BBC news story hot off the press

Gulen Movement on BBC Radio4 (May 24, 2011): “Edward Stourton investigates the Islamic Gulen movement in Turkey whose influence permeates right around the world.” 

• Also see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011c0ty 
• And http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h5b4j
• For the time being, you can listen to the full 38-minute version @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011c0ty  

@1:20 min.

…Many of the students here are fee-paying, but scholarships for bright children from poor backgrounds are a big feature of Gulen schools. They began in Turkey, but they’ve now spread everywhere from Kazakhstan to Texas…there’s even one in Britain…

Note how the piece says “fee-paying” with scholarship supplementation? Outside the U.S., Gulen schools are tuition-based and private, NOT publicly-funded!

It is only in the U.S., with our pathetically-monitored charter school system (of which members of the Gulen movement have taken advantage), where this amorphous but highly-organized and driven group is running their schools with hard-earned public money. 

Here's something to ask Arne Duncan and your local and state officials next time you see them:  Why are you letting the American government give our tax dollars to a foreign, cult-like religious movement so they can operate 120 charter schools???

And here's a question for the U.S. press: Can we please get some decent news coverage about this??? The BBC gives it to the Brits, and I'm sure Great Britain has a much smaller number of Gulen schools.

Does everyone understand that the Gulen movement has been infiltrating the U.S. for the past 12 or so years? This is being done via a large network of charter schools AS WELL AS a whole host of Turkish cultural and "interfaith dialogue"organizations (and HERE) which are constantly schmoozing with targeted individuals of influence, and regularly pay favor-currying, gift-bearing (usually award plaques or Turkish ceramics) visits to the offices of public officials and politicians, AND ALSO give free (or greatly-reduced-price) Gulenist-guided trips to Turkey to influential, willing Americans as well as to the students at their charter schools.

• Here's a trip for NJ mayors. It's not the first one. Montclair, NJ's Mayor Jerry Fried was given one of these trips a couple of years ago.
• Here’s one for Baton Rouge’s (LA) mayor, Kip Holden: 
• Here’s one for a group from Colorado, including Alan Gottleib who writes for EdNews Colorado. Firestone's (CO) mayor Chad Auer got one, too, but he has deleted the webpage where he shared his report.
• Here’s one for a group from Oklahoma. Bill Sherman, a reporter from the Tulsa World got one, too.
• Here’s another one for reporters from the Vail Daily (CO) 
• Here’s one for Seattle-area residents. One of the tour guides was also the CEO of one of the charter school organizations.
• Here's one about the tour guide for 100 Oklahomans. 
• Here’s one for the Bergen County (NJ) sheriff. 
• Here's one for some people from California.   
• Here’s one for the CEO of a public radio station in Florida and his wife (Michael and Susan Boylan), along with the president of Florida State College and his wife (Steve and Amelia Wallace), Florida state Representative Jennifer Carroll, (District 13), and Jacksonville’s sheriff and his wife (John and Patricia Rutherford) 
• Here’s one for a group from Colorado. 
• Here’s one for a bunch of people from Nebraska.
• Then there was the time last December when Raindrop Turkish House took the Austin school district superintendent and 10 of his staff members to Turkey. This turned out to be very a fruitful investment.

“Austin ISD has a new relationship with Raindrop Turkish House (RTH), which will assist district staff in creating a curriculum on Turkey.”

Fancy that.

The number of these trips given to Americans by now must number in the many tens of thousands. This is just a tiny, tiny peek into what's going on, believe me.

In return for their free trip, one way travelers often repay their hosts is by writing dutiful testimonials which are always posted online. This is just the "evidence" needed to develop legitimacy and build up political and social cover for the Gulenists. Here are a few examples.

• http://www.alumniofturkey.org/testimonials.html
• http://atccenter.org/toturkey/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=36&Itemid=54

For a look at some of the office visits and gift-giving to politicians, go to http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/look-what-a-plate-will-buy.html

Recall what the BBC report said at 2:07 min.?

But in 1999 a video surfaced in which Mr. Gulen appeared to be urging his followers to, and I quote, “Move within the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach the centers of power.” He was charged with trying to undermine the state and left for America. He was later cleared in absentia, but he’s never been back to Turkey and still lives in Pennsylvania today.

Given the clear evidence of the Gulen Movement's activities in the U.S., with all their denials and evasions (and HERE and HERE), and the fact that so few Americans know anything about what's going on, I'd put my money on the claims that Gulen DID INSTRUCT his followers as was reported, and that they proceeded to do exactly what he had instructed them to do. "Keeping Secrets" anyone?

Just about the time Gulen made his famous "move within the arteries" statement, the first Gulen charter school was opened (1999). 

Today there are 120 Gulen charter schools in operation in 27 states, with at least 22 currently being attempted, and 47 attempts that never materialized.

Hawaii might have wised up to the shenanigans. Read how they did it at “Gulen Cult strikes out in Hawaii Legislature, School?”

Maybe some bigger news is about to break. More and more, concerns about the number of imported Turkish teachers these charter schools are bringing in on H-1B visas have been cropping up in the news.

• “H-1B + K-12 = ? : A First Look at the Implications of Foreign Teacher Recruitment.” Center for Immigration Studies April 2011 
• "Exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation uncovers federal probe into Ohio charter schools." WEWS (Cleveland, OH) 15 May 2011.
• "Oklahoma charter schools hire math, science teachers from overseas.” The Oklahoman 24, May 2011 

60 Minutes and Frontline producers, where are you???