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
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Gulen "inspired" Truebright Science Academy charter school ordered closed by state board of appeal
School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the decision of the seven-member board was unanimous. Tim Eller, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, confirmed the action.
Gallard said that Truebright has 30 days to appeal the decision to Commonwealth Court. The school will close at the end of this year, unless Truebright persuades the court to issue a stay.
"They will have to ask for a stay and be granted a stay for them to remain open," Gallard said.
Truebright, which is part of a network run by followers of Turkish imam M. Fetullah Gulen, enrolls just over 300 students in grades 7-12. It is located on Roosevelt Boulevard in Olney.
The SRC voted in October 2013 not to renew the school's charter, which was first granted in 2007 for five years. The District's charter office identified deficiencies in 2011, when it began the evaluation process, and recommended in 2012 that the charter not be renewed.
In a brief filed with the appeal board, the District argued that Truebright should close due to failure to meet academic goals, lack of a defined curriculum, failure to attract students from its catchment area, not offering world languages or Advanced Placement courses as promised, and not providing students with laptop computers as promised.
Isik Durmus, the school's dean of academics, told the Notebook last month that its academics had improved -- the school met adequate yearly progress goals in 2012 -- and that students were issued Chromebooks starting last year.
Truebright attorney Brian Leinhauser said that school officials he spoke to were "disappointed" in the decision, but that the board had not yet decided whether to appeal. He said the board will meet on Saturday.
Leinhauser said that acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq, who sits on the appeal board, cited "academic" deficiencies in the decision, which he said was especially troubling.
"District schools in the catchment area that Truebright is in have lower SPP scores than Truebright," he said, referring to the state's School Performance Profile that rates schools.
Despite the school's uncertain future, the state Department of Education earlier this fall awarded it a three-year, $1.2 million grant for afterschool programming. The money is from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. It was one of 23 grantees in Philadelphia.
The Gulen network has been the subject of federal investigations, and Truebright was sued by several former American employees alleging discrimination. According to opponents, much of the staff and leadership of the school are Turkish.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Gulen "Inspired" Dove Science Academy, denies association to Gulen
Fethullah Gulen is not exactly a household name in Tulsa.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/embattled-turkish-cleric-s-influence-felt-in-tulsa/article_30d0abf2-e1c2-572e-b3c5-ba54202d82aa.html?mode=story
But the influence of the Turkish Muslim cleric — who is living in self-imposed exile in the United States — is felt here and in cities around the world.
And his followers here fear that the arrest this week of two dozen law enforcement and media leaders who are part of the influential Gulen movement in Turkey may signal a dangerous shift of the Turkish government away from democracy and the West, and toward autocracy and Russia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen’s followers of seeking to create a parallel power structure within the state, intent on overthrowing his government.
But Omer Akdeniz, a Broken Arrow businessman and native of Turkey, said Gulen’s followers consider him a moderate apolitical author and educator who teaches that interfaith dialogue and education are the only ways to end the cycle of violence and hatred plaguing the world.
Akdeniz is a spokesman for the Tulsa chapter of the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest and also of the Raindrop Turkish House, a sister organization. Both are associated with the Gulen movement.
Akdeniz said Gulen’s informal network of followers, which some estimate at 15 million people, has created thousands of schools in Turkey and 160 other nations, including some in the United States, as well as colleges, hospitals, humanitarian organizations and media outlets. Gulen was among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people last year. He has been called the second most powerful man in Turkey.
And Gulen followers have been active in Tulsa.
The Dialogue Institute of the Southwest has sent some 300 Oklahoma leaders and educators on two-week study trips to Turkey over the past several years and has sponsored variety of interfaith programs. The Raindrop Turkish House built a Turkish cultural center in Broken Arrow and has sponsored Turkish educational and cultural programs.
Akdeniz said two Tulsa charter public schools — Discovery School of Tulsa and Dove Science Academy — are not directly connected to the Gulen movement, but that some of their educators are Turks who are part of the local Gulen community.
Yusuf Dundar, executive director of the Tulsa chapter of the Dialogue Institute, said local Turks are concerned about the arrests this week that included the editor in chief of Zaman, a pro-Gulen newspaper with the largest circulation in the nation, key people at a major television broadcasting group and others.
“We have concerns that we are getting away from democracy and Western values,” Dundar said, speaking about the president of Turkey. “We think Erdogan is breaking ties with the West and with Europe and is strengthening ties with Russia and China. That is a very big concern for us, that he is leading our country into autocracy.”
Adkeniz said the Gulen movement is the most influential social movement in Turkey today and is the only group in Turkey with enough power to stand up to the government’s shift away from democracy.
He said the government’s arrest of key Gulen movement leaders in the media was an effort to silence its critics, who had published reports about corruption in the Erdogan government.
Erdogan has accused Gulen of ordering his followers in the media, law enforcement and the judiciary to investigate and falsely accuse some of his top governmental officials of corruption.
In a rare interview with the BBC News, Gulen denied he used his influence to initiate the corruption investigations.
Akdeniz said that when Erdogan talks to Turks and to others in the Middle East, he accuses Gulen followers of working with the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency, and when he is talking to Western audiences, he calls them dangerous Muslim extremists.
Gulen, who is 73, left Turkey for the United States in 1999 after falling out of favor with the Turkish government. He was later cleared of accusations of wrongdoing but remains in the United States, living in Pennsylvania.
The Associated Press reported that the government of Turkey now wants to extradite Gulen from the United States to Turkey.
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
Omer Akdeniz, left, Yusuf Dundar
Omer Akdeniz, (left) and Yusuf Dundar, executive director of the Tulsa chapter of the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest, talk Wednesday at the Raindrop Turkish House in Broken Arrow. Courtesy
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