============================================================
For these reasons, I am cross-posting my 2 posts from the thread below for TM so that we have a succinct compilation of FETHULLAH GULEN on the new TM thread. It is by no means exhaustive, but it's a start:
Clinton Adviser Denies Endorsement of Turkish Islamist Paper [Zaman flagship-Gülen's Islamist cult]
He's baaack!
BTW, what happened with this?
"Fethullah Gulen, dubbed “the most dangerous Islamist on planet earth,” is now under investigation by the F.B.I. for his network of charter schools throughout the country."
March 2011 --- FBI Launches investigation of Gulen and his movement
Fethullah Gulen --- more than meets the eye:
You got it all wrong! /sarc
Fethullah Gulen is one of the protected class---a brand franchise promoting peace, understanding, respect, and tolerance
Fethullah Gulen’s discourse cherishes and his life exemplifies values like empathic acceptance, altruistic service of one’s community and humanity in general, complementary roles of the intellect and the heart, sincerity, holistic view of the human, deepening faith and love of the creation.
He is noted for his pro-democracy, pro-science, pro-dialogue and non-violence stances in critical junctures of the history of his society. In July 2008, Fethullah Gulen was listed among the top hundred public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy magazine .
Qualifications
Extensive knowledge and teaching experience in Islamic scholarship. Proficient author with more than sixty books translated into many world languages. Recognized as the world's top public intellectual in Foreign Policy / Prospect poll in 2008. Years of service as an imam, preacher, and civil society activist with acclaimed competence as a speaker on Islam, education, and dialogue in Turkey.
Education
Classical education in Islamic scholarship at various divinity schools (Kurşunlu, Kemhan, Taşmescid) under a number of Turkey's renowned Sufi scholars and masters, such as Ramiz Gülen, Muhammed Lütfi, Haci Sıtkı, Sadi Efendi, and Osman Bektaş (1951–1956)
Compulsory elementary education (1946–1949)
Home schooling along with memorization of the whole Qur'an and mastering recitation skills (before 1946)
Employment
Imam / Preacher
* Voluntary Imam / Preacher, Erzurum, Amasya, Tokat, Sivas (1955–1958)
* Deputy Imam, Üçşerefeli Mosque, Edirne (1959–1961)
* Imam / Lecturer, Iskenderun, while serving compulsory military service (1961–1963)
* Member of the Public Hall, Erzurum (1963). Convened conferences and lectured on Rumi
* Qur'an Teacher / Imam, Dar'ul Hadis Mosque, Edirne (1964)
* Senior Preacher (Merkez Vaizi), Kırklareli (1965)
* Senior Preacher, Izmir (1966–1971)
* Director / Teacher, Kestanepazarı Boarding Qur'anic School (1966–1971)
* Senior Preacher, Edremit (1972–1974)
* Senior Preacher, Manisa (1974–1976)
* Senior Preacher, Izmir, Bornova (1976–1980)
* Voluntary Preacher, Istanbul, Izmir, and throughout Turkey (post-retirement service) (1986–1989)
Speaker
* Delivered a series of talks in Turkey and Europe (1975–1977)
* Talks on social, cultural, and religious matters recorded and broadcast every week on www.herkul.org (2003– present)
Honorary President / Civil Society Leader
* Founder member of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (1994)
* Participated in interfaith gatherings and promoted dialogue through a number of events organized by this foundation. (1994–1998)
* Honorary president of Rumi Forum, Washington D.C. (1999–present)
The Gülen Institute was established in October 2007 as a non-profit organization and a joint initiative of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and the Institute of Interfaith Dialog.
The perspectives of the institute are inspired by the life and works of the distinguished contemporary scholar and civic leader Fethullah Gülen. Visit Fethullah Gulen Forum for updates on Mr. Gulen and Gulen Movement.
Dialog of Civilizations Platform on January 23, 2010
Luncheon Forum: Dr. Robert Pape
"Occupation, violence and religion: A look at dynamics of conflicts in the light of Afghanistan troop surge"
Gulen Institute welcomes Dr. Robert A. Pape, a distinguished political science professor, from the University of Chicago at a luncheon forum.
This luncheon will take place during the Dialog of Civilizations Platform on January 23, 2010. After Dr. Pape's speech, there will be a session where high school students participate as panelists. Their topic is 'Improving Family Relations".
OPENING REMARKS: Harris County Judge Ed Emmett 
SESSION: Social Conflicts and Peaceful Coexistence
SESSION: Substance Abuse and Youth
HIGH SCHOOLS SESSION: Improving Family Relations
SESSION: Public Role of Women around the World
SESSION: Poverty and Social Justice
Hon. Kofi Annan at the Gülen Institute
April 12, 2010
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997-2006
Nobel Peace Prize Recipient
Speech Topic: The Global Compact: Challenging Business to Become Leading Actors in Sustainable Development
Gülen Institute's Youtube Channel
Fethullah Gulen Conference.org
International Conferences on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish Muslim scholar, thinker, author, poet, opinion leader, educational activist, and preacher emeritus. He is regarded as the initiator and inspirer of the worldwide social movement of human values known as the Hizmet (Service) Movement or the Gülen Movement.>
2005 Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
November 12-13, 2005, Rice University, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
2006 The Second International Conference on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
March 4-5, 2006, Southern Methodist University, Dallas,
2006 The Second Annual Conference on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
November 4-5, 2006, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
2007 The Third Annual Conference on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
November 3, 2007, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio,
2009 The Fifth International Conference on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice
March 6-7, 2009, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A.
NOTE: There is no information on the Fourth International Conference on the website
Fethullah Gulen Forum is an online discussion board of issues related to Fethullah Gülen. By creating active discussions, FG Forum aims to offer in depth analysis on Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen Movement.
Recent Articles
* Defamation of Gulen as a Smoke Screen Abdullah Ademoglu. April 5, 2010
* Responses to Soner Cagaptay Fethullah Gulen Forum. March 13, 2010
* Fethullah Gülen: Spiritual Leader in a Global Islamic Context Salih Yucel, PhD- Journal of Religion and Society. February 4, 2010
* Fethullah Gülen and Al-Ghazzali on Tolerance J. B. Schlubach, Ph.D.. January 7, 2010
* Fethullah Gulen's Thoughts on State, Democracy, Politics, Terrorism and ... Zeki Saritoprak, PhD.
* “Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article Dogan Koc. January 29, 2010
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Exclusive: World’s ‘Most Dangerous Islamist’ Alive, Well, and Living in Pennsylvania============================================================
Paul Williams, PhD
An Islamic Armed Fortress Emerges in the Pocono Mountains The most dangerous Islamist in the world is neither Afghani nor Arab.
He comes from neither Sudan nor Somalia.
And he resides in neither the mountains of Pakistan nor the deserts of the Palestinian territories.
This individual has toppled the secular government of Turkey and established madrassahs throughout the world. His schools indoctrinate children in the tenets of radical Islam and prepare adolescents for the Islamization of the world.
More than 90 of these madrassahs have been established as charter schools throughout the United States. They are funded by American taxpayers.
One of these charter schools – Tarek ibn Zayed Academy (TiZA) in Minnesota – is so radically Islamic and subversive in nature that the Minnesota Department of Education issued two citations against it and the American Civil Liberties Union is suing it. Dozens of his universities, including the Faith University in Istabul, train young men to become lawyers, accountants, and political leaders so that they can take an active part in the restoration of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamization of the Western World. He also allegedly operates compounds to train jihadis in the tactics of guerilla warfare.
This individual has amasssed a fortune – over $30 billion – for the creation of a universal caliphate. His name is Fethullan Gulen and he resides not in the wilds of southern Turkey – but the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
From his fortess headquarters, located on 28 acres at 1857 Mt. Eaton Road in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Gulen plots the overthrow of secular governments and oversees the spread of education jihad throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Gulen is surrounded by an army of over 100 Turkish Islamists, who guard him and tend to his needs. The army is comprised of armed militants who wear suits and ties and do not look like traditional Islamists in cloaks and turbans. They follow their hocaefendi's (master lord’s) orders and even refrain from marrying until age 50 per his instructions. When they do marry, their spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner, as dictated by Gulen himself.
The Saylorsburg property consists of a massive chalet surrounded by numerous out buildings, including recreational centers, dormitories, cabins for visiting foreign dignitaries, a helicopter pad, and firing ranges.
Neighbors complain of the incessant sounds of gunfire – including the rat-tat-tat of fully automatic weapons – coming from the compound and the low flying helicopter that circles the area in search of all intruders. The FBI has been called to the scene, the neighbors say, but no action has been taken to end the illegal activity. Sentries stand guard at the gates to the estate to turn away all curiosity seekers.
Within the sentry hut are wide screen televisions that project high resolution images from security cameras. Before the hut is a sign that reads “Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center.”
It’s hard for the local residents to understand that the Muslim who operates this compound is not an American political or intelligence official – but rather a radical Islamist from Turkey.
Gulen fled Turkey in 1998 to avoid prosecution on charges that he was attempting to undermine Turkey’s secular government with the objective of establishing an Islamic government. Since his arrival in Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security has been trying to deport him. But in 2008 a federal court ruled that Gulan was an individual with “extraordinary ability in the field of education” who merited permanent residence status in the U.S.
The ruling remains quizzical because Gulen has no formal education or training.
Gulen, according to the Middle East Quarterly, 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. How powerful is Gulen? And why is he such a threat to America and the Western world?
Consider this.
Turkey is now ruled by the Justice and Democratic Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP)- - a party under the Gulen’s control. Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s first Islamist President, is a Gulen disciple along with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education.
Under the AKP, Turkey has transformed from a secular state into an Islamic country with 85,000 active mosques – one for every 350- citizens – the highest number per capita in the world, 90,000 imams, more imams than teachers and physicians – and thousands of state-run Islamic schools.
Despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Turkey has transferred its alliance from Europe and the United States to Russia and Iran. It has moved toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria and created a pervasive anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-America animus throughout the populace.
Speaking on Monday at the inauguration ceremony of "TRT al Turkiye," the new channel of the state run TV station TRT, Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey will always be on the side of Muslims wherever they are.
Gulen’s tentacles stretch throughout the country since his followers, known as Fethullahists, have gained control of the country’s media outlets, its financial institutions and banks, and its business organizations. According to Bayram Balci, a Turkish scholar, the Gulen schools that have been established throughout the world seek to expand “the Islamization of Turkish nationality and the Turification of Islam” in order to bring about a universal caliphate ruled by Islamic law.
Several countries have outlawed the establishment of Gulen schools and cemaats (communities) within their borders – including Russia and Uzbekistan. Even the Netherlands, a nation that embraces pluralism and tolerance, has opted to cut funding to the Gulen schools because of their imminent threat to the social order. But Gulen’s activities in the United States, including the establishment of an armed fortress in the midst of the Pocono Mountains, have escaped national press attention.
In his public statements, Gulen espouses a liberal version of Sunni/Hanafi Islam and promotes the Muslim notion of hizmet – altruistic service to the common good. Despite the paramilitary training at his Pocono fortress, Gulen has condemned terrorism and called for interfaith dialogue. He has met with Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.
In private, Gulen has stated that “in order to reach the ideal Muslim society ‘every method and path is acceptable, [including] lying to people.’”
In a sermon that was aired on Turkish television, Gulen said:
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.
Why has the federal government opted to turn a blind eye to Gulen and his mountain fortress?
Why have Gulen’s madrassahs been kept under the radar screen of Hoimeland Security?
Why have the CIA and FBI allowed Gulen to wreck havoc and topple secular governments without interruption or intervention?
The questions beg answers.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Paul L. Williams is the author of The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, The Al Qaeda Connection, and other best-selling books. He is a frequent guest on such national news networks as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR. Visit his website at http://thelastcrusade.org.
FR THREAD: What is Islam's Gulen movement?
FBI Launches investigation of Gulen and his movement
"Court records show that Gulen has amassed assets in excess of $25 billion."
"The kick-backs are allegedly used to establish more schools - - all of which are funded by U.S. taxpayers. "
"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). The Harmony School, a Gulen-related institution, has applied for more H1B visas than any educational institution in the country." ~~~~~~~~~~~~`
"A principal aim of the Gulen schools, a federal official said, is to foster political support and goodwill toward Turkey, which is governed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a party created by Gulen from his 45-acre estate in Pennsylvania.
[Note to self: Can this be true?]
"Students, according to sources, are “brain-washed” to support the AKP and to take part in Gulen’s grandiose plan to restore the Ottoman Empire. the pro-Islamic prime minister, whose government recently detained journalists after they alleged that Gulen followers were infiltrating security agencies.
"Under the AKP, Turkey has transformed from a secular state into an Islamic country with 85,000 active mosques - - one for every 350- citizens - - the highest number per capita in the world, 90,000 imams, more imams than teachers and physicians - - and thousands of state-run Islamic schools."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey's Islamist Danger --- Winter 2009
As Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) begins its seventh year in leadership, Turkey is no longer the secular and democratic country that it was when the party took over. The AKP has conquered the bureaucracy and changed Turkey's fundamental identity. Prior to the AKP's rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe.
Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased.
Behind Turkey's transformation has been not only the impressive AKP political machine but also a shadowy Islamist sect led by the mysterious hocaefendi (master lord) Fethullah Gülen; the sect often bills itself as a proponent of tolerance and dialogue but works toward purposes quite the opposite. Today, Gülen and his backers (Fethullahcılar, Fethullahists) not only seek to influence government but also to become the government.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Turkey's AKP: a skilful leader and a tightening grip --- Dec 2011
"Every election in Turkey is seen as a referendum on Erdogan. “There’s no AKP without Erdogan,” said political scientist and Turkey specialist Dorothée Schmid of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). “He has all the power, and once again he has largely dominated the electoral campaign.”"
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GULEN-LED COUP — TURKEY FALLS TO ISLAMISTS
[NOTE: I borrowed the html, but the additional links are too fascinating to cut]
GULEN-LED COUP — TURKEY FALLS TO ISLAMISTS
By Donna Garner and Alice Linahan
While most of us have been focused on the U. S. debt ceiling and the serious implications for the world’s financial markets, meanwhile another country has just fallen to the Islamists: Turkey.
Turkey has been friendly toward the United States for many years, and one of our largest bases is in Incirlik, Turkey. This base is essential to our operations in the Middle East.
This last Thursday (7.29.11) Reuters News Service and the British Broadcasting Company broke the news that the Islamic Prime Minister of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, had seized control of the government and the military when Turkey’s top four military commanders (secularists who have stood against Turkey becoming an Islamist state) resigned under pressure.These four commanders were in charge of the Turkish air, navy, and land forces. Erdogan’s own choice for commander has now been put in charge of the Turkish military.
DISCREDITING MILITARY COMMANDERS
During the two years leading up to last Thursday, Erdogan and his AKP party have put over 400 people on trial in hearings dominated by Erdogan-appointed judges, including 250 military personnel (almost 10% of their military senior commanders).
More than 58 journalists have been detained without due process for speaking out about the Erdogan government.
On 7.25.11, The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to the Turkish Minister of Justice protesting the detainments. The letter specifically objected to the seizure by the Turkish police of a draft of Ahmet Şık’s unpublished book, The Imam’s Army, that details the influence of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen on the Turkish state.
Turkish citizens believe the charges are trumped up in order to discredit those who believe in keeping Turkey a secularist (pro-American/pro-Israeli/pro-European) state.
TURKISH PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN A FOLLOWER OF FETHULLAH GULEN
Erdogan is a follower of Fethullah Gulen. Since Erdogan took over as Prime Minister in 2002, Gulen/Erdogan/AKP have allegedly orchestrated two trumped up plots called “Ergenekon” and “Sledgehammer.”
FIRST REASON WHY AMERICA SHOULD BE WORRIED
The first reason that we Americans should be concerned about the Islamist coup in Turkey is that Turkey is a member of NATO; and on March 28, 2011, our own President, pro-Muslim Obama, placed our coalition military operations in Libya under NATO control.
This means that our U. S. military personnel fighting under the NATO flag are partially controlled by Turkey which has now turned against America and Israel and is well on its way to becoming an Islamic state. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO.
SECOND REASON WHY AMERICA SHOULD BE WORRIED
Our second reason for concern is that Fethullah Gulen lives in Pennsylvania, runs his $25 billion international network from there, and is tied to hundreds of Gulen charter schools right here in the United States. (Texas alone has 36 of these Gulen charter schools.)
Gulen plans to take America over in almost exactly the same way that he has taken Turkey over — through the indoctrination of our school children; and ironically, we taxpayers are paying for his Gulen charter schools.
FETHULLAH GULEN BEHIND ENROGAN
Who is behind Turkish Prime Minister Enrogan and the AKP? Fethullah Gulen is an Islamist imam who is considered by many to be the “most dangerous man in the world.”
As Ahmet Sik, a Turkish journalist now under arrest, was being dragged away to jail by the Turkish security forces, he yelled, “Whoever touches the Gulen movement gets burned!”
GULENIST BELIEFS
Turkey’s ruling party is the AKP led by Prime Minister Erdogan. He is a Muslim, believes in Sharia law, and is a follower of Fethullah Gulen.
Erdogan was elected in 2003 and was recently re-elected in June 2011 because working in clandestine operations with the Gulenists, he has been able to control and coerce the Turkish masses through fear.
Two of the basic tenets that Fethullah Gulen uses to indoctrinate his followers at an early age are (1) “taquiya” which is an Islam belief that permits them to lie to “infidels” (i.e., anyone who is not a Muslim), and (2) total secrecy — a belief that if a person never shares a secret, then he never has to worry about his secrets becoming known. In fact, secrecy is an obsession for Gulenists. In Pearls of Wisdom, Gulen explains, “The secret is your slave but you become its slave if you disclose it.”
Dr. Aland Mizell, a leading Gulenist researcher, stated:
What Gulenists want is total power and one-man rule; they want a status so that none could dare to object to them or to their leader, because they sincerely believe that Allah has chosen them to disseminate their brand of Turkish Islam to the world, and therefore that everything they do is right and without mistakes.
THE GULENIST PLOT TO OVERTHROW TURKEY
Prior to Gulen/AKP/Erdogan, Turkey was pro-America, pro-Israel, and pro-European. Turkey is one of 28 members of NATO but has the second-largest army.
Now Gulen/AKP/Erdogan have formed close alliances with Russia, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria.
Gulen has set the political agenda in Turkey using his followers in AKP.
Gulen controls a worldwide, $25 billion network of media, financial institutions, associations, and foundations.
Gulen is an Islamist imam who considers himself to be a prophet.
His sermons indicate that he intends for Turkey and the entire world to become Islamist and to follow Sharia law. He wants to establish a caliph and the re-establishment of the Ottoman Empire. Several years ago, Turkish television aired footage of Gulen saying:
You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers…You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it…The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web…
In 1971, Gulen was arrested in Turkey for holding secret religious activities in which he ran illegal summer camps to indoctrinate youth.
Gulen has groomed his image to make him look as if he is a “tolerant” Muslim, but he is actually a follower of Sa’id-I Nursi, the founder of the Islamist Nur (light) movement.
Gulen/Nur intend for Islamists to take over the world and establish an Islamic caliphate that follows Sharia law.
In 1998, Gulen escaped to America to avoid being questioned about his involvement to overthrow Turkey’s pro-American/pro-Israel government.
Bill Clinton was President at the time. Bill and Hillary Clinton and the CIA welcomed Gulen and promoted him as being an outstanding scholar who represented a peaceful, “secular” form of Islam.
When President George W. Bush took office in January 2001 and America experienced the radical Muslim terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Bush administration (along with Karen Hughes who now promotes the Gulen charter schools) evidently wanted to appear to be “politically correct” and, therefore, fell for Gulen’s lies.
Now the United States has a Muslim-friendly President in the White House who has appointed Dalia Mogahed as his Muslim advisor. Mogahed is a Gulenist.
GULEN’S LIFE IN AMERICA
Gulen lives in eastern Pennsylvania with 100 followers who guard him and tend to his needs. His male followers try to blend into American society by wearing suits and ties, and they do not marry until age 50. Their spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner as dictated by Gulen.
Gulen runs his international network from Pennsylvania, and he and his next-in-command (Nurettin Veren) say they control 75% of the schools and universities in Turkey plus hundreds of schools in 110 countries worldwide.
Gulenists have targeted children to indoctrinate them to become the ruling class of the Islamist, Turkish state. Under Erdogan, textbooks have been changed, Islam has been emphasized, and thousands of imams have been placed into positions as teachers and administrators in the schools.
GULENIST-EDUCATED CHILDREN NOW IN HIGH PLACES
In an interview in 2008, Veren said, “Children whom we educated in Turkey are now in the highest positions. There are governors, judges, military officers. There are ministers in the government. They consult Gulen before doing anything.”
Gulenists have also taken over the 200,000 Turkish police force. Veren said, “There are imam security directors; imams wearing police uniforms. Many police commissioners get their orders from imams.”
Those in the police academies who were not Gulenists were dismissed, and the AKP promotes only those officers who are totally dedicated to Gulen.
In 2008 Endogan ordered the arrests of the people who were speaking out against this Gulen takeover.
Wiretapping by Gulenists has penetrated Turkey to the highest levels, and they have managed to restrist technology so that secretly recorded meetings of those opposed to Gulen/AKP/Erdogan have been made public.
Turkish journalists have also had their wires tapped because the head of the police wiretapping unit is a Gulenist.
Anti-AKP demonstrators have experienced violent police brutality, and private citizens who have spoken out about Erdogan/AKP have been abducted and brutalized.
TURKISH INSTITUTIONS FALL TO GULENISTS
Traditionally, the Turkish military has been the guarantor of the Constitution; but now according to Veren (Gulen’s top man), the Gulenists have entrenched themselves within the military also. Veren stated:
The Fethullahist military officers were once our students, who we financially supported, educated, and assisted. When these grateful children graduated and reached influential positions, they put themselves and their positions at the service of Fethullah Gulen…when Gulen students graduate from the police or military academies — as do the new doctors and lawyers — they present their first salaries to Fethullah Gulen as a gesture of their gratitude.
Gulenists have also taken over the Turkish court system because Erdogan replaced thousands of judges and prosecutors with his own AKP/Gulen followers. Anybody applying for judgeships has to pass an AKP review.
In years past, the Turkish media used to be relentless about exposing government corruption; but when Erdogan came to power in his first term, he filed “frivolous” lawsuits against 63 journalists in 16 publications. This successfully dissuaded journalists’ from ferreting out corruption.
During Erdogan’s ten year rule, his government has seized control of Sabah-ATV, which was Turkey’s second largest media group. Then Erdogan made his son-in-law the CEO of the group.
Now nine of the leading TV, radio stations, and newspapers are all owned by AKP/Gulen.
It is no wonder that Erdogan won re-election in June 2011 since he and the AKP controlled most of the media, the military, the security forces, and the courts.
GULEN — THREAT TO AMERICA
Homeland Security and the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service tried to deny Gulen permanent residence in the Unites States. In 2008 Gulen brought a lawsuit against Michael Chertoff of Homeland Security. The Department contended that Gulen did not meet the definition of a person with “extraordinary ability in the field of education” but that he was actually a “leader of a large and influential religious and political movement with immense commercial holdings.” The State tried to prove that the acclaim that Gulen touted was actually sponsored or financed by his own movement.
Gulen evidently managed to “pay off” enough institutions and high-profile people to mount pressure to get his status reversed, and the 29 letters of reference that he filed with his motion came from theologians or Turkish political figures closely associated with his Gulenist movement. The judge ruled in Gulen’s favor, and now he can stay in the United States permanently.
SPREAD OF GULEN SCHOOLS IN TEXAS
One of the most disheartening reports has been the connections of former executive director of the Republican Party and trusted advisor to President George W. Bush, Karen Hughes and her close ties to the Gulen/Cosmos Foundation’s Harmony Schools here in Texas. As you can hear in this video Ms. Hughes is very interested in promoting Harmony Science Charter Schools and accessing Texas tax dollars to create competition for public schools by funding the Gulen/Harmony charter schools.
In a bold move, the Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Charter Schools have now branched out from their usual “math and science” venues into a brand new school to open soon in Austin, Texas.
This new Gulen school will be called the Harmony School of Political Science. This means that at taxpayers’ expense, Turkish teachers (many of whom are here on H-1 visas and are Muslims) will be teaching our students “American” history. Can you imagine how these teachers who can hardly speak English and are fresh from Turkey will present such historically significant elements as the Holocaust, the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution?
Yes, all teachers in Texas (including those in the Gulen schools) are to follow the state-approved curriculum requirements; but nothing constrains teachers from teaching those requirements with a particular political spin. Since almost all of the terrorists who have declared jihad against Americans are Muslims, then it should make us very skeptical about having Muslim teachers teach our Texas students to love, respect, and appreciate America.
ACTION STEP
A protest rally will be held on the public sidewalk in front of Harmony School of Political Science – Austin, Texas — on Aug. 30, 2011, from 9:00 to 10:00 A. M.
People in the Austin area should definitely commit to be at the rally since this Harmony School of Political Science is being opened right there in your own city.
Please bring signs (without any wooden or metal stakes), wear T-shirts, display “sandwich-type” posters (affixed to front and back of body), or create other visual displays that are in line with the City of Austin laws (posted at bottom of this e-mail).
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RESOURCES USED IN THIS ARTICLE
7.30.11 — 7:57 AM (EDT) — Reuters News Service — “Analy sis: Turkish Government Strengthens Control on Military” by Daren Butler — Istanbul -
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7.30.11, 3:54 P. M. EDT — Reuters News Service — “Turkey’s Leaders Deny Crisis as Top Generals Quit” by Simon Cameron-Moore — Istanbul –
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7.29.11, 17:29 ET — British Broadcasting Company – “Turkey: Military Chiefs Resign En Masse” –
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Winter 2009, pp. 55 – 66 – The Middle East Quarterly – “Fethullah Gülen’s Grand Ambition: Turkey’s Islamist Danger” by Rachel Sharon Krespin, director of the Turkish Media Project at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Washington D.C.
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7.25.11 — “Journalists Held Without Due Process in Turkey“ — Letter from Committee to Protect Journalists -
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12.16.10 — British Broadcasting Company — “Turkey Tries Army Officers Over Sledgehammer ‘Plot’” — by Jonathan Head — Istanbul
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8.1.11 — “Protest Rally — Gulen Political Science School in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 30, 2011” by Donna Garner
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7.22.11 — “Wrong Person Takes the Fall — Another Gulen Situation” by Donna Garner
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“List of Gulen Charter Schools in the United States“
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7.17.11 — “Another Turkish Charter School in Trouble” by Donna Garner
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7.14.11 — “How Blind Can People Be?” by Donna Garner
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7.10.11 — “Is a Changed Muslim Kosher in a Taxpayer-Funded Texas School” by Peyton Wolcott
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6.29.11 – The Texas House General Investigating & Ethics Committee has begun its investigation of the Gulen Turkish charter schools (Cosmos Foundation, Harmony Schools, Rainbow Turkish House, etc.).
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7.10.11 — “Are Taxpayers Paying for Free Trips to Turkey?” by Donna Garner
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6.19.11 – Austin American-Statesman article by Laylan Copelin and Mike Ward, “Some Texas Lawmakers Have Second Thoughts about Turkey Trips” —
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6.29.11 — Texas Legislature Investigating Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Schools: by Donna Garner
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6.30.11 — “Personal Accounts: Gulen Harmony Schools” by Donna Garner
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7.14.11 — “Harmony Science Academies Tied to Gulen Charter Schools” by Donna Garner
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“The Gulen Movement – How It Operates in Turkey and in the U. S.” – Parts 1, 2, 3 — YouTube
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izjnSb0owbI&feature=related
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eD19xG-7rM&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Vwt_LIrAc&feature=related
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