Gulen Schools, Parents Across America responds

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2012/05/paas-sharon-higgins-on-60-minutes-gulen-charter-schools-report/
Those of us who have been aware of the Gulen movement’s stealth involvement in an enormous network of publicly-funded charter schools are pleased that CBS News finally gave the situation wide national coverage. However, the 60 Minutes segment broadcast last Sunday, May 13, left out a number of important things.  [NOTE: They (and you!) should be following @CASILIPS on Twitter.]
What 60 Minutes omitted
60 Minutes should have independently verified the Harmony administrator’s claim that the chain has a waiting list of ~30,000 students. Unless such numbers can be independently verified, the waiting list figures offered by charter schools are hearsay and should be viewed as a marketing strategy.
60 Minutes should have mentioned that Gulenists are Creationists. Especially since the schools boast about providing superior science education, one is left to wonder if and how the schools provide instruction of evolution.
60 Minutes did not perform due diligence when reporting about Harmony’s test scores. The data analyses by Ed Fuller about Harmony’s high student attrition and CASILIPS about Harmony’s unimpressive comparative SAT scores (which were both available online during the show’s production) should have should have triggered the necessary skepticism!
60 Minutes did not go into the Turkish cultural instruction, a main feature of ALL Gulen movement schools and a feature which is NOT presented to authorizers in the charter school applications. For instance, why are students at the Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School taught to perform a Sufi religious ritual? Look quick (!) before the Gulenists delete this video. Scrubbing websites after revelatory material has been exposed is quite often done.
In addition, 60 Minutes should have reported some of the recent stories about other Gulen charter schools.
For instance, the charter renewal for Truebright Science Academy in Philadelphia – the school closest to Fethullah Gulen’s (former kids’ summer camp) compound in the Poconos, the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center – was recently rejected on several grounds, including low academic performance, lack of certified staff, and high turnover of administrators.
And Fulton Science Academy Middle School in Georgia also recently had its charter renewal rejected, along with its appeal to the state, despite having been recognized as a Blue Ribbon Award-winning school. A number of serious concerns had been noted having to do with shadowy governance, conflicts of interest, multiple failures of compliance, and six-million dollars of missing bond money. As the director of the state’s Charter Schools Division wrote: “In fact, the deeper we dug through all the materials FSA submitted… the more questions we had and the more we realized the depth and breadth of the reasons FCS [Fulton County Schools] could have denied FSAMS.”
Then there were the stories about the two Gulen charter schools in Louisiana. Last summer, one school had its charter revoked (Abramson Science and Technology School) for numerous complaints including the attempted bribe of a public official, failure to report sexual incidents, teachers completing student science projects, withholding resources from special ed students, and more. Complaints were also made about the other school (Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School) having a high number of uncertified teachers, poor handling of special education, and even the existence of a “prayer room” at the school. Both of these schools (along with Gulen charter schools in Arkansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, plus the School of Science and Technology schools in TX — all states in which the Gulen movement calls its South-Central region) are operated in partnership with the Cosmos Foundation, operator of the Texas Harmony schools featured on 60 Minutes.
Fethullah Gulen’s lame excuse for self-exile Sorry but I (a former critical care R.N.) do not buy Fethullah Gulen’s excuse for needing to be in the U.S. year after year for medical treatment. His supposed diabetes, heart and kidney problems are not rare conditions. Rather they are extremely common ailments which could be treated by plenty of doctors in Turkey who are currently managing thousands of patients with similar diagnoses. Istanbul, for instance, has a Gulen movement-associated center which provides the most advanced medical treatment for Mr. Gulen’s type of ailments.
Besides, Saylorsburg, the location of Gulen’s compound in the Poconos (the mountain forest of northeastern Pennsylvania) is not exactly known for its close proximity to a world renowned medical center for patients who have, as Mr. Gulen is portrayed, exceptional needs.
Spokesman Alp Aslandogan
Alp Aslandogan (full name Yuksel Alp Aslandogan) seems to have been made the movement’s spokesperson for U.S. audiences. Aslandogan must be fairly high up in the Gulen movement’s hierarchical brotherhood and is not just any “businessman” as 60 Minutes stated.
In 1999, Aslandogan, Harun H. Solak , Zekeriya Baskal, Ahmet H. Aydilek and Melen M. Dogan submitted an application to Milwaukee Public Schools for the Wisconsin Career Academy. This charter school was approved and has been operating since 2000, but this year the Milwaukee School Board voted to end its agreement with WCA. The school is in the process of changing into a private school (Wisconsin College Preparatory Academy) so it can tap U.S. tax dollars via the Milwaukee Parental Choice voucher program.
Aslandogan is the president of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog (a classic Gulenist “dialog” organization) as well as a director of Texas Gulf Institute, a Gulenist college now called North American College. Why Aslandogan may have created the alias “Yuksel A. Conger” at one point is not known.
Aslandogan appeared at an event called “The Gulen Movement” which was sponsored by the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington D.C. in June 2009. He also appeared at an event with Joshua D. Hendrick at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in December 2010 (“Transnational Religious Nationalism in the New Turkey: The Case of Fethullah Gulen.”) Audio and video presentations and accompanying text are available online.
Much more needs to be exposed
There is a long list of highly concerning things about the Gulen movement that 60 Minutes didn’t expose, like its “strategy of seduction” of parents and public officials, their free/inexpensive stealth propaganda trips to Turkey, their building of madrassas and mosques in Albania and South Africa, etc.
The bottom line for me is that NOTHING about the Gulen movement or their schools can be trusted. Watch this video if you want to hear me go into it more (filmed on Saturday, May 12, one day before the 60 Minutes broadcast).

 

 

Sibel Edmonds & Parent from Gulen Charter School Boiling Frogs Radio

One of the many parents of ex-students of a "Gulen Inspired" charter school with Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI Turkish Translator turned whistleblower.  

Fethullah Gulen Followers are Censoring News Video and more from You Tube

SOMALİA MOGADISHU MUQDISHO TURKISH SCHOOL, Turkish politics in Somalia failing?

ISTANBUL, Turkey May 27 2012 (Garowe Online) – Puntland and Galmudug have withdrew from the upcoming Istanbul conference at the end of the month sighting that it is not a Somali-owned process, Garowe Online reports.

Both Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole and Galmudug President Mohamed Ahmed Alim signed a joint press statement on Sunday cancelling their participation to the Istanbul conference on May 31 saying that the conference is "politically motivated".

In the joint press statement both governments said that after much consideration they realize that that the “Turkish role in Somalia objects to consulting the Somali people”. According to the statement the Turkish role is also misbalanced and not transparent enough.

The statement also says that the Turkish government sidestepped regional governments and institutions and invited civil society groups from Somalia to a conference in the Turkish capital.

According to the statement the purpose of the conference was “ambiguous”, and leaders from the TFG and regional states did not know the intentions of the conference, that will be attended by UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and officials from the African Union.  

A centralized Somalia

Government officials who spoke to Garowe Online said that the actions of the Turkish government have given the impression that Turkey is in favor of a centralized Somalia. This has upset officials who thought Turkey was committed to the current roadmap in Somalia.

Last month Turkey’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Selcuk Unal said that the Turkish government had a four step approach for Somalia that included assisting the UN backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia to reach a democratic agreement.

Earlier this week, signatories of the previous agreements, with the international community watching closely wrapped up a meeting in Addis Ababa where issues regarding the Roadmap and the constitution were deliberated over. After amendments to the Somalia draft constitution were made and mandates were clarified, an agreement was signed.

In Sunday’s press statement Puntland and Galmudug leaders said that the Istanbul meeting defied all previous agreements signed by leaders from the TFG, Puntland, Galmudug and Ahlu Sunnah. According to the officials the upcoming meeting tried to limit authority of regional governments and was anti federalism.  

Funding to Somalia?

Over the past year Turkey’s government has been trying to play a greater role in Somalia. It established an embassy in Somalia and regular flights to the war-torn capital Mogadishu.

Funding has increased significantly to Somalia with the Turkish government giving close to 400 million dollars in assistance to Somalia over the past year. The Turkish government also promised dozens of development projects for Somalia including hospitals, schools, scholarships, and infrastructure.

However officials in Galmudug and Puntland say that tangible development projects from Turkey have not reached their constituents. Puntland officials say that Turkish funds are being deposited into the central government based in Mogadishu and regions across Somalia have seen little to nothing.

Turkey has visited Puntland and Galmudug and has promised Puntland developmental projects targeting infrastructure and promised to reconstruct roads but according to officials, nothing has transpired.

Compromise with Al Shabaab

Last April, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that his government has not given up on pushing for talks between Al Shabaab and the TFG. The Minister said that he felt that a peaceful resolution could be reached and that Turkey could play a role in arbitrating that agreement.

“Despite our advantage and special relation with Somalis of all stripes, Turkey would play a role in mediating conflicting parties in Somalia," said Minister Ahmet last April to Turkish radio station.

Even after Al Shabaab officially joined the terror network of Al Qaeda, Turkey has pushed for a peaceful resolution. The proposal the Turkish government has been driving conflicts with the international community’s policy of no dialogue with terrorist organizations.

Leaders have urged Al Shabaab to put down their weapons and turn themselves into government authorities, but neither the TFG nor regional governments have proposed talks with the terror group.

Turkey denies any ulterior motives in Somalia and maintains that facilitating peace to the war ravaged country is its number one foreign policy.

Minister Ahmet reiterated on Sunday at the Somali civil meeting in Istanbul, that Turkey’s policy in Somalia is to promote stability both economically and politically. But Puntland and Galmudug governments say that that policy contrasts with what the conference in Istanbul proposes.

http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Puntland_and_Galmudug.shtml

Gulen Movement manipulates the Turkic Country of Azerbaijan

Will the Gulen Movement successfully use the Oil Rich Turkic nation of Azerbaijan and control the oil wealth?

Turkish public sensitivities and political outreach towards the Muslims of the Caucasus region have always been there. However, this general sympathy has been channeled into more concrete involvement and has had more effect in recent years. More than 20 years after Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union, and 10 years of Turkey being governed by a relatively more "religiously informed" government than was the case in Turkish Republican history, this article examines the changing role of religion in Turkey-Azerbaijan relations.

Turkish involvement in religious affairs in Azerbaijan is done primarily through two channels – one is the official Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey and the other is the Fethullah Gülen movement, also called the Nurcu’s because the Gülen teachings draw on Said Nursi’s writings. The Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs has financed the construction of a number of mosques (eight according to most sources) and trains clergy from Azerbaijan in Turkey, as well as setting up schools in Azerbaijan to train clergy – in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Education and Foreign ministry.

The work of the Gülen movement is harder to qualify or quantify - and its interaction with government policies also much more complex.

Read entire report on the manipulation of Azerbaijan politics by the Gulen Movement.

 Report by the Center for Conflict Prevention and Early Warning

http://www.cpc-ew.ro/occasional_papers/008.pdf

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulenist Turquoise Council to host trip for 150 la...

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulenist Turquoise Council to host trip for 150 la...:  Florida State Representative Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed to travel with 150+ representatives from the U.S. including State Senators, State Re...

Erdogan sides with Generals, may signal split with Gulen



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-27/erdogan-siding-with-generals-may-signal-islamist-split.html#disqus_thread

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rare expression of sympathy for Turkish generals this month may signal a split with Turkey’s most powerful religious movement, undermining the unity of his government.

Erdogan, who has backed a series of inquiries into alleged coup plots that have left hundreds of army officers in prison, was critical of the latest probe, saying it was “unsettling” the country. Previously, he blocked an attempt by one of the investigations to interrogate Turkey’s intelligence chiefTurkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Many Turkish analysts saw those actions as a warning directed at Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam based in the U.S. and leader of a movement widely seen here as a driving force behind the prosecutions. Curbing the army’s power has been a key policy for Erdogan, who has presided over record growth after ending an era of fragile coalition governments. Now, the premier and Gulen may no longer share the same goals, threatening the stability that underlay Erdogan’s economic success.

“All movements start to crack once they’ve reached a certain point,” said Atila Yesilada, an Istanbul-based analyst at Global Source Partners, a political and economic research firm. “If Gulen believes that Erdogan will never share political power with him, he will organize within alternative institutions to rival him.”

Conquer From Within

Gulen has been based in Pennsylvania since he left Turkey in March 1999 to undergo a health check-up in the U.S., according to Ahmet Sik’s book “The Imam’s Army.” In June that year, Turkish television broadcast footage of the imam telling followers to spread his ideas and conquer the state from within in the name of Islam, the book says. Gulen was prosecuted in absentia for seeking to overthrow the constitution, a charge that was dismissed by judges in 2008.

His followers are known as the Cemaat, or Congregation, in Turkey. The organization runs more than 1,000 schools in 140 countries, Mustafa Yesil, one of its leading figures and chairman of the Journalists and Writers Foundation in Istanbul, told Taraf newspaper this month. He described the movement as “faith-based, pacifist, pluralist, colorful and pro- democratic.”

Detractors say it has cells within key areas of the Turkish state. Sik’s study chronicles the group’s efforts to organize inside the police force. Prosecutors banned the book and Sik was arrested and charged with involvement in a coup plot. He was released pending trial in March after 13 months in jail.

Yesil told Taraf that there are Gulen followers in the police and judiciary, though their loyalty to the group wouldn’t interfere with their responsibility to enforce the law. He declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. Gulen’s website didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of Gulen-backed Zaman newspaper, the country’s best-selling daily, didn’t respond to requests for an interview.

‘End This Injustice’

Hundreds of serving and retired military officers, including former Chief of General Staff Ilker Basbug, have been jailed during the probes, as well as academics including Baskent University Rector Mehmet Haberal, and journalists including Sik and Nedim Sener who wrote about the Gulen movement.

“What’s scary is that the Gulen followers in the prosecution are trying to do away with respectable public personalities in order to recreate Turkey in their vision,” Sener, who was released together with Sik, said in a phone interview. “The government can’t control this and is uncomfortable. Still, the government isn’t taking any action, it’s only voicing disturbance. Its duty is to do something to end this injustice.”

Disturbed by Raids

On May 8, Erdogan said he is “disturbed” by the unending raids against current and former military officers, after the arrest of army personnel for allegedly plotting to remove the government in 1997. He urged the prosecution to get their investigation “over and done with” -- backtracking from earlier expressions of support when he said the case should be pursued “as far as it needs to.”

Prosecutors detained four retired generals today in connection with their investigation of the so-called postmodern coup 15 years ago, sending them to Ankara for depositions. All were members of the National Security Council that prosecutors say ousted the government, NTV news channel reported.

Fadi Hakura, an analyst at Chatham House research institute in London, said he’s skeptical whether Erdogan’s comments mark a change of course, saying he may be seeking to assuage domestic and external critics of the investigations, which have been slammed by the European Union and rights groups. The government has shown in the past that it can remove prosecutors from cases when it isn’t happy with their direction, and that hasn’t happened with the 1997 coup probe, he said in a phone interview.

Still, the comments earned Erdogan a rebuke from Gulen’s media outlets. They will be “etched into history as not befitting a prime minister,” wrote Bulent Kenes in the Gulen- backed newspaper Today’s Zaman. “The masses, who are the main makers of history and the main power driving the ruling AKP, do not agree with the prime minister in this respect.”

Army Powers

Erdogan’s own background is Islamist: he was a leading member of two parties banned on the grounds they threatened Turkey’s secular system, and served a jail sentence in the 1990s for reading a religious poem at a political rally.

Since his Justice and Development Party or AKP came to power, Erdogan has reduced the powers of the military, which has seen itself as the guardian of secularism in Turkey and ousted an Islamist-led coalition in 1997. He ended army control over the National Security Council and ignored military objections to a United Nations plan to unify Cyprus.

When the generals objected to his choice of Abdullah Gul as president in 2007, Erdogan called a snap election, won with an increased majority, then installed Gul as head of state. Erdogan is favored to succeed to the presidency, an above-party job, when Gul’s term ends in 2014.

Under Erdogan the economy has grown at an annual average of about 5.5 percent. His government slashed budget deficits, helping reduce borrowing costs to record lows and the national debt to less than 40 percent of economic output.

Erdogan ‘So Dominant’

For now, “Erdogan is so dominant, I’m not sure Gulen would want to take him on,” said Tim Ash, head of emerging markets research at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc in London.

Still, when the premier was off work sick last year, “we saw guys around him battling Gulen’s people,” Ash said, referring to a row over legislation on soccer match-fixing late last year. Factional disputes could intensify and become “a big issue for Turkey” if the presidency takes Erdogan away from day-to-day politics, he said.

Erdogan’s support for the coup probes that began rounding up army officers in 2007 pushed the four top military commanders to quit in July last year.

“Erdogan is quite happy with the current leadership of the Turkish military because they were effectively chosen by him,” Hakura said.

There are signs that Erdogan is concerned by the spread of the investigations. When prosecutors asked in February to question the national intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, an Erdogan appointee, the prime minister pushed through a law within a week that shields Turkey’s spies from the judiciary.

“Even though the party and the congregation deny it, there’s a serious battle,” Open Source’s Yesilada said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emre Peker in Ankara at epeker2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net

Gulen Charter School Quest Science Academy Blackstone Karatas

60 minute out takes Bonus Footage Fethullah Gulen Charter Schools

60 minutes Gulen Charter Schools H1-B Visa Fraud Expanded.

Erkal Tülek: Inside The Gulen Education Movement in Turkey And Internat...

Gulenist trial in the Russian side of Kazakhstan

BUSTED !!! 

Orenburg, May 21, Interfax - The Orenburg regional prosecutor's office has endorsed the bill of indictment in the case of a 25-year-old graduate of an Orenburg higher educational establishment suspected of organizing a unit of the outlawed extremist organization Nurcular.

The defendant and Asylzhan Kelmukhambetov formed a local branch of Nurcular in Yekaterinburg in the period from April 2008 to March 2009, the prosecutor said.

Turkish citizens - teachers of an Orenburg medrasah - involved Kelmukhambetov in the illegal activity.

"They spread the ideas of the religious organization amongst Islamic students of medium and higher educational establishments in the regional center," the report said. "They opened medrasah in rented apartments to study books by the Nurcular founder, Turkish author Said Nursi, the organization's modern leader Fethullah Gulen and other extremist books."

Criminal charges against Kelmukhambetov were brought in March 2009, and his accomplice was charged in 2010. However, he escaped from the police.

The Russian Supreme Court declared extremist the international religious movement Nurcular and banned it in Russia on April 10, 2008.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=9373

Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Truebright Science Academy A Gulen Charter School ...

Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Truebright Science Academy A Gulen Charter School ...: Forget it Gulenists, signs, slamming comment boards and lies will not save the schools Bekir Duz, leaves a trail of lies and causin...

Gulen Charter Schools Preview "60 Minutes" CBS NEWS Lesly Stahl Sunday, May...

WATCH THIS SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2012