Gulen's American Empire

Gulen's American Empire
Gulen Empire map from Turkish Newspaper. DISCLAIMER: If you find some videos are disabled this is the work of the Gulen censorship who have filed fake copyright infringement reports to UTUBE

Monday, December 27, 2010

Gulen Movement, a new kind of Turkish Muslim Missionary Lobbists in the USA

Ouch, how many brave Turkish Police does it take to chase one Kurdish child?


We have had many Kurdish people contact us about the Gulen Movement inflitrating their communities.  While I personally have no ill feelings toward our Kurdish population, they have suffered a certain amount of prejudices.  The Kurdish language is not allowed in Turkish governmental buildings, most reside in SE Turkey where Gulen is from.  As we reported earlier there have been attacks on Gulen schools in Kurdish communities.  In the true Gulen Media form, Gulen's Today Zaman has repeatedly printed stories about the "new" relationship being created between the Kurdish community and Gulen Movement.  Do they both have a common enemy ERGENEKON. 
This article was sent to us by a Kurdish reader, and is by a Professor of Kurdish descent Dr. Mizell.  Gulen is good with getting dirt on people and blackmailing them, this is what is done in my native Turkey as well as in the USA.  There have been teachers who left the Hizmet, and had marijuana planted on them with Gulen manipulated police at their door.  Sometimes bribes, free trips to Turkey and dinners at the Interfaith shindigs don't work. 

A New Kind of Lobbyists: Kurdish Lobbyists versus Turkish Muslim Missionaries Lobbyists in the USA  (Gulen’s Missionaries)

Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr.Aland Mizell

There is an old phrase that says ten people who speak make more noise than a hundred thousand who are silent. For many years in the United States, Armenian lobbyists and Greek lobbyists were more effective than Turkish ones.  The American and European Union publics have always taken the opposite position on issues related to Turkey, such as on the Armenian genocide, Cypriots issues, Kurdish issues and human rights, among others. However, lately this leaning has changed. Today Fethullah Gülen has taken advantage of American and Western democracy to use its strengths for his own good trying to change the Western and the American image of Turkey. In other words, Gülen is trying to defeat the Western and American culture with their own weapon of democracy turning it against them. For example, lobbying in democratic systems is the right to influence legislations, a right that is protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:  Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the government to address their need. Therefore the protection assumes that people should be involved in the decision-making process that will affect them. It is a political fact that the American capitalist system of government is one which relies on lobbying within the American traditional political system. It is considered a political value and thus legitimates manipulating the government as well as Congress for achieving a political, economical, cultural, or social view. This kind of political system allows for its weakness of being manipulated by lobbyists and interest groups. The ideas of lobby legitimacy and legality of lobbyists are rational as long as they serve the interest of the American people. By contrast, the Gülen lobbyists serve an ideology that wills to rule the world and thus does not serve the American people’s interest but instead jeopardizes American national security, interests, and subsequently world peace. Gulen’s followers offer scholarships targeting minorities, especially African – American college students who want to study in Turkey. His supporters use the race card to target African Americans because of the historicity of slavery, and they claim that Islam does not welcome slavery and that there is no racism under the tenets of Islam.  Using that rationale to recruit Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and other minorities in the USA, Gülen also notices that the African- American community is on the rise in its place in the American society. However, back in early 90s during his first trip to USA, Gülen claimed that America would be destroyed by the African – Americans. Now, however, racial dynamics have changed, particularly solidified by the election of President Obama.

Since Gülen is exiled to the USA from his home country because of its charge that he attempted to overthrow the secular government of Turkey, Gulen’s community in the USA takes a more active role in lobbying activities, spurred by his presence. Of course before the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) with its Muslim government came to power, Gülen did not get support from the Turkish secular government. Rather, his movement was under scrutiny by a government operating under Ataturk’s secularism. But today under the Islamic AK Party the relationship is different because President Gull and Prime Minister Endogen publically called Gulen’s followers “Ottoman soldiers” who go everywhere.

A rational person will ask what kind of history does Gülen teach at his schools? The Turkish government gives more than 3 million in endowment grants to leading American universities trying to buy academic freedom from the dark passage of the Armenian genocide. According to most historians, Armenians were massacred in a deliberate extermination of program by the Ottoman Empire during World War II. So at his schools Gülen teaches revisionist history by giving grants to many leading universities in the United States to ensure that they also teach a revisionist history that this genocide never happened, that fewer Armenians died, and those did because the Armenians first revolted against the Turks, resulting in a tragic civil war. Also according to his revisionist history, Turks never denied Kurdish rights; it is all the Kurds’ fault. Turks never did anything wrong, because the Ottoman Turks were angelic and sinless, the most peaceful empire. As such, it should be established, he argues, once again, this time not by using the sword but by using the pen. The pen would include lobbying activities carried out by an independent civil society of organizations such as NGOs, taking advantage of democracy in its freedom of speech and celebration of equality, trapping the unsuspecting in interfaith dialogues under the face of tolerance although he himself is not the most tolerant person, and using, in addition to interfaith dialogues, Turkish cultural centers, Turkish cultural associations, the Rumi forum, the Niagara Foundation, business associations, the Interfaith Institute, cooking classes, newspapers, a television station, magazines, and Hollywood. In addition, he has infiltrated the U.S bureaucracy, the CIA, the FBI, NSA. Other key tactics are using high profile people as spokespersons, such as Bill Clinton, holding conferences to promote his ideas, although he never invites the opposition who will object his position to these conferences. Further, every year he brings his followers  from Turkey and Central Asian countries to study as undergraduate and graduate students in the  USA and directing them to receive scholarships at the prestigious universities to disseminate their Islamic mission. Gülen knows that they cannot achieve these goals in Turkey. They can only be achieved under the Western and American democratic systems. Gülen has opened more than 90 charter schools in almost every state in the USA. One wonders why? What kind of history do they teach?  What is their purpose? The list of schools follows:


Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese philosopher said, “Those who do not know the plans of competitors cannot prepare alliances. Those who do not use the local guides cannot take advantage of the ground.’’ Gülen knows who his enemy is and knows how to manipulate and take advantage of the ground. I believe the Kurds could do the same thing as long as they stop giving petty excuses and blaming each other for political reasons. The Kurds must be united for their common good; otherwise they will lose this opportunity as well soon. If they are not active now, when will they be? The Kurds have more reasons to be active. Why cannot the Kurds be active like Gulen’s missionaries are?  Kurds have gone through so many atrocities, and much injustice, cruelty, oppression, and denial of the right to live like the rest of humanity. Once in his State of the Union address to the Mexican people in 2007, President Felipe Calderon said, “Mexico does not stop at its border; wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.” This should be true for all the Kurds as well. The region of Kurdistan does not stop at its border; wherever there is a Kurd, there must be a Kurdish region. Wherever Kurds go, whatever they do, they should represent the Kurdish culture and interests. Every Kurd should bring a Kurd from the home country to the West or to America because in the home country they are being blocked by the regimes, so we need to encourage them to expatriate Kurds so they can speak for Kurdistan freely. One of the way Kurds will be more successful in terms of lobbying is for Kurdish students who study in the West or in the USA at least is to write essays. It should be a requirement that they should chose topics that relate to Kurdish social, political, economical, and cultural issues. Also, professors could give them opportunities to present their essays to classroom. Kurdish students will have an audience, and I believe they can make a friend and even make friends with the professors, inviting them to their houses, telling the story of oppression and cruelty, particularly how they emigrated to the USA or to the West, because most of the Kurd have good testimonies to tell the West and Americans to win them, to encourage them to be on their side, unlike many other immigrants, and thus an advantage the Kurds have over the others. Mr. Qubat, the Kurdish representative in Washington, D.C., gives a petty excuse. He wrote in his blog, “Much has been written of late in newspapers across Kurdistan about the Kurdish lobby, or lack thereof. Before we start analyzing whether or not one exists, we should take a step back and ask ourselves if we know what one is or not! We should also stop comparing ourselves to the Jewish lobby or the Armenian Lobby, as these lobbies have been active in the U.S. for well over half a century” I would like to remind Mr. Qubat and other Kurds that it is true that the Jewish lobby has deep roots in American politics and has been here for many decades, but Gulen’s missionaries came in 1999 after the Kurds. A large group of the Kurds came to the USA during he first Gulf War although some came before that. How many Kurdish institutes do they have in the U.S?  How many Kurdish cultural centers are there in the USA? How many Kurdish conferences have been held in the USA? How many grants have been given to professors to study the Kurdish history and languages? How many Kurdish students have been brought from the Kurdish region to study in the U.S.A., so that they could be one of the lobbyists? How many Kurdish TV channels have opened in the USA? How Many Kurdish NGOs has been formed in the USA? How many NGOs have been set up to help the Kurdish people in Kurdistan? How many annual Kurdish day parades are held?  How many times have Kurds invited dignitaries, professors, and law officers to dinner or to parties to introduce the Kurdish history and cultures as well as narratives of oppression, cruelty and injustice? How many professors, legislators, or civic leaders have taken trips to the Kurdish regions?  How many Kurdish professors teach in the top ten American universities? How many times Kurds have used high level officials to perpetrate their ideology, such as the former President Bill Clinton, the former Secretary of the States Madeline Albright? It is true that everything needs money. Surely the Kurdish regional government has enough oil money to fund those areas that I mentioned. Gulen also did not get any support from the government, but only from the people who follow him. Former President Clinton said that pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee for a personal failure. It is important for Kurds to direct their anger and frustration towards problems, not toward each other and to focus their energies on answers not excuses. A unity of feeling and thought are essential among the Kurdish people’s strength; any disintegration of political and cultural moral unity may lead to weakness. Kurdish people should never make the differences of thought and opinion a means of conflict. Kurds should not tolerate the separation of the Kurdish people into camps that destroys their unity. Does tolerance of political and cultural division mean closing one’s eye to the Kurdish nation’s extinction? Politics is the art of managing a country’s affairs in ways that please the people, protect them from oppression, and rules them based on justice for all. Good politicians are the ones who are characterized by adherence to the superiority of laws and grant rights to the people based on their merit, not based on kinship or obligation even giving them delicate job to manage without their experience or ability. Laws should be effective all the time everywhere and for everyone, and those enforcing the law should administer in a just, kind, and equal way to all so that the public will have trust in them and be secure with them. One cannot speak of good government where these qualities do not exist.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. Kurds must work hard to lobby making sure the people are taking these rights seriously. One of the most important things that destroys the Kurds as a people is that they are simple minded toward those who would deceive them while pretending to be their friends. Kurds should not believe every promise and should not be misled by everyone who gives advice with a smile. For example, Gülen wants to solve the Kurdish problem within the Islamic context, which means he is using Islam to justify his means, saying Islam forbids racism and that we are all Muslim regardless of our race, color, etc. but at the same time, he will argue that God has chosen the Turkish people to carry the banner and represent true Islam.  His followers never dare to talk about the Kurdish question. Thanks to the European and Kurdish Diaspora pressing Turkey to recognize that there is a Kurdish nation, Kurds are not “mountain Turks” but they are Kurds. Also, the Diaspora helped Turkey for the first time ever recognize that there is a Kurdish problem that needs to be solved. For a long time Gülen and government officials were silent and denied that there is such a Kurdish problem.

There is another trap waiting for Kurds, which is the Islamic card. Gülen is already using it to recruit many Kurds to his movement. The Islamic regime’s treatment of the Kurds will not be any different from previous regimes’ treatment of them. Under the previous regimes Kurds did not have problems as long as they denied that they were Kurds and this factor will be the same under the Islamic regime. As long as you do not say, “I am Kurd,” you are welcomed with no problems. Today in Turkey the Kurdish Parliamentarians were democratically elected by the Kurdish people and given a victory, but the Muslim administration is not happy and is using intimidation to attack and put the Kurds in jail one by one, charging them in court, financially and spiritually harassing the Kurds trying to lower their morale, so that they will give up. They are using many kinds of tactics to justify their means. Purposefully working on a plan to bring in the Kurds, Gülen wants his circles to discuss the Kurdish issues rather than Europeans or any other scholars. If today Kurds are somehow known in the international arena is it because Kurdish lobbyists have carried out many important activities concerning Kurdish issues. Because many of Kurds who moved to West were already older and had a hard time integrating into the Western culture, it is important to bring the younger generation into the political arena. The Kurdish government should fund the lobbyists, so that they can focus on doing lobbying. Kurds should work together, not just individuals. The Kurdish problem in Syria should be same problem as that of the Kurds in Turkey or Iraqi Kurds. I believe nothing is impossible for the Kurdish people to accomplish; there are always ways that lead to everything; if Kurds have enough will, they should always have sufficient means, not excuses. 

Dr.Aland Mizell is with the MCI, aland_mizell1@hotmail.com


Saturday, December 25, 2010

Gulen Schools Worldwide: The Gulen Movement a modern expression of Turkish ...

Gulen Schools Worldwide: The Gulen Movement a modern expression of Turkish ...: "So why doesn't Gulen keep his ideologies to people of Turkey? Why force your beliefs on the world? Read on, you will find that Turkey ..."

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Gulenist Charter Schools asked to come clean by noted Sociologist Joshua Hendrick

Sr. Reporter: Sociologist calls on Gülenist charter schools to come clean

Sr. Reporter: Sociologist calls on Gülenist charter schools to come clean
 
Rice University video American sociologist Joshua Hendrick called on followers of Fethullah Gülen at U.S. schools to acknowledge their affiliation with the movement during a Dec. 9 presentation at Rice University.
In a public presentation this month, one of the USA's foremost researchers of Turkey's Gulen Movement called on its representatives in the United States to acknowledge their affiliation with the movement.
(A video of the approximately 90-minute discussion is here.)
In a public discussion at Rice University in Houston, sociologist Joshua Hendrick said the movement's tendency toward ambiguity and opacity is causing a backlash in the United States. He also said the movement operates what amounts to the largest chain of charter schools in the United States, with 150 schools, compared to 99 for the second-largest chain.
"What is mindboggling to some and infuriating to others is, why do leaders deny affiliation when affiliation is clear?," Hendrick said in the Dec. 9 presentation. "It seems to me that we have a communication breakdown. There is cross-cultural miscommunication that is happening that is leading to increasingly divisive conversation in the United States."
In response, one of the Gülen Movement's leading intellectuals said the movement's tendency toward ambiguity stems from its roots in Turkey. Y. Alp Aslandogan, director of the Institute for Interfaith Dialog in Houston, said that repeatedly in Turkey's history, people affiliated with movements such as the one led by Fethullah Gülen have been blacklisted, jailed or killed for their affiliations.
"They cannot be as transparent as a citizen of the United States," he said.
The discussion was momentous for people like me who have been following the spread of Turkish-run charter schools in the United States. I first wrote about Tucson's Sonoran Science Academy, its high use of H-1B visas and its connections to the Gülen Movement in an April package of stories and later on this blog.
Hendrick, now at the University of Oregon, has become a highly sought source because he is one of the few independent scholars who has researched the movement in depth, spending months with Gulenists in Turkey. His tone was surprisingly blunt when discussing their activities in the United States.
Hendrick laid out what he called a public relations effort to market Gülen around the United States. The schools and connected "dialog" institutes hold interfaith dinners, make visits to elected officials, hand out awards, hold conferences on the Gulen movement and take influential people on trips to Turkey, he said.
"It’s a very conscious brand that is passed on to very consciously selected people," Hendrick said.
Aslandogan objected to Hendrick's interpretation of the movement as making a public relations effort, calling the categorization cynical. He also explained why Turks have found the movement so appealing.
"Turkish people saw in them something that they lacked for decades. That is trust. They saw people who they could trust with their money, trust with their children. I call it the limitless, interest-free credit card of the Gülen Movement," he said.
He also explained the cautiousness of many Gülen followers to acknowledge their affiliation as a reaction to wild critiques of the movement as an Islamist threat or akin to the Ayatollah Khomeini's followers in the 1970s.
That kind of attack, Aslandogan said, leads to the cautious, ambiguous resposes.
This to me was one of the weaker points made by Aslandogan, in that I think it gets the chronology wrong. The obscuring of the schools' connections to the Gulen movement came well before the spread of wild, anti-Islamic critiques in the United States.
But they are out there, and Hendrick contends they'll keep spreading as long as the movement keeps cloaking itself in deniability. The "employment of ambiguity" and "lack of transparency" invites critics, he said.
Of course, my mind then drifts to the alternative. What if  superintendents overseeing 150 charter schools in the United States suddenly started acknowledging their affiliation to a prominent Muslim leader? Might that not cause an even bigger wave of critiques?
Read story here:
http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/senor-reporter/article_78c5b71e-0e01-11e0-9e51-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

It should be noted that Professor Hendricks has studied the Gulen Movement extensively and written several papers about The Gulen Movement and their involvement with schools

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gulen Charter Schools-Sonoran Science Academy cites shortage of adequate teachers in hiring many Turks

Sonoran Science Academy cites shortage of adequate teachers in hiring many Turks

Foreigners fill ranks of local charter- school chain

Tucson's Sonoran Science Academy and its sister schools import an unusually large proportion of their staff from foreign countries, especially Turkey, in a practice that parallels the customs of an important Turkish religious-political movement.
The five Sonoran Science Academy charter schools and their parent company, Daisy Education Corp., received U.S. Labor Department certification to fill 39 teaching and administrative jobs with foreigners last year, federal data show. From 2002 through 2009, the schools have received certifications for 120 H-1B visas.
That's more certifications than any comparable school in Arizona received in that eight-year period - and more than the six biggest school districts in Southern Arizona combined.
Sonoran Science Academy schools and Daisy Education requested so many visas because they have been unable to find adequate math and science teachers in the United States, because Daisy Education is adding schools fast, and because, in some cases, multiple applications were filed for the same person or position, Superintendent Ozkur Yildiz said via e-mail.
Yildiz also noted the schools' high test scores and many awards, and that the Arizona Charter Schools Association named the northwest-side school 2009 Charter School of the Year.
But some parents and former teachers question the practice, especially in a time of teacher layoffs.
"I don't understand why we're not hiring teachers from our areas here. I'm sure our teachers are just as qualified," said Sonoran Science parent Julie Festerling, who works as a substitute teacher at other schools.
Some experts point to a different possible explanation: that Sonoran Science Academy is part of a loose global network of Turkish-run schools - 100 or more in the United States - inspired by Fethullah Gülen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania. Worldwide, "Gülen schools" tend to hire teachers from Turkey and the broader "Turkic" world, including Central Asia, and their schools emphasize math, science and Turkish culture, scholars said.
"The schools are the basic avenue to build the Turkish community in America," said Hakan Yavuz, a political science professor at the University of Utah who co-authored the 2003 book "Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement."
"The number of Turks in America is quite increased as a result of this movement."
Yildiz, the superintendent, denied that the school is affiliated with any movement and called Yavuz's assessment "outrageously disturbing." But he allowed that some of the schools' staff may follow Gülen.
"In the context of Turkey or professionals coming from Turkey, it is virtually impossible not to know Mr. Gülen or be familiar with his ideas or thoughts," he wrote. "With this in mind, it is possible that some of the staff might be inspired by Mr. Gülen."
visa requests high
H-1B visas are the job permits often issued to high-tech professionals from other countries, such as software engineers hired by Microsoft.
Employers aren't required to prove there are no Americans for the job. Rather, they must apply to hire a qualified foreigner in an approved job category and promise to pay prevailing local wages.
The number of H-1B visas is capped - this year at 65,000 - and they ran out fast until the recession hit. But there is an exemption to the cap for nonprofit organizations affiliated with universities, said Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman. Sonoran Science has used that exemption in seeking some H-1B visas, Yildiz said.
Other Arizona schools use the H-1B program - most often small, rural schools that have trouble attracting qualified Americans. Near Tucson, the Coolidge and Ajo districts have used H-1B visas to fill their teaching ranks.
Ajo Superintendent Bob Dooley said he has hired four teachers from the Philippines, originally on a different visa, called the J-1. Converting that to an H-1B has been a struggle, he said.
"I've probably spent $4,000 on legal fees trying to get an H-1B teacher. She's a top-drawer teacher, one of the best I've seen in her category," he said.
But most metro-area schools have an easier time finding staff and rarely request these visas, Labor Department data show. Tucson's six largest public school districts, with total enrollment of more than 100,000 students, applied for 54 H-1B visas since 2002- fewer than half the 120 Sonoran Science Academy schools have requested for their 1,525 students.
Basis Schools, another high-performing, Tucson-founded group of charter schools, has about the same number of students as the Daisy Education schools but has been certified for just seven H-1B visas since 2002.
And the Academy of Math and Science in Tucson, which has scored well but lower than Sonoran Science Academy on AIMS tests, has gone 10 years without hiring anyone on an H-1B visa. How? By recruiting nationwide, said Tatyana Chayka, who has directed the school for its whole existence.
"We also contact universities, mathematic departments, we post ads on their bulletin boards. We literally use every source of advertisement to recruit the good teachers," she said.
And once they're on board, she said, the school works to retain them.
All that matters to Tom Horne, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, is Sonoran Science Academy's results.
"My view is that if the leaders of the school are from Turkey, and they're bringing in people from Turkey, and they're doing a great job, then our country's enriched by that."
Parents weigh in
Most of the H-1B visas Sonoran Science Academy and Daisy Education have requested have been for math or science teachers. But there have been many exceptions, especially as the number of visas requested by the schools has grown.
The schools received certifications in 2009 for five business managers, two secondary-school teachers, an elementary school teacher and a teacher of English as a second language. In 2008, they received certifications for two "instructional coordinators."
Yildiz said each of the applications responded to a specific need, though in some cases accidental duplication may have occurred - for example, a single person might have been expected to fill two roles - so each certification may not have led to a visa. The certifications may also reflect efforts to renew existing employees' visas, he wrote.
"If the U.S. government offers H-1B programs in which employers may participate, and the employer lawfully participates in such programs, the employer has done its duty," Yildiz wrote.
Yildiz would not break down the schools' staffs by nationality or visa status, but a review of the books of résumés on file at three Tucson Sonoran-Science campuses painted a rough picture. Among 79 current and past staff members whose résumés were on file, about 32 percent were educated in Turkey, while 60 percent were educated in the United States.
For some Sonoran Science parents and students, the presence of teachers and administrators from Turkey and Central Asia has been a source of enrichment.
"I absolutely love the school," said Diana Bressler, who has had three children attend the biggest Sonoran Science campus at 2325 W. Sunset Road. The teachers from Turkey, she said, tend to be very dedicated.
Her daughter, Maria, has taken Turkish classes and gone to Turkey on school trips, she said, and her son competed in a Turkish language and performance contest in California.
"I've always been interested in different cultures," Maria Bressler said. With her Sonoran Science Academy experiences, she said, "I feel like I'm more open, and I can appreciate others."
But some parents and former teachers question the presence of so many foreign teachers and administrators, if only because some of them have strong accents that make communication and instruction difficult.
"The biggest problem is that the teachers are not as fluent in English as they could be," said parent Tina Cloutier, whose son traveled to Turkey on a trip won in a Turkish language competition. "It makes it difficult for them to understand students, and for the students to understand the teacher."
Teaching Turkish
The Sonoran Science Academy schools emphasize Turkish culture in a way that surprises some parents.
Turkish is one of two languages taught at the school, along with Spanish, and a semester of each is required for sixth graders, parents said. Even the preschoolers at the Daisy Early Learning Academy are taught Turkish language and customs.
Students are encouraged to compete in the Turkish-language olympics in California against students from other Turkish-run charter schools. And a trip to Europe is offered every year, which may include France, or Germany or another European nation, but always includes Turkey.
A recent rivalry soccer game, pitting Istanbul clubs Fenerbahce and Galatasaray against each other, was screened at the school. And art students may learn the Turkish practice of "ebru," or water marbling.
It was all a bit much for Cynthia Corrales, who graduated from Sonoran Science Academy last year.
"I understand we have people from other cultures and countries, but I mean, a whole school run by Turkish people? It was really weird," Corrales said.
The language offerings, especially, bother some parents, such as Rodney Holland, who has had three children there, including a daughter who took Turkish.
"Do I mind her learning Turkish? Well, it's all knowledge," Holland said. "Do I think it's valuable? Probably not."
Yildiz said such points of view are narrow-minded and pointed out that Turkish is considered one of seven critical languages by the U.S. Education Department. He called offering Turkish "a unique advantage."
Schools spread
Three Turkish professionals living in Tucson founded Sonoran Science Academy in 2001. One, Nasuhi Yurt, was studying optical sciences at the University of Arizona at the time.
"It occurred to us we could help in the community while I was there," he said. "We heard about this charter school idea, a couple friends got together."
The result was Sonoran Science Academy.
It may seem a singular story, but Turkish scholars, scientists and technology professionals were doing the same thing around the United States in the last decade. Harmony Science Academy was born in Texas, Magnolia Science Academy in California, Coral Academy of Science in Nevada and Beehive Science & Technology Academy in Utah, among many others.
The Turkish-run schools in the West, including Sonoran Science Academy, contract with the Accord Institute, a nonprofit in Tustin, Calif., also run by Turks, for curriculum and other services. Turkish teachers and administrators circulate frequently among the schools.
Ercan Aydogdu, the Sonoran Science Academy principal who opened a school last year at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, now is principal at the Turkish-run Bay Area Technology School in Oakland, Calif.
Murat Biyik was a math teacher at Sonoran Science Academy, moved on to Beehive Academy in Utah, went to the Magnolia school in Hollywood, Calif., then to the Accord Institute near Los Angeles, and now is back at Beehive Academy.
Fatih Karatas, principal of Sonoran Science Academy's campus at 2325 W. Sunset Road, came from Magnolia Science Academy's Reseda campus in Los Angeles.
Rather than describe the schools as a network, Yildiz called the connections a natural result of communication in the Turkish and charter-school worlds.
"It is not a surprise that many of the founders and operators know each other through nationwide conferences, seminars and forums that are specifically geared toward small charter schools," he wrote. "There is nothing surprising or mysterious for educational leaders from Turkey to share similar teaching philosophies given the fact that they have similar academic/education background."
The Gülen Movement
Scholars Jill Carroll and Hakan Yavuz believe the schools are all inspired by Turkish Islamic leader Fethullah Gülen and follow the model he established three decades ago.
"The Gülen movement is very focused on education," said Carroll, who wrote a book on the movement, "A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen's Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse," put out by a Gülen-affiliated publisher. "There are at least 1,000 or more of these schools in the world."
Gülen started his first schools in Turkey in the early 1980s and established a focus on science and technology. He left out religion because Turkey's secular government would not permit it in schools. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Gülen's followers established hundreds of schools in the newly independent Central Asian countries, attempting to rekindle a Turkish cultural kinship there.
The schools spread to Europe, Africa and, since about 2000, to the United States, seizing charter-school opportunities arising around the country.
Yavuz, the University of Utah professor, said the schools may provide excellent science-and-math education, but there is another motive to their founding.
"They think they need to create a Turkish base, a social network. They get green cards, they become citizens. They have marriages, kids," said Yavuz, who is from Turkey. "You're seeing a long-term vision of creating a more powerful Turkish community in America."
Carroll sees the motives as benign. It's an open-minded movement focused on reconciling Islam and other faiths, as well as melding Islamic belief and scientific pursuits.
"I don't think the goal of the Gülen movement is to spread Turkishism around the world," she said. "But as an immigrant community here, they are interested in strengthening themselves by being acknowledged in the community."
While Yildiz denied Sonoran Science Academy is affiliated with the movement, one of Sonoran Science Academy's founders, Nasuhi Yurt, left Tucson in 2005 for Ebru TV, a Gülen movement network based in New Jersey.
Ali Unver, president of Paragon Education Corp. in Chandler - a Sonoran Science sister school - told a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist "about the noted Turkish preacher and scholar M. Fethullah Gülen," during a dinner there in November.
When a Sonoran Science student competed in a Turkish competition in California, he recited a poem by Gülen called "Hic," a piece recommended by his teacher. A video of his performance, and those of other Sonoran Science students, can be viewed on the "Gülen Movement channel" on YouTube, and were recounted in Gülen's newspapers in Turkey.
And Gülen himself, a powerful political force in Turkey, claimed responsibility for U.S. schools in a 2007 lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department as part of his effort to gain permanent residence.
His argument in that lawsuit was that he was a person of exceptional ability in the field of education. Among Gülen's accomplishments, his attorneys argued, were that he "has overseen the establishment of a conglomeration of schools throughout the world, in Europe, Central Asia, and the United States."

Gulen Charter Schools BOOMING h1-b Visa Fraud contributes to Homeless and laid off American Teachers




Watch these Videos below to learn about the h1-b Visa law and requirements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csg5nVo3TDU&feature=related
Below are typical Gulen Charter School ads for teachers from Craiglist and Careerfield.org.  The requirements for h1-b Visa is that you must advertise for teachers in mainsteam newspapers on 2 consecutive Sundays.  Is this REALLY trying for American teachers or just a lame attempt at following the H1-B Visa requirements? 
Full Time Math Teacher Position at Lotus School for Excellence (Aurora)
Date: 2010-12-18, 2:21PM MST
Reply to: job-aqtub-2119756211@craigslist.org
[Errors when replying to ads?]



Lotus School for Excellence, a High Performing Charter School in Aurora serving K-12 students, is seeking a full time Math Teacher to start on Jan 3rd 2011. Lotus is a college prep school with strong emphasis on Math, Science and Technology. Successful candidates will be proven team players, energetic, passionate, creative, and patient.
Teachers must be highly qualified according to Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (formerly known as NCLB); CO teaching License is preferred but not mandatory. Candidates who can teach high school Math and AP classes are preferred.

Please email your cover letter and resume along with three professional references
Please make sure to indicate which position you are applying for at the subject line of your email.

Background check required.

If you are invited to for an interview, please make sure to bring complete application form which can be downloaded at link below
http://www.lotusschool.org/files/Lotus_application_form.pdf
Below is an ad for Magnolia Science Academy from Careerfield.org

Credentialed English Teacher

Job Description
Magnolia Science Academy,Hollywood is hiring a part-time English teacher. Applicants should have a valid CA single subject credential in Language Arts and capable of teaching art class for middle school grades as well. The rate is around 30 per hour and approximately 15 periods in a week to teach.

Posted on: November 22, 2010
Magnolia Science Academy
Hollywood California 90028
Salary Commensurate with experience
Some College required
3 Years of Experience in a Related Field Required
Meanwhile American Teachers are losing their jobs in record numbers, while the Gulen Charter schools 150+ and their NGOs continue to immigrate teachers in to the USA in record numbers.  Harmony Science Academy dba Cosmos Foundation has brought in over 1,100 teachers from Turkey 2001-2009.
These schools have recently been busted in Ohio for hiring foreigners via the Concept Schools (Horizon Science Academys) .  http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/nov/23/public-charter-school-funds-under-scrutiny-ar-301282/
In fact, did you know that the Cosmos Foundation part of the Gulen Movement has immigrated more foreign teachers in than the largest school district in the USA.  Of course that would be LAUSD, who is allowing this? That number for Cosmos Foundation alone is over 1,100 h1-b visas since 2001 and Cosmos Foundation is only ONE of the Gulen Movement’s NGOs that are doing this.  Who is dismantling the American Education System so followers of Islamic Imam Fethullah Gulen can teach our children? http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2010/07/gulen-schools-and-their-booming-h1b.html
Operation Holiday: Laid-off teacher with 3 kids loses home
By Matt Harper • Special to the Daily Record •
December 19, 2010

Nina and her family have struggled since she lost her job as a schoolteacher.

The single mom (Case V-10) had been a teacher for 15 years before
budget cuts led to her being laid off
at the end of the school year last spring. Since then she has struggled to support her three children,
David, 17, Beth, 14, and Craig, 7.

Because she lost her income and has been unable to find another teaching job, Nina's
house was
foreclosed on, and the family was forced to move into a homeless shelter over the summer. The
change has been difficult on the children, who have struggled with having to go without much of what
they had been used to.

Nina worries that the
holiday season will be the most difficult time of all for the family, since the
future looks so bleak. Help from Operation Holiday, and our readers, could brighten the holidays for
them all.


Here is a little facts and figures on Ohio's Unemployment and the unusual large amount of h1-b Visas from the Horizon Science Academy:
So let's see, despite the fact that in 2008, Ohio's unemployment rate was 9.4%, the US government granted the Gulenites 95 visas, and in 2009, with an unemployment rate of 10.9%, 107 visas were granted to the Turks. In sum, from 2001 to 2009, 448 visas were granted, allowing 448 Turkish or foreign born teachers the opportunity to work in Ohio, displacing qualified (usually far more qualified) American teachers, administrators, and accountants.

And this is only Ohio. The "Gulen-inspired" schools are all over the country, and are likewise, supplanting  American professionals throughout the United States, because they can. Our government has essentially given them carte blanche to take our jobs, despite the severe economic losses that so many Americans are experiencing due to high unemployment rates.


ABOVE IS COURTESY OF http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Gulen Charter Schools-Are PKK and Gulen Movement ready to bury the hatchet?


Earlier we posted about the Kurdish PKK attack on Gulen Schools especially in the Kurdish populated areas of SE Turkey.  http://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/gulen-charter-schools-are-targets-for.html
In an article in Gulen's own Today's Zaman, they are claiming there is some kind of dialog going on between the incarcerated leader of the PKK and the Gulen Movement / Hizmet.  Is it true?  or more of the Gulen blah blah blah, only written to fix the image of Gulen and his empire in a positive light?
This is for you to decide, we think there may be some truth to it.  With Turkey being so fragmented with the Kemalist, Ergenekon, Nationalists,Islamists, PKK and other minorities we tend to believe there may be some dialog mutually beneficial to both.  Both groups are enemies of Ergenekon, it is possible that they have joined up as they have a common enemy.
17 December 2010

Turkey: Are PKK and Gulen Movement Burying the Hatchet?

PKK supporters, courtesy of NACH/flickr
Creative Commons - Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic Creative Commons - Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) supporters, Paris
An armed Kurdish group slowly weaning itself off Marxist-Leninism and a powerful Islamic movement that preaches interfaith dialogue laced with Turkish nationalism do not seem to be natural bed-fellows, but a flurry of activity following recent comments from the imprisoned PKK leader is fueling speculation that after years of bitter enmity, the two movements might be moving toward dialogue.
By Nicholas Birch for EurasiaNet

"They are quite a dynamic force, as we are," Abdullah Ocalan wrote in a letter he gave to his lawyers on December 6. "If these two forces were to show each other understanding and solidarity, several fundamental problems could be solved in Turkey."
His remarks came a day after Ocalan’s lawyers, who have acted as intermediaries between him and his supporters since he was jailed for life in 1999, went for talks with a man widely seen as the Gulen Movement's number two.
"In our meeting, I said ... that solving this [Kurdish] problem was vital for our country and our future," Huseyin Gulerce wrote December 9 in his column in Zaman, a Gulen Movement flagship that is Turkey's biggest-selling daily. "It is clear what needs to be done: democratization ... the rule of law, equal rights, freedom of thought and expression ... mutual respect."
The exchange sent ripples through Turkey's media. One of Turkey's most respected political commentators, the usually level-headed Rusen Cakir described it as "of historic importance."
The cause of the excitement was not the words themselves, which were coded and cautious. It was the fact that the two groups have been sworn enemies ever since followers of retired imam Fethullah Gulen began opening schools in Kurdish areas in the mid-1990s.
Kurdish nationalists, secular-minded or otherwise, have long lambasted the Gulen Movement as a patsy that the Turkish state is using to assimilate Kurds. Occasionally, the PKK has openly attacked it. There have been fire bombings of the group's property. In November, an imam allegedly close to the movement was gunned down in Hakkari. The PKK denies involvement in the murder.
For three years, the most popular soap opera on the biggest of its television channels has portrayed a pious teacher's fight to enlighten ignorant Kurdish villagers and stand up to the PKK. Last year, it set up a private Kurdish language TV channel.
The movement has played a more questionable role in the on-going trial of 150 Kurdish politicians accused of "abetting a terror organization." Gulen supporters are known to be powerful in the police and judiciary, and many observers say that operations which began across the Turkish southeast last year were the work of pro-Gulen police and prosecutors. The pro-Gulen media has given the trial massive, highly partial coverage.
In such a climate of mutual dislike, it is a miracle the two sides are talking at all, says Yusuf Goz, a journalist in the mainly Kurdish city of Van. "It is like Cain kissing Abel, rather than killing him."
On December 14, facing criticism from within the Gulen Movement, as well as from radical secularists who see it as the enemy number one of a secular Turkish Republic, Huseyin Gulerce apologized publicly for talking to Ocalan's lawyers. "Apparently I made a mistake," he wrote in Zaman, insisting the meeting had been his initiative, not Gulen leadership's. "I forgot that some people want terrorism to continue and want to advance their personal interests."
Was all the talk of dialogue just a flash in the pan, then? Highly unlikely, analysts say.
"Ocalan has come to the conclusion that it is impossible to move towards a solution [of the Kurdish war] without Gulen," says Rusen Cakir. "And his analysis is right."
The Movement is too powerful in southeastern Turkey to be driven out by force. It also has very good relations with the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the children of the elite are taught in Gulen schools and the PKK has its mountain headquarters. Ocalan also has more personal reasons for wanting better relations with Gulen, analysts say.
The Turkish state now admits that it is talking to him directly in its efforts to end the PKK war, comforting him in his view of himself as the chief representative of the Kurdish people. With elections due next summer, though, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun to take a more hawkish line.
"The Gulen Movement has a sort of symbiotic relationship with the government," says Murat Yalniz, a journalist who follows the movement closely. "Talking to it means opening up a new channel when the channel with the government is closing."
For supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the most immediate advantage of burying the hatchet with the PKK would be greater ease of movement in the region: at present, there are districts that are essentially out of bounds for the movement representatives.
But analysts think that the movement, like the PKK, may also have realized the limits of intimidation as a tool to cow its rivals.
The prosecutors and police who launched the 2009 operation against Kurdish politicians probably thought it would sweep them aside as quickly and as successfully as the on-going investigations into alleged coup plots against the government have destroyed ultra-nationalist secular circles, says Rusen Cakir.
"But the Kurdish political movement turned out to have sharper teeth."
The sight, on Page One of Zaman, of hundreds of Kurdish men and women, several of them well-respected public figures, standing handcuffed in a police line, "didn't intimidate [Kurdish nationalists], it sharpened them up yet further."


Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Gulen Lie and Cry---WHY?

Harmony Parent the TRUTH: Gulen Lie and Cry---WHY?: "Lie and Cry ----Why? 1) Gulen CRIES because everyone thinks he is a LIAR 2) Gulen LIES about why he lives in exile in the USA,..."

Friday, December 17, 2010

Gulen Charter School in Hawaii, Hula dancing to Turkish spoon dancing.

 
Gulen Dudes even had a logo designed.
and a website   http://mokapustemschool.org/

Hawaii, this is SERIOUS business.  The Charter schools are getting Billions in taxpayer's money, they bring in non-American teachers from Turkey who are fellow Gulen Followers.  They start to teach the children Turkish dancing, singing, etc.,  it will take the Hawaiian and American culture from our children not to mention the Turkish Character classes that are taught on Gulen's Pearls of Wisdom.  They currently have over 150 schools on the mainland and about 400 world wide.  Act for America has several pieces on Fethullah Gulen, As well as we have included web sites below.   
 The Gulenists are starting their infestation of Hawaii by working on taking over Mokapu Elementary, a school on a Marine Base on Oahu. Their new Gulen charter school will be called the Mokapu STEM School. You can bet the community in Hawaii DOES NOT HAVE A CLUE!
Kazim Z. Gumus who used to work at a TX Harmony school is on the board of the new school, along w/three people affiliated w/Daisy-SSA-Paragon.
Their proposal demonstrates that this is an expansion of Daisy Education Corporation, the AZ entity that operates the Sonoran Science Academy schools and is also tied at the hip to Paragon Education Corporation (operates Paragon Science Academy). The proposal also explains how the school will be purchasing services from their Gulenist associates at the Accord Institute of Educational Research.
If you look at the 990's for each of these organizations, you'll see that every single person has a Turkish name -- that's b/c they are all Gulenist buddies.
H1B visas for Daisy + SSA + Paragon (they operated only 6 charter schools in this time frame):
2001 - 1
2002 - 2
2003 - 3
2004 - 9
2005 - 6
2006 - 6
2007 - 23
2008 - 39
2009 - 69
TOTAL = 149 + 4 Green Cards

Accord applied for 19 H1B visas + 1 Green Card
http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa.aspx

Watch out Hawaii they are coming after you.
What can you do?  YES YOU CAN STOP THEM:    1)  Go to the School board that will oversee this Charter school and ask them for accountability as the Kentucky school board did.  2) Inform the Military base where this school will be on  3)  Inform the parents, the best defense is INFORMATION because most Americans are very ignorant of who Gulen is, - no kids in the school they get NO tax reimbursement money.   4)  Contact everyone in the Media, post on Craig's List, at work - your church - cultural club.  
http://www.gulencharterschools.weebly.com/        http://www.thelastcrusade.org/
http://www.charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/    http://www.gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/
http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/


December 18, 2010 UPDATE:
According to the Mokapu PTA, this school is NOT opening as a charter and will remain Mokapu Elementary school.
Someone should tell the Gulen Sufer Dudes to lay off the Turkish Hashish, they have a Mokapu STEM School web site up:
http://www.mokapustemschool.org/ and had a "meet and greet" at the Marine base in the Marine's CHAPEL of all places.





From Beautiful traditional Hawaiian dancing to the Turkish Spoon dance?

NOT THIS YEAR HIZMET, HAWAII IS NOT FOR SALE YOU WERE GOOSED
Goosed' - definition:
  • gooses 3rd person singular present;   goosed past tense;   goosed past participle;   goosing present participle
  • Poke (someone) between the buttocks
  • Give (something) a boost; invigorate; increase
Board of Directors for Hawaii school, watch out for these names
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Gumus
Kazim Z.
Harmony School of Excellence-Austin: science teacher
Texas Tech: PhD physics
Mokapu STEM School: interim board member
University of HI: postdoctoral, medical physics
Argin
Mehmet
Sonoran Science Academy-Phoenix principal
Sonoran Science Academy-Davis Monthan: principal
Paragon Science Academy: principal
AZ State U: PhD Electrical Engineering
wrote book review of Jill Carroll’s Dialog of Civilizations, a book about Gulen
Mokapu STEM School: interim board member
Oksuz
Adem
AKA Adam
Sonoran Science Academy-Tucson: principal
Daisy Education Corporation: superintendent, “books in care of” person on 990s for 2002, 2003,2004, 2006, 2007
Accord Institute: 2007 Form 990: signed supplemental Form 2848 as “Ex. Director”
Mokapu STEM School: contact person for proposal
Yildirim
Metin



Daisy Education Corporation: board member on 990s for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Sonoran Science Academy-Broadway, Inc.: board member on 990 for 2008
Paragon Education Corporation: board member on 990s for 2008 and 2007
Employed by Caterpillar Inc. as Product Support Engineer
University of Arizona: Mining Engineering MS
Mokapu STEM School: interim board member