Turkish Islamist charter schools in US being investigated

by FBI
Posted on March 21, 2011 by creeping

via U.S. charter-school network with Turkish link draws federal attention

By Martha Woodall and Claudio Gatti | INQUIRER STAFF WRITER FOR THE INQUIRER

Fethullah Gulen is a major Islamic political figure in Turkey, but he lives in self-imposed exile in
a Poconos enclave and gained his green card by convincing a federal judge in Philadelphia that
he was an influential educational figure in the United States.

As evidence, his lawyer pointed to the charter schools, now more than 120 in 25 states, that his
followers – Turkish scientists, engineers, and businessmen – have opened, including Truebright
Science Academy in North Philadelphia and another charter in State College, Pa.

The schools are funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. Truebright alone receives more than $3
million from the Philadelphia School District for its 348 pupils. Tansu Cidav, the acting chief
executive officer, described it as a regular public school.

“Charter schools are public schools,” he said. “We follow the state curriculum.”

But federal agencies – including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education – are
investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a
Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable
sources.

Unlike in Turkey, where Gulen’s followers have been accused of pushing for an authoritarian
Islamic state, there is no indication the American charter network has a religious agenda in the
classroom.

Religious scholars consider the Gulen strain of Islam moderate, and the investigation has no link
to terrorism. Rather, it is focused on whether hundreds of Turkish teachers, administrators, and
other staffers employed under the H1B visa program are misusing taxpayer money.

Federal officials declined to comment on the nationwide inquiry, which is being coordinated by
prosecutors in Pennsylvania’s Middle District in Scranton. A former leader of the parents’ group
at the State College school confirmed that federal authorities had interviewed her.

Bekir Aksoy, who acts as Gulen’s spokesman, said Friday that he knew nothing about charter
schools or an investigation.
Aksoy, president of the Golden Generation Worship & Retreat Center in Saylorsburg, Pa., where
Gulen lives, said Gulen, who is in his early 70s, “has no connection with any of the schools,”
although he might have inspired the people who founded them.

Another aim of the Gulen schools, a federal official said, is fostering goodwill toward Turkey,
which is led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the pro-Islamic prime minister, whose government
recently detained journalists after they alleged that Gulen followers were infiltrating security
agencies.

Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, the schools
received government approvals for 684 visas – more than Google Inc. (440) but fewer than a
technology powerhouse such as Intel Corp. (1,203).

The visas are used to attract foreign workers with math, science, and technology skills to jobs for
which there are shortages of qualified American workers. Officials at some of the charter
schools, which specialize in math and science, have said they needed to fill teaching spots with
Turks, according to parents and former staffers.

Ruth Hocker, former president of the parents’ group at the Young Scholars of Central
Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, began asking questions when popular, certified
American teachers were replaced by uncertified Turkish men who often spoke limited English
and were paid higher salaries. Most were placed in math and science classes.

“They would tell us they couldn’t find qualified American teachers,” Hocker said.

That made no sense in Pennsylvania State University’s hometown, she said: “They graduate here
every year.”

Other school parents described how uncertified teachers on H1B visas were moved from one
charter school to another when their “emergency” teaching credentials expired and told of a
pattern of sudden turnovers of Turkish business managers, administrators, and board members.

The charter school application that Truebright filed with the Philadelphia School District in 2005
mentioned that its founders helped start similar schools in Ohio, California, and Paterson, N.J.

Shana Kemp, a School District spokeswoman, said that the district had just learned Riza Ulker,
Truebright’s permanent CEO, was on extended sick leave and that it would look into that. She
said district officials knew nothing about a federal investigation of these charter schools.

Further evidence of the ties comes from a disaffected former teacher from Turkey who told
federal investigators that the Gulen Movement had divided the United States into five regions,
according to knowledgeable sources. A general manager in each coordinates the activities of the
schools and related foundations and cultural centers, he told authorities.

Ohio, California, and Texas have the largest numbers of Gulen-related schools. Ohio has 19,
which are operated by Concept Schools Inc., and most are known as Horizon Science
Academies. There are 14 in California operated by the Magnolia Foundation. Texas has 33
known as Harmony schools, run by the Cosmos Foundation.

In their investigation, federal authorities have obtained copies of several e-mails that indicate the
charter schools are tied to Hizmet and may be controlled by it:

One activist sent an e-mail Aug. 30, 2007, to administrators at four schools and the president of
Concept Schools in which he mentioned “Hizmet business” and several problems that needed to
be addressed so that “Hizmet will not suffer.”

And the disaffected teacher who described the five regions gave authorities a document called a
tuzuk, which resembles a contract and prescribes how much money Turkish teachers are
supposed to return to Hizmet.

State auditors in Ohio found that a number of schools had “illegally expended” public funding to
pay legal, immigration, and air-travel fees for nonemployees and retained teachers who lacked
proper licenses. Audited records from the Horizon Science Academy in Cincinnati in May 2009
also say that “for the period of time under audit, 47 percent (nine of 19) of the school’s teachers
were not properly licensed.”

The same records show that the founder of Horizon Cincinnati was listed as the CEO of the
school’s management firm and as president of the school’s property owner.

Read it all, and related posts on Gulen schools, which, despite Philly.com’s research, have been
linked to terrorism and a religious agenda.

Texas teachers, Obama envoy, examine and praise Turkish education system

Tucson: Parents concerned about charter school run by Turkish Islamist movement

Infiltrating the U.S. Through Charter Schools

WORLD’S “MOST DANGEROUS ISLAMIST” ALIVE, WELL, AND LIVING IN

PENNSYLVANIA

Infiltrating the U.S. Through Charter Schools?

Posted on April 22, 2009 by creeping

From ACT! for America

For some time we have been researching a Turkish-based Islamist movement that has a
significant network here in the United States. Given Turkey’s history of secular, democratic
government, and some of the remarks made by President Obama in his recent speech there, many
of our members and other readers will likely be surprised by what we have found.

I suspect that even many who are well-read on the issue of Islamism are unfamiliar with the
Fethullah Gulen Community (FGC), a movement a February 2009 article in the respected Jane’s
Islamic Affairs Analyst labeled “Turkey’s third power.” Indeed, the article noted in its Key
Points: “Turkey’s Islamist Gulen movement, while a powerful political force, is largely an
unfamiliar entity to the West.”

The FGC is named after Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam who now lives in the United States.
He fled Turkey in 1998 to avoid prosecution on charges that he was attempting to undermine
Turkey’s secular government with the objective of establish an Islamic government. Since
Gulen’s arrival here the Department of Homeland Security tried to deport him, but he
successfully fought the effort in federal court because it was ruled he was an individual with
“extraordinary ability in the field of education” – although he has no formal education training.

The FGC emerged in Turkey in the 1970′s. According to the Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst
piece, Gulen stated that “in order to reach the ideal Muslim society ‘every method and path is
acceptable, [including] lying to people.’” This public acknowledgment of taqiyya (employing
deception to advance Islam) is highly pertinent to Gulen’s activities here in the United States.

A recent article in the Middle East Quarterly by Rachel Sharon-Kreskin titled “Fethullah Gulen’s
Grand Ambition” sheds light on Gulen’s background:

Gülen was a student and follower of Sheikh Sa’id-i Kurdi (1878-1960), also known as Sa’id-i
Nursi, the founder of the Islamist Nur (light) movement. After Turkey’s war of independence,
Kurdi demanded, in an address to the new parliament, that the new republic be based on Islamic
principles. He turned against Atatürk and his reforms and against the new modern, secular,
Western republic.

Sharon-Kreskin documents how the FGC, in league with Turkey’s ruling party, Adalet ve
Kalkinma Partisi (AKP), has been successful in gradually moving Turkey away from its secular
democratic governance, towards an Islamist state governed by Shariah law, and reorienting itself
toward Iran. What’s more, other evidence suggests that Gulen’s ultimate goal may well be the
resurrection of the Ottoman Empire so as to reinstate the Islamic Caliph. Clearly this has
immensely serious ramifications for geo-political affairs in the Middle East as well as for the
continued rise of radical Islam throughout the world.What makes Gulen particularly dangerous is
his strategic and tactical means to achieving this goal. He oversees a worldwide network of
businesses, schools, foundations and media outlets, with an estimated budget of 25 billion
dollars. Here’s what Gulen had to say in a sermon in 1999 aired on Turkish television:

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, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria … like in the yearly
disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you
are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it … You
must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your
side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey … Until that time, any step taken
would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It
would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I
have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence … trusting your loyalty and
secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you
must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.

Simply put, he is brilliantly and patiently employing taqiyya on a global scale, because this
strategic approach is not confined to Turkey.Here in the U.S. the FGC runs over 90 charter
public schools in at least 20 states. This was brought to our attention by ACT! for America
members who actually have relatives who teach in one of these schools, an illustration of
the growing reach of ACT! for America’s “eyes and ears” across our country. For obvious
reasons we cannot reveal the identity of our sources.

Our readers may be familiar with the numerous emails we have released regarding the operation
of the Tarek ibn Zayed Academy (TiZA), a publicly funded charter school in Minnesota that is
so blatantly Islamic in nature that the Minnesota Department of Education issued two citations
against it and the ACLU is suing it. FGC schools appear to be very different, and reflect the
Gulen’s exhortation to “move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your
existence until you reach all the power centers…”

Indeed, the fact that so little has been written about the FGC schools here in the U.S., as well as
the accolades that have been accorded the FGC as a model of “moderation” by some in our
government, would appear to confirm that the FGC and its schools are doing an excellent job of
heeding Gulen’s exhortation and masking their true intent.

During several discussions and emails with our sources inside FGC schools, I asked specifically
if the schools promote Islam in the way that the TiZA school in Minnesota does. I was told that
this was not the case in the schools these sources were familiar with. However, one particular
school (and likely numerous others) appears to be in violation of state law because the school’s
affidavit for its charter does not acknowledge that it is connected with a religious institution or
group. In other words, those who chartered this school practiced taqiyya by hiding this fact.
(Enterprising readers may want to research this with respect to FGC schools around the country.
For a list of the FGC network in America and its schools, click here).

What’s more, the schools appear to be a source of recruitment for outside school activities
sponsored by the FGC, such as summer camps, which would be in keeping with the pattern of
recruitment of members and followers that FGC employs worldwide, according to both the
Jane’s and Middle East Quarterly articles.

As a further example of the use of taqiyya, the Jane’s article gives examples of how FGC’s
Turkish language media outlet Zaman runs stories with information and headlines that are
missing from the English language media outlet Today’s Zaman. This practice of two different
messages, one to the indigenous Islamic population and one to the West, is common in the
Islamic world, and has led many in the West, including political leaders and academics, to be
misled as to the true intentions of Islamists.

In building a sophisticated and well-funded worldwide network, including a substantial presence

here in the U.S., Fethullah Gulen is following in the footsteps and exhortations of Mohammed,
who counseled patience and deception as a means of overcoming the infidel when the power of
the infidel was greater than the power of the umma, the Muslim community. In a very real sense
this is as or more sinister than the frontal assault strategy of Islamist organizations such as al
Qaeda and Hamas, because, like the proverbial “frog in the kettle,” we are incrementally “boiled
alive” without realizing it.

For years American Congress for Truth, and now its “sister” organization ACT! for America,
have been ringing the alarm bells about what is variously known as “cultural jihad,” “creeping
jihad,” “stealth jihad,” and “creeping shariah.” Much of Europe and Great Britain has been
Islamized through this process, a process that invariably does not lead to peaceful coexistence
between Muslims and non-Muslims, but leads to Islamic self-segregation, increased Islamist
militancy and aggression, and the eventual forced imposition of Islamic shariah law within the
society.

The FGC charter schools in America may outwardly appear innocuous, but they are serving a
greater and long-range objective of Fethullah Gulen. We in the West need to be less gullible and
more discerning when it comes to the elements of “stealth jihad” within our midst.

Guy Rodgers is Executive Director of ACT! for America.

Note: Articles listed under “Middle East studies in the News” provide information on current
developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do
not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus
Watch’s critique.

More from Discover the Networks:

“In 1983, [then-] Colonel Yasar Buyukanit was commander of the Kuleli Military High School.
[At that time] the newly organized community of [Turkish Islamist sect leader] Fethullah
[Gulen] – which is now very widespread – managed to infiltrate [the Kuleli School, enrolling]
80 of their students in it. These students would have become future commanders! [...] A
disciplinary committee, of five officers headed by Buyukanit, expelled all 80. [...]

“The plot was led by Fethullah’s daily newspaper Zaman, and religionist [i.e. Islamist] and
divisive [separatist] websites… […] Some years ago, Fethullah Gulen targeted [another military
leader,] Air Force commander Gen. Ahmet Corekci – because Gen. Corekci had identified, one
by one, Fethullah’s officers and NCOs in the Air Force… […]
The Fethullahists have the political power to influence the judiciary, direct the media, and even
intimidate bank owners by threatening that their followers might withdraw all their funds from
their banks… It is a fact that Fethullahists know how to use their political and economic power
very well. They are experts in inserting their influence into the judiciary, the police, politics and
the economy [of the country] […]” [14]

More from www.turkishforum.com.tr

FETULLAH GULEN Schools in the US:

Arizona

Schools Operated by Daisy Education Corporation

Sonorant Science Academy-Tucson Middle-High School 2325 W Sunset Rd., Tucson, AZ 85741

Sonorant Science Academy-Tucson Elementary School 2325 W Sunset Rd., Tucson, AZ 85741

Sonorant Science Academy-Broadway Kindergarten – Grade 8 6880

E Broadway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85710

Sonoran Science Academy-Phoenix Kindergarten – Grade 10 4837

E McDowell Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85008

Daisy Early Learning Academy 2325

W Sunset Rd., Tucson, AZ 85741

Davis Monthan Air Force Base *Opening 2009*

Arkansas

Lisa Academy 21 Corporate Hill Dr., Little Rock, AR 72205

Lisa Academy-North 5410 Landers Rd Sherwood, AR 72117

California

Magnolia Science Academy 1 18238 Sherman Way

Reseda, CA 91335

Magnolia Science Academy 2 18425 Kittridge St Reseda, CA 91335

Magnolia Science Academy 3 1444 W Rosecrans Ave Gardena, CA

90249

Magnolia Science Academy 4 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd Venice, CA

90291

Magnolia Science Academy 5 1530 N Wilton Pl Hollywood, CA 90028

Magnolia Science Academy San Carlos

Momentum Middle School 6365 Lake Atlin, San Diego, CA 92119

Bay Area Technology School (Bay Tech) 4521 Webster St. Oakland,CA 94609

Pacific Technology School-San Juan *Opening 2009*

Pacific Technology School-Santa Ana *Opening 2009*

Colorado

Lotus School for Excellence Aurora, CO.

Florida

Orlando Science Middle School 2427 Lynx Lane. Orlando, FL 32804

River City Science Academy 3266 Southside Blvd., Jacksonville, FL

Sweet water Branch Academy 1000 NE 16th Ave. Building C Gainesville, FL 32601

Stars Middle School 1234 Blountstown Highway, Tallahassee, FL 32304

Georgia

Fulton Science Academy Middle School 1675Hembree Rd Alpharetta GA 30009

Technology Enriched Accelerated Charter High School 4100 Old Milton Pkwy, Alpharetta, GA
30005

Illinois

Science Academy of Chicago Grade 1-Grade 8 8350 N.

Greenwood Ave, Niles, IL 60714

Chicago Math and Science Academy Secondary School 1705 West Lunt Ave,

Chicago, IL 60626

Indiana

Operated by Concept Schools, Inc.

Indiana Math and Science Academy Grade 6-Grade 12 4575 W 38th Street, Indianapolis, IN
46254

Louisiana

Abramson Science and Technology 5552 Read Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70127

Maryland

Chesapeake Science Point Secondary School 1321 Mercedes Drive Suite QS,Hanover, MD
21076

Massachusetts

Pioneer Charter School of Science Grade 7- Grade 10 51-59 Summer Street, Everett MA, 02149

Missouri

Broadside-Frontier Math and Science School Secondary School 5605 Troost Kansas City, MO
64110

Broadside Charter and Day School Elementary School

5220 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO 64110

Nevada

Coral Academy of Science-Las Vegas 8185 Tamarus St., Las

Vegas, NV 89123

Coral Academy of Science-Reno Secondary School 1350 East Ninth Street

Reno, NV 89512

Coral Academy of Science- Reno Elementary School 1701 Valley Road Reno, NV

89512
New Jersey

Bergen Arts and Science Charter School K-8 200

MacArthur Ave, Garfield, NJ, 07026

Paterson Charter School For Science And Technology

276 Wabash Ave., Paterson, NJ 07503

Tuition Schools

Pioneer Academy of Science K-12 366 Clifton

Avenue, Clifton, NJ 07011

Ohio

Operated by Concept Schools, Inc.

Horizon Science Academy-Cincinnati Middle School-High School 1055

Laidlaw Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45237

Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland High School 6000

South Marginal Rd., Cleveland, OH 44103

Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School 6100

South Marginal Rd. Cleveland, OH 44103

Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Elementary School 6150

South Marginal Rd. Cleveland, OH 44103

Horizon Science Academy-Columbus High School 1070

Morse Rd. Columbus, OH 43229

Horizon Science Academy-Columbus Middle School 1341

Bethele Road Columbus, Ohio 43220

Horizon Science Academy-Columbus Elementary School 2835

Morse Rd., Columbus, OH 43231

Horizon Science Academy-Dayton 545

Odlin Ave Dayton,OH 45405

HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY – DENISON K-1, Grade 4-Grade 8 1700

Denison Avenue, Cleveland OH 44109

HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY – SPRINGFIELD Grade 5- Grade 8 630

South Reynolds Road, Toledo, OH 43615-6314

HORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY – TOLEDO High School 425

Jefferson Avenue, Toledo, OH 43604-1060

Noble Academy-Columbus K-Grade 8 1329

Bethel Road Columbus, Ohio – 43220

Noble Academy-Cleveland 1200 E.

200th Street Euclid, Ohio 44117

Oklahoma

Schools operated under the Cosmos Foundation, TX.

Dove Science Academy-OKC Secondary School 919 NW 23rd St. Oklahoma City,

OK 73106

Dove Science Academy-OKC Elementary School 4901 N Lincoln Blvd. Oklahoma

City, OK 73105

Dove Science Academy-Tulsa 280 S Memorial Dr.

Tulsa,OK 74112

Tuition school affiliated with Raindrop Turkish House

Bluebonnet Learning Center of Tulsa Nursery, Pre-School and Pre-Kindereducation 280 S

Memorial Dr., Tulsa, OK 74112
Pennsylvania

Truebright Science Academy Secondary School 926 West Sedgley

Avenue, Philadelphia PA, 19132

Snowdrop Science Academy Pre-school – Grade 7 233 Seaman

Lane, Monroeville, PA 15146

Texas

Operated by The Cosmos Foundation

Harmony Science Academy-Austin Secondary School 930

East Rundberg Lane Austin,TX 78753

Harmony School of Science-Austin Kindergarten- Grade 8 11800 Stonehollow

Dr. Suite 100 Austin, TX 78758

Harmony Science Academy-North Austin Grade 6- Grade 10 1421 Wells Branch

Pkwy W Suite 200 Pflugerville, TX78660

Harmony Science Academy-Beaumont Kindergarten- Grade 10 4055 Calder Ave,

Beaumont, TX 77706

Harmony Science Academy-Brownsville

Harmony Science Academy-Bryan/ College Station

Harmony Science Academy-Dallas Secondary School 11995 Forestgate Dr

Dallas,TX 75243

Harmony Science Academy-Dallas Elementary School 11995 Forestgate Dr

Dallas,TX 75243

Harmony Science Academy- El Paso 9405 Betel Dr. 79907 El Paso, TX

Harmony Science Academy-Fort Worth

Harmony Science Academy-Grand Prairie 1102 NW 7th St, Grand Prairie, TX

75050

Harmony Science Academy-Houston Secondary School 5435 S. Braeswood,

Houston, TX 77096

Harmony School of Excellence-Houston Elementary-Secondar y y School 7340 N

Gessner Rd, Houston, TX, 77040

Harmony School of Innovation-Houston 9421 West Sam Houston Parkway S,Houston, TX

77099

Harmony School of Science-Houston 13415 W Belford Ave. Sugar Land, TX 77478

Harmony Science Academy-Northwest Kindergarten- Grade 10 16200 Tomball

Pkwy (SH 249), Houston, TX 77086

Harmony Science Academy-Laredo 4401 San Francisco Avenue Laredo, TX 78041

Harmony Science Academy-Lubbock 1516 53rd Street, Lubbock, TX 79412

Harmony Science Academy-San Antonio 8505 Lakeside Parkway San Antonio, TX, 78245

Harmony Science Academy-Wako 1900 N. Valley Mills Dr. WACO, TX 76710

Texas Gulf Institute Career Center Adult Education 9431 W Sam Houston  Pkwy S #203,
Houston, TX 77099

Riverwalk Education Foundation, Inc

School of Science and Technology Discovery K-12 5707 Bandera Road, Leon Valley, TX 78238

School of Science and Technology-San Antonio Secondary School

1450 NE LOOP 410, San Antonio, TX 78209-1543

School of Science and Technology-Corpus Christi

Tuition schools affiliated with Raindrop Turkish House

Bluebonnet Learning Center of Houston Nursery, Pre-School and Pre-Kindereducation 9303 W

Sam Houston Parkway South Suit 200, Houston, TX 77099
Bluebonnet Learning Center of Dallas Nursery, Pre-School and Pre-Kinder education 1416 E
Collins Blvd., Richardson, TX 75081

Bluebonnet Learning Center of El Paso Nursery, Pre-School and

Pre-Kinder education 9405 Betel Dr., El Paso, Texas 79907

Utah

Beehive Science and Technology Academy Secondary School 1011 Murray Holiday Rd., Salt
Lake City, UT 84117

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Career Academy Middle-High School 4801 S 2nd St., Milwaukee, WI 53207