone to our house. In fact, in total we had three assisting houses but the member of those houses did not know where our house is located either. We were telling them a location but we were going somewhere very far from what we say.
If we think of these scenario is working in this way for more than 30 years, you can imagine the number of FG devotees in military, in police today. University students are also encouraged to keep a low profile at the school years –not joining any protests, not making a big name on anything- so that once they finish the university, they can take exams at foreign ministry, at justice system. I even had a friend at university who had long hair, always wearing jeans –quite different from general shakirt profile- and joining club activities in university. He was studying International Relations and he was asked to take foreign ministry exams so that movement will have representatives in foreign ministry as well.
Today’s Turkish institutions are full of shakirts from all over the towns in Turkey. It is hard to spot them as they might behave like modern, secular, intellectual individuals. In their private lives, they still keep reading the red books, still listen to FG’s words, still go to meetings with local communities and still obey what their elders order them to do. It is their life and they can put this claim in the boundaries of democracy and personal choice/freedom. Since they constitute majority of police and military force, no one know how strong they are simply because they don’t know each other. It is a military structure in every institution of Turkish life. But in this strictly military structure, the commander is always a civilian, always somewhere from outside, someone who work at a company as an accountant or someone who is an engineer at a car factory or more probably a teacher working at a state school.
Getting back to the three steps, the movement is now somewhere between faith and life. All these struggles in Turkey are the painful birth of the second step from the womb of the first step. They already took the power in many institutions and by cooperating with AKP government, they achieve things they would not be able to think of this quick and this soon. Turkey keeps giving up its secular principles while giving more freedom to Islamic thoughts. If no one stops them, it seems soon the alcohol ban will be announced in all country (it is not good for health so drink grape juice, not wine) with the excuse of health, traffic accidents etc. Who can stop them anyway? Justice is in their hands, soldiers are in their hands, education is in their hands... Then more will be coming. As we are entering the step of life in their calendar, the people with free thoughts, the people with enlightened minds must fight back with any means they can find.
AKP supporters keep saying that Turkish economy is getting stronger and people are wealthier now. But the statistics do not match with what AKP government claims. Still millions of people live under the poverty line with no health coverage, no social security plan. Selling state institutions to foreign investors can boost the economy for a short time but in the long run, an economy needs “production”. Does Turkey produce cars? Do we produce computers? Can we build our own airplanes? If the answers to these questions are “No”, then where the wealth which they keep mentioning comes from? I can tell you. It definitely does not come from the export as trade deficit seems getting larger and larger every year. It cannot be internal power as well as we do not work harder in AKP era. Then the only source is the money comes from FDI, meaning we sell our forests, our resources, our factories, institutions. FG movement is backing these policies as USA is a big supporter of FG, seeing him as a symbol of moderate Islam and neo-liberal economic policies, perhaps not aware of the last step of the movement.
More things can be written about FG movement, more details can be explained. It is now a well-known society with a lot of secrets. With the financial support of middle and upper classes in Turkey and with the moral support of working class, they became a huge power in the country. Now they are threatening the very fundamental principles of the republic. Ergenekon seems to be a camouflage strategy to get rid of anyone who does not support their principles. Today, even in media, the journalists are divided by two main categories: Those who support FG movement openly and those who support FG movement secretly by not writing against it. The remaining journalists are leftist patriots who still believe that Turkey must remain a secular nation, must work on social problems, must solve the Kurdish problem, must create values by producing –not by selling already-existent production units to American investors-, must respect labour as it only creates value.
I hope, I believe or I want to believe that struggles of the enlightened minds in Turkey will bring some change and the whole country will not succumb to the FG movement. Otherwise, soon we will have blacker clouds on our “freedom of speech” and with the proceed to the step 3 (Islamic Law), Turkey will become another South West Asian nation where no alcohol can be consumed, no critics of FG can be written, no woman can drive cars or can go out without a male company… Let’s fight for this and let’s not let these brain-washed people to brain-wash the rest of the country. If we want our kids to live in a peaceful, in a prosperous, in a decent future; we must fight. Otherwise, their green revolution will take over the nation and sweep all we gained in the last 80 years with the principles of the republic.
Reply Forward
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Gulen and Fulton Science Academy in Turkish News
Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Gulen and Fulton Science Academy in Turkish News: http://egeninsesi.com/74778-gulenin_abddeki_okullarinda_usulsuzluk Article in Turkish paper with Gulen and Fulton Science Academy, Alph...
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Turkish Olympiad-A Gulen "show": Gulen's Turkish Olympiad Finals in Turkey
Turkish Olympiad-A Gulen "show": Gulen's Turkish Olympiad Finals in Turkey: Gulenist Turkish Olympiad final competition in Turkey. Over 1,500 students from over 100 countries are told by Prime Minister Erodogan ...
Monday, June 11, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Gulen Schools on every continent but Antartica
http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/every-continent-but-antarctica-country-by-country.html
Page created Nov 24, 2011 Last updated May 12, 2012
by C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools CASILIPS on Twitter, slideshare
Note: it has not been possible to independently verify the estimates given below for the number of students in Gulen schools or chains of schools. The source is given for all estimates; readers will have to judge reliability for themselves.
Afghanistan 40,000 students (2008; overestimate?) 5600 students (2012)
Source: Turkish Weekly, July 19, 2005
"Today, there are 35 teachers, including 18 from Turkey, for the 500 students at the Kabul school."
Source: Turkiye/Turkey Forum Jan 16, 2008
"First Turkish school was opened at 1996. ... Schools built by TIKA [Turkish Cooperation and Development Administration ] have been transferred to the Afghan administration. There are 40,000 students in these schools today. (2007)"
Source: Pajhwok Afghan News May 5, 2012
"Ozturk added 5,600 students had been studying in Afghan-Turk schools. Of 528 teachers in these schools, 150 are Turkish citizens.....About 2,900 students had so far graduated from Afghan-Turk schools, Wardak said, adding that another 2,600 were studying in various higher education intuitions in Turkey."
Albania several thousand students (2010)
Source: New Islamic actors after the Wahhabi intermezzo: Turkey’s return to the Muslim Balkans. Kerem Oktem. Oxford 2010
"In all three countries [Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia] the organisational structure and the content of the curriculum is close to identical and mirrors Gülen schools in Turkey and elsewhere. ...In the Western Balkans, there are currently ten such colleges with several thousand students."
"Burc, or Burch University, in Sarajevo is a spin-off from the Turkish College and the Bosnia Sema Foundation. It was established in 2008 and, for now, is a rather modest institution with only 300 undergraduates and 16 professors, both of which mostly haul from Turkey. ...Another such institute of higher education is Tirana’s Epoka University, which has succeeded in positioning itself as a more influential institution in the country’s academic life. Both universities are private foundations and charge considerable fees, and both are in close contact with Fatih University, which is the University of the Cemaat in Istanbul."
Argentina 110 students (2007)
Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkish Daily News March 20, 2007 "Turkish Community in Buenos Aires"
"The ATFF [Argentina-Turkey Friendship Foundation] also supported opening up a school in Buenos Aires. Colegio Hercules is the first Argentinean-Turkish school. It was established in 2006. Today the school has 110 students. Colegio Hercules is one of the Turkish schools that are run by Fethullah Gulen - a former Islamic preacher, writer, and leader of the eponymous group alternatively called Gulen's movement, or Fethullahci movement in Turkey. ... The movement runs several hundred schools, mostly in Turkey and Central Asia. In these schools children from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are educated by mainly Turkish educators."
Australia >1505 students (2009)
Source: Cemen Polat, Dec 2009 "Gulen-inspired schools in Australia: educational vision and funding"
"The establishment and foundation of Gulen-inspired schools began in Australia in 1996. By 2009, 16 Gulen-inspired schools had been established in Australia."
"Sule College is non profit, independent and non denominational school which was established in 1996 and was built by the Turkish Community. The school started with only 33 students, however, today there are 3 campuses in NSW; Prestons, Auburn and Illawara. The current number of students in primary schools is 753 and 752 in secondary and caters for Kindergarten up to Year 12."
Note that in addition to the Sule College chain, there is the Isik College chain and Damla College; estimates for their enrollments will be added as soon as they are found.
Azerbaijan 22 schools (2006)
Source: Svante E. Cornell, October 2006 Silk Road Paper, Central Asia Caucasus Institute - Silk Road Studies Program "The Politicization of Islam in Azerbaijan"
"The Gulen movement’s educational activities in Azerbaijan are led by Cag Ogretim isletmeleri A.S.., a private Turkish company that runs a network of Turkish high schools and one university. Currently, there are 10 high schools, one elementary school, one gymnasium, 10 university preparation schools, and one university (Qafqaz University). ... The Qafqaz University, which was established in 1993, has been one of the leading private institutions of higher education in Azerbaijan. ... Students that want to enroll at Turkish high schools (starting from the sixth grade level) have to pass a competitive test, and if accepted, have to pay an annual tuition fee that ranges from $1500 to $3000. Thus, most of the enrolled students at these schools are either from the middle or the upper class families."
Bangladesh 1300 students
Source: Shafiq Raman, Probe News Magazine "At the Turkish Hope School"
"As the founder Principal, Kazim Eldes set up the International Hope School in Gulshan in rented premises in 1996. It was then formally inaugurated in 1997 by the Turkish President Sulyman Demirel. ... The school now has an impressive campus in Uttara Sector 4. It has five other campuses in Gulshan and Uttara as well. It has a total of 1300 students at present. ... Turkish Hope School is not limited to Dhaka only, but is extending to other districts. The Principal says that they soon will be opening branches in other places of the country. The Chittagong campus has already been running since 2005. It goes up to Class VIII there. A campus is now underway in Bogra."
Source: school website, 2011 http://www.ithsbd.net/en/branches
"International Turkish Hope School (I.T.H.S.) started as a sole branch with few students. However with the sincere efforts of its dedicated management the total number of students has grown up. Now we have five branches in Dhaka and two branches outside of Dhaka. We also have a branch in Chittagong and Bogra."
Cambodia 800 students (2011)
Source: soL (Turkish news outlet) March 21, 2011 "Fethullahçı hocaların silah sevdası" (Fethullah-follower teachers love of weapons)
"Şimdilerde 800’den fazla öğrencisi olan okulu" (the school now with more than 800 students)
Ethiopia 4 schools (2009)
Source: Addis Fortune, Sep 13, 2009, "Girma Keen to See More of Turkish Investment in Ethiopia"
"Girma also praised the cooperation between TUSKON and the Turkish schools, pointing out that the director of the four Turkish schools in Addis Abeba accompanied him during the last TUSKON trade bridge."
Germany 645 students (2007)
Source: Kommunal-Info Mannheim, June 10, 2010 "Die Gülen-Gymnasien Deutschlands"
"Im Jahr 2007 waren an den Schulen der Gülen-Gemeinde insgesamt 645 Schüler eingeschrieben."
Translation: In 2007, a total of 645 students were enrolled in schools of the Gulen community.
News articles:
Feb 19, 2008 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Integration: Die türkischen Bildungsbürger "
Mar 28, 2010 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Türkische Schulen in Deutschland: Muslime mit calvinistischem Ehrgeiz"
Iraq 6500 students; 20 schools (2011)
Source: Today's Zaman, Mar 4, 2011
"At present there are 20 Turkish schools which accommodate about 6500 students. ... Turkish schools have been operating in Iraq since 1994..."
Source: Transnational Middle-East Observer (blog of Wladimir van Wilgenburg) Sep 13, 2009
"The Fezalar schools are quite popular for the Kurdish elite. In the last years they had 3200 students and 800 graduates."
Kazakhstan 1400 students (2010) 29 schools (2003)
Source: Time Magazine, "The Turkish Imam and His Global Educational Mission," Pelin Turgut, April 26, 2010. "Sel is now director of 28 high schools in Kazakhstan, from three when he first arrived. Entrance is by competitive exam. This year, 30,000 students applied for 1,400 spots..."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5). The only Turkic Central Asian country which has been hostile to the movement’s schools is Uzbekistan. It has not only repressed
Islamic action as a result of fear of the Islamic threat but also banned the movement’s schools since 1999."
Kenya 1200 students (2008) 6 schools (2008)
Source: [Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa Secular Alternative in Kenya and
Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda by Mehmet Kalyoncu
"The first Gulen-inspired school in Kenya was opened in 1998.....in total there are six Gulen-inspired schools in Kenya. .... Currently, 350 students are registered in the Light Academy secondary-high school in Nairobi, and the school administration aims to raise this number to 550-600. Similarly, the Light Academy secondary-high school in Mombasa has 250 students... Moreover, the Light Academy primary schools both in Nairobi and Mombasa average 300 students registered."
Kyrgyzstan 4616 students (2010) 12 schools (2003)
Source: Ahmet Orhan Polat October 19, 2010 "The Key Factors Behind the Success of Gülen-Inspired Schools" from Proceedings, Gulen Conference in Indonesia.
"there were around 510 teachers and 4616 students in Gulen-inspired schools in Kyrgyzstan in 2007."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5)."
Libya 27 "education initiatives"
Source: Today's Zaman, Feb 23, 2012 "Libyan minister would like to see Turkish teachers, schools in his country"
"Encouraged by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, Turkish entrepreneurs have established hundreds of schools across the world,......Ghariani said Turkish companies currently have 27 education initiatives in Libya worth $10 million, and some of them are ongoing projects."
Madagascar 800 students (2011)
Source: Hizmet Movement blog English translation of May 21, 2011 Turkish-langauge article from Star Gundem
"800 students receive education in three Turkish schools in Madagascar."
Moldova 820 students (1993)
Source: Zaman newspaper, June 14, 2006
"The Moldova-Turkish Schools opened as private schools in 1993 with 50 teachers and 820 students."
Nepal 1200 students (2011)
Source: Zaman newspaper, Feb 18, 2011; translation given here.
"That means Turkish volunteers who were inpired by Fethullah Gulen‘s ideals have arrived to Nepal almost 10 years ago to educate the youth of the country. ...“We opened the first Turkish school in 2002 with 100 students. Today, we have 1200 students..."
Nigeria 3200 students; 17 schools (2011) 4000 students; 15 schools (2010)
Source: Hasan Aydin, PhD thesis, University of Nevada-Reno "The Educational Effectiveness of Guelen-inspired Schools: The Case of Nigeria"
"The schools involved in this study are members of Nigerian Turkish International College (here in referred to as the NTIC schools, the term ―college signifying school in the British parlance) network, first established in Nigeria in 1998, with branches now operating in the states of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Ogun, and Yobe, a total of seventeen schools in all with a population of three thousand two hundred students attending at the nursery, primary, secondary, and pre-university levels."
Source: Today's Zaman, March 4, 2010 "Nigerian Turkish college students win dozens of medals"
"The 15 Turkish schools, a university preparation course program and a university are currently educating more than 4,000 students. ... The latest of these schools, the Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, opened its doors this year and admitted 200 students."
Pakistan 5200 students (Oct 2011)
Source: Press Release of Pakturk Cag Educational Foundation, Oct 7, 2011
"PakTurk educational institutions currently educate more than 5200 students by internationally qualified Pakistani and Turkish teaching and administrative faculty across Pakistan."
Senegal 1700 students; 7 schools (2012)
Source: Haber Afrika "Türk okulları Afrika'da sömürgeci eğitimin yol açtığı fukaralığı bitirecek" Jan 23, 2012 "bugün 7 okul, 1.700 öğrenci var"
Vietnam > 800 students (Mar 2010)
Source: SaigonNezumi.com (blog) March 25, 2010
"Zaman International Schools was founded in 1997 and currently enrolls over 800 students."
by C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools CASILIPS on Twitter, slideshare
Note: it has not been possible to independently verify the estimates given below for the number of students in Gulen schools or chains of schools. The source is given for all estimates; readers will have to judge reliability for themselves.
Afghanistan 40,000 students (2008; overestimate?) 5600 students (2012)
Source: Turkish Weekly, July 19, 2005
"Today, there are 35 teachers, including 18 from Turkey, for the 500 students at the Kabul school."
Source: Turkiye/Turkey Forum Jan 16, 2008
"First Turkish school was opened at 1996. ... Schools built by TIKA [Turkish Cooperation and Development Administration ] have been transferred to the Afghan administration. There are 40,000 students in these schools today. (2007)"
Source: Pajhwok Afghan News May 5, 2012
"Ozturk added 5,600 students had been studying in Afghan-Turk schools. Of 528 teachers in these schools, 150 are Turkish citizens.....About 2,900 students had so far graduated from Afghan-Turk schools, Wardak said, adding that another 2,600 were studying in various higher education intuitions in Turkey."
Albania several thousand students (2010)
Source: New Islamic actors after the Wahhabi intermezzo: Turkey’s return to the Muslim Balkans. Kerem Oktem. Oxford 2010
"In all three countries [Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia] the organisational structure and the content of the curriculum is close to identical and mirrors Gülen schools in Turkey and elsewhere. ...In the Western Balkans, there are currently ten such colleges with several thousand students."
"Burc, or Burch University, in Sarajevo is a spin-off from the Turkish College and the Bosnia Sema Foundation. It was established in 2008 and, for now, is a rather modest institution with only 300 undergraduates and 16 professors, both of which mostly haul from Turkey. ...Another such institute of higher education is Tirana’s Epoka University, which has succeeded in positioning itself as a more influential institution in the country’s academic life. Both universities are private foundations and charge considerable fees, and both are in close contact with Fatih University, which is the University of the Cemaat in Istanbul."
Argentina 110 students (2007)
Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkish Daily News March 20, 2007 "Turkish Community in Buenos Aires"
"The ATFF [Argentina-Turkey Friendship Foundation] also supported opening up a school in Buenos Aires. Colegio Hercules is the first Argentinean-Turkish school. It was established in 2006. Today the school has 110 students. Colegio Hercules is one of the Turkish schools that are run by Fethullah Gulen - a former Islamic preacher, writer, and leader of the eponymous group alternatively called Gulen's movement, or Fethullahci movement in Turkey. ... The movement runs several hundred schools, mostly in Turkey and Central Asia. In these schools children from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are educated by mainly Turkish educators."
Australia >1505 students (2009)
Source: Cemen Polat, Dec 2009 "Gulen-inspired schools in Australia: educational vision and funding"
"The establishment and foundation of Gulen-inspired schools began in Australia in 1996. By 2009, 16 Gulen-inspired schools had been established in Australia."
"Sule College is non profit, independent and non denominational school which was established in 1996 and was built by the Turkish Community. The school started with only 33 students, however, today there are 3 campuses in NSW; Prestons, Auburn and Illawara. The current number of students in primary schools is 753 and 752 in secondary and caters for Kindergarten up to Year 12."
Note that in addition to the Sule College chain, there is the Isik College chain and Damla College; estimates for their enrollments will be added as soon as they are found.
Azerbaijan 22 schools (2006)
Source: Svante E. Cornell, October 2006 Silk Road Paper, Central Asia Caucasus Institute - Silk Road Studies Program "The Politicization of Islam in Azerbaijan"
"The Gulen movement’s educational activities in Azerbaijan are led by Cag Ogretim isletmeleri A.S.., a private Turkish company that runs a network of Turkish high schools and one university. Currently, there are 10 high schools, one elementary school, one gymnasium, 10 university preparation schools, and one university (Qafqaz University). ... The Qafqaz University, which was established in 1993, has been one of the leading private institutions of higher education in Azerbaijan. ... Students that want to enroll at Turkish high schools (starting from the sixth grade level) have to pass a competitive test, and if accepted, have to pay an annual tuition fee that ranges from $1500 to $3000. Thus, most of the enrolled students at these schools are either from the middle or the upper class families."
Bangladesh 1300 students
Source: Shafiq Raman, Probe News Magazine "At the Turkish Hope School"
"As the founder Principal, Kazim Eldes set up the International Hope School in Gulshan in rented premises in 1996. It was then formally inaugurated in 1997 by the Turkish President Sulyman Demirel. ... The school now has an impressive campus in Uttara Sector 4. It has five other campuses in Gulshan and Uttara as well. It has a total of 1300 students at present. ... Turkish Hope School is not limited to Dhaka only, but is extending to other districts. The Principal says that they soon will be opening branches in other places of the country. The Chittagong campus has already been running since 2005. It goes up to Class VIII there. A campus is now underway in Bogra."
Source: school website, 2011 http://www.ithsbd.net/en/branches
"International Turkish Hope School (I.T.H.S.) started as a sole branch with few students. However with the sincere efforts of its dedicated management the total number of students has grown up. Now we have five branches in Dhaka and two branches outside of Dhaka. We also have a branch in Chittagong and Bogra."
Cambodia 800 students (2011)
Source: soL (Turkish news outlet) March 21, 2011 "Fethullahçı hocaların silah sevdası" (Fethullah-follower teachers love of weapons)
"Şimdilerde 800’den fazla öğrencisi olan okulu" (the school now with more than 800 students)
Ethiopia 4 schools (2009)
Source: Addis Fortune, Sep 13, 2009, "Girma Keen to See More of Turkish Investment in Ethiopia"
"Girma also praised the cooperation between TUSKON and the Turkish schools, pointing out that the director of the four Turkish schools in Addis Abeba accompanied him during the last TUSKON trade bridge."
Germany 645 students (2007)
Source: Kommunal-Info Mannheim, June 10, 2010 "Die Gülen-Gymnasien Deutschlands"
"Im Jahr 2007 waren an den Schulen der Gülen-Gemeinde insgesamt 645 Schüler eingeschrieben."
Translation: In 2007, a total of 645 students were enrolled in schools of the Gulen community.
News articles:
Feb 19, 2008 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Integration: Die türkischen Bildungsbürger "
Mar 28, 2010 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Türkische Schulen in Deutschland: Muslime mit calvinistischem Ehrgeiz"
Iraq 6500 students; 20 schools (2011)
Source: Today's Zaman, Mar 4, 2011
"At present there are 20 Turkish schools which accommodate about 6500 students. ... Turkish schools have been operating in Iraq since 1994..."
Source: Transnational Middle-East Observer (blog of Wladimir van Wilgenburg) Sep 13, 2009
"The Fezalar schools are quite popular for the Kurdish elite. In the last years they had 3200 students and 800 graduates."
Kazakhstan 1400 students (2010) 29 schools (2003)
Source: Time Magazine, "The Turkish Imam and His Global Educational Mission," Pelin Turgut, April 26, 2010. "Sel is now director of 28 high schools in Kazakhstan, from three when he first arrived. Entrance is by competitive exam. This year, 30,000 students applied for 1,400 spots..."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5). The only Turkic Central Asian country which has been hostile to the movement’s schools is Uzbekistan. It has not only repressed
Islamic action as a result of fear of the Islamic threat but also banned the movement’s schools since 1999."
Kenya 1200 students (2008) 6 schools (2008)
Source: [Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa Secular Alternative in Kenya and
Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda by Mehmet Kalyoncu
"The first Gulen-inspired school in Kenya was opened in 1998.....in total there are six Gulen-inspired schools in Kenya. .... Currently, 350 students are registered in the Light Academy secondary-high school in Nairobi, and the school administration aims to raise this number to 550-600. Similarly, the Light Academy secondary-high school in Mombasa has 250 students... Moreover, the Light Academy primary schools both in Nairobi and Mombasa average 300 students registered."
Kyrgyzstan 4616 students (2010) 12 schools (2003)
Source: Ahmet Orhan Polat October 19, 2010 "The Key Factors Behind the Success of Gülen-Inspired Schools" from Proceedings, Gulen Conference in Indonesia.
"there were around 510 teachers and 4616 students in Gulen-inspired schools in Kyrgyzstan in 2007."
Source: A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia. Nations and Nationalism 10 (3), 2004, 353–374. Berna Turam.
"The movement has twenty-nine schools in Kazakhstan, twelve schools in Azerbaijan, thirteen schools in Turkmenistan and twelve schools in Kyrgyzstan (Balci 2003: 5)."
Libya 27 "education initiatives"
Source: Today's Zaman, Feb 23, 2012 "Libyan minister would like to see Turkish teachers, schools in his country"
"Encouraged by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, Turkish entrepreneurs have established hundreds of schools across the world,......Ghariani said Turkish companies currently have 27 education initiatives in Libya worth $10 million, and some of them are ongoing projects."
Madagascar 800 students (2011)
Source: Hizmet Movement blog English translation of May 21, 2011 Turkish-langauge article from Star Gundem
"800 students receive education in three Turkish schools in Madagascar."
Moldova 820 students (1993)
Source: Zaman newspaper, June 14, 2006
"The Moldova-Turkish Schools opened as private schools in 1993 with 50 teachers and 820 students."
Nepal 1200 students (2011)
Source: Zaman newspaper, Feb 18, 2011; translation given here.
"That means Turkish volunteers who were inpired by Fethullah Gulen‘s ideals have arrived to Nepal almost 10 years ago to educate the youth of the country. ...“We opened the first Turkish school in 2002 with 100 students. Today, we have 1200 students..."
Nigeria 3200 students; 17 schools (2011) 4000 students; 15 schools (2010)
Source: Hasan Aydin, PhD thesis, University of Nevada-Reno "The Educational Effectiveness of Guelen-inspired Schools: The Case of Nigeria"
"The schools involved in this study are members of Nigerian Turkish International College (here in referred to as the NTIC schools, the term ―college signifying school in the British parlance) network, first established in Nigeria in 1998, with branches now operating in the states of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Ogun, and Yobe, a total of seventeen schools in all with a population of three thousand two hundred students attending at the nursery, primary, secondary, and pre-university levels."
Source: Today's Zaman, March 4, 2010 "Nigerian Turkish college students win dozens of medals"
"The 15 Turkish schools, a university preparation course program and a university are currently educating more than 4,000 students. ... The latest of these schools, the Nigerian-Turkish Nile University, opened its doors this year and admitted 200 students."
Pakistan 5200 students (Oct 2011)
Source: Press Release of Pakturk Cag Educational Foundation, Oct 7, 2011
"PakTurk educational institutions currently educate more than 5200 students by internationally qualified Pakistani and Turkish teaching and administrative faculty across Pakistan."
Senegal 1700 students; 7 schools (2012)
Source: Haber Afrika "Türk okulları Afrika'da sömürgeci eğitimin yol açtığı fukaralığı bitirecek" Jan 23, 2012 "bugün 7 okul, 1.700 öğrenci var"
Vietnam > 800 students (Mar 2010)
Source: SaigonNezumi.com (blog) March 25, 2010
"Zaman International Schools was founded in 1997 and currently enrolls over 800 students."
Partial list, more to be added
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