December 30, 2015

The Gulen Islamic Movement is a Dangerous and Insidious Global Operation

The Gulen Movement is one of the most dangerous and insidious operations acting in the U.S. today. Started in Turkey as a moderate Islamic movement in the secular 1960s and 1970s, the movement — also known as Hizmet, roughly meaning “service” in Turkish — runs schools, businesses, and media outlets around the world. There is no formal membership: Affiliates say they are “inspired” by Gülen, and many groups aligned with him deny any official affiliation. The movement courts state legislators from almost every state. They also target education committees and, particularly, the chairs of those committees. They have taken many legislators on junkets to Turkey and other Muslim countries. The movement's followers - referred to by many as Gulenists - are encouraged to work in the civil service and to be a useful part of society through their charitable actions or work. The Financial Times reported in 2014 that Gulenists ran schools in 140 countries and also operate Tuskon, a confederation of 120,000 Turkish companies which works to open up markets for Turkey, notably in Africa. [Source]

Horizon-Concept charter schools in Ohio [associated with the Turkish Gülen movement] place a big emphasis on courting politicians. PR people had to do a monthly report and list the politicians they contacted, tell whether they took any kids to visit his or her office, and say if they invited any politicians to visit the school. Their strategic PR plan was comprehensive and designed to continually put the schools in a positive light in terms of how the politicians and communities viewed them. The reality was much different from the newsletter photos shown. [Source]

Wyoming state Rep. Dave Zwonitzer said he and four other Wyoming lawmakers were contacted in 2013 by the Gulenist group the Mosaic Foundation, which offered them a free trip to Baku, Azerbaijan. On the trip, he said, were “four buses full of legislators” from around the country. Zwonitzer said that though he personally was not directly encouraged to introduce a resolution, “I did get the impression from other legislators I talked to that they had been encouraged.” He said that it was “never clear to us” who exactly was paying for the trip, “which was a little disconcerting.” Zwonitzer and his colleagues introduced their resolution based on model legislation provided to them by the Mosaic Foundation, though they changed one sentence, he said. It failed to pass, but they plan to reintroduce something similar in the 2015 legislative session. “You don’t get a free 10-day trip sponsored by the oil company without somebody asking for something,” Zwonitzer said. [Source]



Gulen is ranked as the most influential Muslim in the U.S. and the 11th most influential Muslim in the world. He fled to the U.S. in 1998 after the Turkish government charged him with trying to overthrow its secularism. He has erected a parallel state in Turkey and was instrumental in enabling the Islamist takeover of the country. Gulen has since had a falling out with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. Leaked documents show Erdogan’s government planned to act against Gulen’s network in Turkey. Gulen resides in a 28-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and has a reported net worth of $25 billion. He set up his first charter school in the U.S. in 1999 and now has 135 of them, making it the largest charter school network in the country. Sharon Higgins, a researcher who closely follows the Gulen network, wrote a thoroughly referenced article about the network in the Washington Post in March 2012. The article states that “the United States is the only country where the Gulen Movement has been able to establish schools which are fully funded with public money.” [Source]

Islamic Radicals Mount Influence Operation On Louisiana Leges

The Hayride
April 11, 2014
“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers… until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this.  If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere…” – ​​​​​​Fethullah Gulen
Later this month, organizations affiliated with the Turkish-based Gulenist Islamist movement will hold a reception lobbying Louisiana’s lawmakers.

Why would a Turkish-based Islamist movement seek to lobby lawmakers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA? For the same reason they have conducted similar influence operations in almost every state capitol in the United States.


The Gulenist Islamist movement is a 25 billion dollar empire that raises money partially through membership dues and partially through commercial activities, such as their Shariah-compliant bank, their Shariah-compliant insurance company, a media empire consisting of TV networks, news agencies, and news magazines, industrial trade organizations, universities, and a network of 1300 schools in the US, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The Gulenist movement’s main focus in the US has been its network of schools, two of which have operated here in the state of Louisiana:

• Abramson school in New Orleans, which had its charter revoked and was shut down in the midst of public bribery and misconduct allegations.
• Kenilworth Science and Technology Academy in Baton Rouge, which was raided by the FBI late last year and is the target of a federal investigation.

By now you’re wondering what the Gulenist movement is, no doubt. The Gulenist movement is a secretive, controversial Islamist movement founded by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic scholar with a controversial history and a great many followers and admirers in both the Islamic and Western worlds. However, a close analysis of Gulen and his movement reveals what may very well be a disturbing threat, rather than the benign movement that many suppose. (Gulen fled Turkey for the US in 1998 and settled in a massive, fortified compound in rural Pennsylvania.)

Gulen preaches peace on the one hand – while on the other hand credible reports indicate that the Gulenist movement controls the secret police in Turkey, which has been key to brutally suppressing recent pro-democracy protests there. But Gulen’s primary relevance to Americans comes from something quite peculiar – namely, the fact that his movement is associated with roughly 1,200 schools in numerous countries around the globe, including approximately 135 schools here in the USA. The American Gulenist schools are mostly taxpayer-subsidized charter schools and there is much to be concerned about, both in terms of their goals and operations. And Americans – and in particular those Americans charged with credentialing these schools – know scant little about with whom they’re dealing.

In reviewing the long-form literature on Fethullah Gulen, without exception, every single book about Gulen paints him in a positive, almost saint-like light. In order to fully grasp the man and his motivations, one has to read his own work – the most troubling and revealing of which is his 1998 book Prophet Muhammad as Commander.

While much of the book details the life of Muhammad as a military commander and political leader, the opening sections of the book reveal more about the author than they reveal about Muhammad, about whom much is already known and documented. The first 37 pages of Prophet Muhammad as Commander contain revealing, troubling passages that provide a window on Fethullah Gulen’s views on Jihad and warfare.

In Prophet Muhammad as Commander, Gulen explains Muslim hostility toward non-Muslims in a similar manner that most non-Muslims will find at least very curious:
“For this reason, a Muslim’s enmity towards unbelievers is, in fact, in the form of pitying them.”
Gulen ties this pity in with the concept of “compassion.” Unbelievers who deny that Allah is the only god and that Muhammad was his prophet are thought to be committing an “injustice.” Out of “compassion” for those unbelievers and to prevent them from committing further injustice, Muslims have enmity towards them and in some cases fight them as enemies.

Jihad as a concept fits in with justice. In fact, according to Gulen (page 20), Jihad is integral to justice:
“God does not approve wrongdoing and disorder. He wills that human beings should live in peace and, accordingly, that justice should prevail amongst them. It is therefore incumbent upon those who believe in One God and worship Him faithfully to secure justice in the world. Islam calls this responsibility jihad.”
Gulen then goes on to explain the various forms of jihad, including warfare.

Again, on page 20, Gulen states the purpose of Jihad:
“…to establish the supremacy of His religion and to make His Word prevail.”
In the same section, Gulen then clearly articulates the aim of establishing a worldwide caliphate:
“Besides the holy struggle, the principle of amr bi ‘l-ma’ruf wa nahy an al-munkar (enjoining the good and forbidding the evil) seeks to convey the Message of Islam to all human beings in the world and to establish a model Islamic community on a world-wide basis.”
Most ominously, Gulen makes a call in the book that reads an awful lot like a call for the Islamic world to acquire nuclear weaponry:
“…believers should also equip themselves with the most sophisticated weaponry. Force has an important place in obtaining the desired result, so believers cannot be indifferent to it. Rather they must be much more advanced in science and technology than unbelievers so that they should not allow unbelievers to use ‘force’ for their selfish benefit. According to Islam, ‘right is might’; so, in order to prevent might from being right in the hands of unbelievers and oppressors, believers must be mightier than others.”
“An Islamic state…should be able to secure peace and justice in the world and no power should have the courage to make corruption in any part of the earth. This will be possible when Muslims equip themselves with a strong belief and righteousness in all their affairs, and also with scientific knowledge and the most sophisticated technology.”
What does all this have to do with charter schools and elected officials in Louisiana? Well, Gulen’s most significant foreign enterprise is his network of charter schools and his movement is targeting our elected officials with influence operations. As such, it is important for people to be aware of the philosophy of the man who started and leads the movement behind it all.

Speaking of the schools, the one overriding characteristic of Gulen charter schools here in America seems to be their propensity for scandal of all sorts. Here is a partial list of articles online dealing with these scandals Scandal Ridden Gulen Schools.

In reviewing this list, ask yourself: should taxpayer money be going to a foreign organization founded by an Islamist with Jihadist sympathies whose schools seem fraught with scandal?

Lawmakers in Louisiana—and elsewhere—need to be aware that they are being targeted by what amounts to a foreign influence operation and be very skeptical of the claims that these organizations make and wary of their true goals.

FBI Raid on Gulen Charter School Kenliworth - Today's Zaman

By
 
 
The Gulen Movement only has 1 school remaining in the state of Louisana (Kenliworth) and it has been raided by the FBI. Today's Zaman Gulen's Mouthpiece rag, reported trashy, snarky and inaccurate facts about this case. Todays Zaman couldn't defend their precious Hizmet's actions so they decided to perform yellow and black journalism on the teachers, and journalist from Times Picuyne (Andrew Vandacore)
If any of you think the FBI gives you a heads up on a search warrant you are mistaken, the entire idea is to have it present and give it as your team is gathering evidence this is to protect against tarnished evidence or forewarning.

HERE ARE THE CHEAP ARTICLES FROM TODAYS ZAMAN

todayszaman.com/op-ed_when-a-reporter-becomes-part-of-the-story_253266.html
todayszaman.com/national_media-reports-of-fbi-visit-to-charter-school-inaccurate_334171.html
todayszaman.com/world_abramson-charter-school-officials-reject-the-allegations-of-local-paper_251542.html

If the Schools were not 100% affiliated with the Gulen Movement why would Gulen's Today Zaman show so much interest in this school?

Some of you have asked for a updated status on the 20 charter schools raided by the FBI and the only answer given is they have boxes and boxes to go through which is equivalent to about 3 warehouses plus the headquarters of Concept Schools.

BATON ROUGE - Wednesday evening's FBI raid on a charter school in East Baton Rouge is the latest item in a list of scandals involving the organization that holds the charter for the Kenilworth Science and Technology School.

Pelican Educational Foundation runs the school and has ties to a family from Turkey. The organization lost its school in New Orleans amid allegations of sexual misconduct among students that prompted a state investigation on campuses in the Crescent City and in Baton Rouge. It has also faced lawsuits and allegations from teachers about bad learning environments.
"It was an atmosphere where there was a double standard," one former teacher told WBRZ News 2 in an investigation into the school in EBR. 
Former teachers were not happy with how things were handled when they spoke with a station reporter two years ago.

No one was ever charged in the sex allegations a school spokesperson pointed out Wednesday as federal investigators moved through the campus collecting items, putting them in boxes and then loading them into a van.
"We will continue to cooperate" with the FBI, Mike Lambert, the spokesman said. 
But, he would not comment further.
"We're simply not in a position to say anything else right now," he added.
The school receives about $5,000,000 in local, state, and federal tax money. In 2012, the Pelican group was accused of improperly handling money by the Legislative Auditor. A report found about $8600 was improperly used to buy gifts for students who scored high on LEAP tests.

But, Lambert believes the school is doing its job. He said student performance has increased to a C and that more than half of the students at Kenilworth are at or above grade level. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved Pelican and Kenilworth to continue to operate for about six more years.

About the same time as allegations and lawsuits began dealing with Pelican charter schools, a BESE member took an improper trip on behalf of another Turkish organization. Linda Johnson, who is no longer on BESE, was fined for breaking the law by the ethics board. She got an all expenses paid trip to Turkey.
Kenilworth Science and Technology School will be open Thursday.

Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz
wbrz.com/news/fbi-raid-another-scandal-for-charter-school-company/

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More articles at: http://counterjihadreport.com/tag/fethullah-gulen/



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