60 Minutes, Fethullah Gulen and the End of Gulen Charter Schools Myth

Fethullah Gulen in his bedroom

As a scholar studying the Hizmet Movement for more than a decade, I have opened this blog to clear some confusion/suspicion about Fethullah Gulen. My concern is not about the so-called Gulen Charter Schools, but rather for Mr. Gulen, who has no relationship or connection with any of the so-called Gulen (inspired) schools around the world (let alone the high achieving charter schools in America). Even if Fethullah Gulen was associated with Harvard or Oxford University, I would still object to that, because he himself would be the first person to do this. that is why, he never visits any of the schools he is claimed to inspire, nor does he have ownership or any other affiliation with any of them.

That is actually what makes the story of 60 Minutes very intriguing, because we see someone who constantly avoids associating himself with any of the educational institutions throughout the world. That is something rare in our American society. If we accomplish something, we fully take the credit for that accomplishment. But here we have someone who prefers self-exile and seclusion instead of publicity. Fethullah Gulen rarely talks to the media due to his health problems and "60 Minutes" was no exception. But even if he talks, he does not take the credit for the schools, charity works, and other activities of the Hizmet Movement. 

Donna Garner Graded by the Former Student

I remember writing about Donna Garner for the first time. That article focused on the superficial knowledge of Ms. Garner, a retired teacher from Waco. For that reason, I called her "sciolist", a person whose knowledge is just superficial. She then wrote several articles, each of which confirmed my claims about her superficiality. 

A few days ago, I saw a piece by Dr. Jerry R. Burkett, Garner's former student. He criticizes Garner over the schools funding issue and grants her an overall grade of D: "While some of your blogs hold some degree of merit, I have found most reflect an attempt to promote a divisive and fringe political ideology. For allowing these ideologies to pervert your blogs, for mis-representation of facts, and for extreme hyperbole, I give your works an overall grade of D."

MerryLynn Gerstenschlager of TEF Provides Inaccurate Information

A friend of mine told me about the Texas House Public Education Committee convened on February 17th. When asked what it was all about, he said "Just watch. Laughing guaranteed!"

This just piqued my curiosity and I clicked the link my friend provided to watch the much-advertised drama. The meeting was very long, like five hours, but the drama-filled part started towards the end of it.

MerryLynn Gerstenschlager, Vice President of Texas Eagle Forum, speaks as a witness during the public hearing and she just parrots what Donna Garner used to repeat a number of times before the GOP race began. Honestly and frankly, I feel pity for those who attack Fethullah Gulen blindfold, because the defamer must be knowledgeable about the person and his/her ideas and therefore should think twice before attacking. But those people like Garner, Gerstenschlager or others don't know one single correct thing about Gulen or Turkey. Let's break Gerstenschlager's sentences down:

Some Fact-Checking about Fethullah Gulen: 2) Does Gulen Support AKP?

One of the most popular questions I have been lately posed is about Fethullah Gulen's alleged support toward AKP, the current government in Turkey. Does Gulen really support AKP and tell everyone around him to support this party? Let us find out.

First of all, those who claim that Gulen supports AKP were also voicing similar claims about Turgut Ozal's and Bulent Ecevit's parties in the past. In the 80s Gulen was accused of supporting Ozal's party (ANAP) and in the 90s he was also accused of backing up Ecevit's party (DSP). These two parties came to power in 80s and 90s respectively and both parties had different political ideology. ANAP was a liberal-conservative party, whereas DSP was defending leftist and nationalist ideas. Their worldview was different. Looks like whatever party comes to power, some people assume that those parties owe their electoral success to Gulen.

Norwegian Attacks Stem from a New Ideological Hate

I will continue to write about fact-checking about Fethullah Gulen, but I got this article and was planning to re-publish . Entitled "Norwegian Attacks Stem from a New Ideological Hate", it was written by Abraham Foxman, the National Director of ADL.

In his article, published on Washington Post, he talks about the recent terrorist attack in Norway and the Islamophobia that has become very popular these days. He reminds us that, the Norvegian terrorist, in his long manifesto draws his inspiration from famous Islamophobics such as Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Brigitte Gabriel. Foxman's description of this recent surge is very good:

Growing numbers of people in Europe and the United States subscribe to this belief system; in some instances it borders on hysteria. Adherents of this ideological Islamophobia view Islam as an existential threat to the world, especially to the “West.”

Moreover, they believe that leaders and governments in the Western world are consciously or unconsciously collaborating to allow Islam to “infiltrate” and eventually conquer democratic societies. 

Some Fact-Checking about Fethullah Gulen: 1) Did Gulen Curse the Kurds?

As an expert on Gulen Movement, I have been receiving many questions (in the form of accusations at times) about Fethullah Gulen and the Movement, but so far I have not allocated enough time to those questions due to the existence of weird claims mostly coming from Donna Garner and other bloggers. Now that Donna Garner is busy with changing her favorite GOP candidate every week, I will try to answer some of the questions about Fethullah Gulen and Gulen Movement. Of course one at a time...

DISCLAIMER: These answers are just my personal opinion and they do not reflect the opinion of Fethullah Gulen or Gulen Movement. I am not the spokesperson of anyone, but a scholar studying Gulen Movement for several years.

I sometimes read the claims of some famous or media outlets who believe that Fethullah Gulen has recently cursed and lamented the Kurds. This is sheer manipulation and distortion if not the ignorance on the side of the accusers or the sources. Out of a full paragraph, some people just pick the last sentence and present to the public as if Fethullah Gulen cursed the Kurds. Let me correct this crooked approach:

Donna Garner’s Flag Accusation Debunked

A few weeks ago, Harmony Schools Advocates issued a statement that tells us the truth about "infamous" flag incident Donna Garner repeatedly mentions. It turned out that no trampling of the U.S. flag happened as Donna Garner claimed. Read the story yourself.

"My children have been attending Harmony for three years. My daughter is in this picture. She is the tall blonde on the right hand side of the picture. Three of her best friends are also in this picture. They were all in 8A at the time.

Here’s what happened. Do you see how two girls are holding a large US flag and the other girls are holding smaller US flags? As a part of the dance routine, each girl was hiding a tiny US flag inside her belt. The girls were supposed to pull out these flags and dance with them as well. As they were dancing, one girl’s tiny flag fell out of her belt and landed on the stage floor. The girls attempted to kick the flag out of the way so they would not step on it or slip and fall, but the dance was so vigorous that they couldn’t get it out of the way.

Donna Garner = Plagiarism, Ignorance, Distortion and Manipulation

I did promise myself not to pen any response to Donna Garner’s odd and baseless claims disguised as an expert, but she has recently been going too far that I think someone needs to step up and write a response to these worthless claims so that people should not get confused. I know many people do not take Ms. Garner seriously, but I am concerned about the rest who could potentially be distracted by her “expert-looking” discourse which arises as a result of a helter-skelter approach.

She has written a lot about charter schools, especially Harmony Schools, lately. Therefore, out of her many posts, I selected two of them for you to show how she manipulates, plagiarizes and distorts the facts. By the way, I took these excerpts from her “Liberty Linked” blog.    

The Implications of Vanessa Kachadurian Case

I have just seen on the internet that Vanessa Kachadurian has lost the lawsuit she had been dealing for some time. So, I thought it would be good to say a few things about this lawsuit and its potential repercussions on the people and organizations who suffer from cyber harassment and similar acts.

First of all, you can reach the press release issued by the winning party here. Honestly, I do not know much about the details of this lawsuit. Therefore, I am not going to say who is right or wrong, but some statements really grabbed my attention. By the way, the person who runs the Goose Network website and previously published a number of facts about Ms. Kachadurian makes some comments on this issue as well.

I took the below piece from the press release:

Islamophobia Network Targets Top Performing American Schools

This is a good article by an erudite scholar with whom we share almost the same views. A nice read...

This September, I was interviewed by a communications firm on the topic of Islamophobia. The firm is planning a campaign to counteract Islamophobia in America and was conducting interviews with Washington policymakers who have addressed this topic. The interview came on the heels of a Center for American Progress (CAP) report published last month, called "Fear Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America," which found a well-financed, well-organized network of advocates, experts and media partners conducting a strategic campaign throughout America and "spreading hate and misinformation," as CAP put it.

Islamophobia is on the rise in America, but this is hardly surprising. Scan recent American history to witness the consistent creation of an "other", whether it was anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism in the 19th century (and beyond), the first Red Scare in the early 1900s, the Japanese-American scare and second Red Scare in the mid-1900s, or the Muslim American scare in the early 2000s. There is purpose here. When entire races, religions or regions are dehumanized, it is easier to wage war, expel immigrants, and forge new, discriminatory (or oppressive) domestic and foreign policies to deal with these vilified populations.

Turkish-Americans are the latest to feel the heat. Despite serving as NATO's number two troop supplier and recently agreeing to host a NATO radar defense system, Turkey is often accused by Washington for contradicting US foreign policy aims and objectives when negotiating with Iran, Syria, Israel and Libya. Additionally, Turkey's market-friendly version of political Islam has often rubbed the West the wrong way.

Now, targeted discrimination aimed at the Turkish American community is centering on a Turkish educational effort, which was identified in CAP's "Fear Inc" report. The new supposed Turkish threat to America: "Muslim Gulen schools, which [members of the Islamophobia network] claim would educate children through the lens of Islam and teach them to hate Americans". The authors of the CAP report flatly reject this assertion, however, saying that the schools started by Turkish-American Fethullah Gulen are "nothing of the sort" and that "they are a product of moderate Turkish Muslim educators who want a 'blend of religious faith and largely western curriculum'."

To continue reading Mr. Shank's article, please click here.

On Vanessa Kachadurian and Goose Network

Goose Network Blog's latest discovery about Vanessa Kachadurian rather came as a surprise to me. It was a surprise, because I thought nobody would uncover the true identity of that mysterious, funny-looking xenophobic blogger. While my personal style is about refuting and debunking one's ideas like the ones about Donna Garner, who had to remain silent after I presented her the truth, Goose Network Blog prefers going deep with the details in order to reach the truth. They are more about the style, while I like content issues.

Following are my crib notes that I jotted down while reading this long post about the long story of an activist.


- Ms. Kachadurian's accidental inscription of her name under a comment triggered the discovery of her other comments scattered around the internet. Probably a very tiny detail revealed big and significant things. All in all, devil is in the details...

- Ms. Kachadurian frequently uses Facebook, even in various languages. I also noticed that she makes some changes in her name on Facebook.

My Personal Criteria for Gulen Charter Schools

A sarcastic article to reflect upon... I liked the simple and easy to follow instructions in that.

We are all quite sure that the weird claims about so-called Gulen Charter Schools have been proved fallacious. You can see this by checking some of the recent critics of these schools. 

I quickly realized the fallacious nature of these claims after reading a few of them, but some people's aggressive attacks on these high-performing charter schools can make anyone very suspicious. Whenever there is a good news or (bad news) on the national level praising or defaming those charter schools, there is always someone ready to defame the schools in question with his/her comments. Anyway... You are already familiar with this story. 

On the other hand, some things should be clarified. For example, what if someone decided to establish a charter school named "Gulen Charter School"? Would it be considered a Gulen Charter School as well? I mean the criteria to become such a school are very ambiguous.  

Gulen Charter School Criteria

Let me bring some of'em to the table:

1) The first rule to be qualified as a Gulen Charter School, the school has to perform high. Good test scores or closing the achievement gap is one of them.

2) The school must have some teachers from overseas. 

3) Everything related to construction etc. should cost cheaper than the national average. That way, you can deserve your label.

4) Make your parents happy. When they get happy, the attackers of your school will find nobody to get help and eventually they will beg some assistance from the elected officials, people who have never been to your school or biased journalists that would visit your school for the sole purpose of creating havoc in the media.

5) Find a few disgruntled teachers who has recently left your school. Help him/her to piss you off. Find a journalist lover for him/her so that s/he could "expose" everything. 

Not a bad idea, right?

Why Do They Lie about Fethullah Gulen?

By Mehmet Kalyoncu... For many of those who have admired the ideas of the scholar Fethullah Gülen and at varying levels took part in fulfilling those ideas for the service of humanity, it has been a lamentable fact that the international community does not know as much as it should about either Gülen or the worldwide Hizmet (Service) Movement he has inspired.

Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gulen: English vs. Turkish

"With kind permission from Dr. Dogan Koc, I am sharing the article he wrote about the defamation on Fethullah Gulen in two languages; English and Turkish. Dr. Koc says that Fethullah Gulen is accused of being different things in different languages based on the audience of that language. When you read the articles, you will find out why the terms like Gulen Charter Schools, Gulen Muslim Schools or other labels are just nothing but pseudo-titles given by the same people who heat the same issues again and again. The original article can be found on this link." 

Fethullah Gulen is a moderate Turkish Muslim scholar who is mostly known for his education and dialogue activities. Gulen Movement, named after him, has established hundreds of education and dialogue institutions throughout the world.  Several books, hundreds of articles and news reports have been written about Gulen himself and the Movement. 

An Open Letter to Donna Garner

The parents of Harmony Public Schools have started to defend their schools at last. So far I have only seen one website probably founded by one parent: Harmony Parent. It is not updated very often. 

Recently I have come across another one, something much more professional and regularly updates: Harmony Schools Advocates. I am only lamenting that I have discovered those guys very late. They have already put several good articles and documents and I believe it is a good first step to defend successful charter schools like Harmony Public Schools.

Their latest pieces are about Donna Garner, an enemy of Harmony Public Schools. Interestingly, based on what she has written recently, they claimed that Donna Garner is supporting Harmony which is untrue. If those parents had read my next to last article, they would have known that Ms. Garner is miles away from being a Harmony Advocate.

Anyway, their other piece is especially good which is an open letter to Donna Garner. Let us read together:

Who is Behind the Attackers?

On Friday, August 26, I saw a report online about the "creators" of Islamophobia in the mainstream media. The report was entitled "Fear, Inc.: the Roots of Islamophobia Network in America". It is a well-written and to-the-point document penned by Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and Faiz Shakir, a group of erudite researchers.

There are, the report states, several (seven) charitable groups who provided $42.6 million to Islamophobia think tanks between 2001 and 2009. 

• Donors Capital Fund

• Richard Mellon Scaife foundations

• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

• Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust

• Russell Berrie Foundation

• Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund

• Fairbrook Foundation

Donna Garner's Self-Refuting Ideas

If you happen to read Donna Garner on a regular basis, you can easily reveal her self-refuting ideas. This is what I have been enjoying for a while. I have found so many contradictions in her statements and claims that I think I could, one day, write a thin book about those hilarious contradictions and self-refuting ideas.

You have probably heard about the contention between Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education and Robert Scott, TEA Commissioner. Mr. Duncan made a few negative comments about Texas education and Mr. Scott rightfully responded to those claims. Donna Garner quoted Scott’s response verbatim in her blog (August 19). At one point of his response, Robert Scott mentioned the existence and significance of STEM education in Texas:

“We are also a leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Texas has established 59 STEM schools, 7 STEM professional development centers and is a leading state in creating a national STEM network of states that want to pursue STEM education reform.” 

DONNA GARNER’S LATEST FLOP

In my last article, I said “This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner.” Fortunately, I had put the words “for now”, because she has lately written the worst article ever she could write on current Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen, whose name is arbitrarily used within the newly-coined concept of Gulen Charter Schools.

Embellished with so-called fact and figures, this article, entitled “Gulen-Led Coup: Turkey Falls to Islamists”, is one of the most biased, prejudiced and misinformed articles I have ever read about Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen. Since the number of experts on Turkey is very scarce here in the US, those articles, like the previous ones by Donna Garner, don’t generate the rightful reaction it should, because most people are not even aware of the wrong information within these articles. The number of mistakes in this latest article far exceeds the ones in Garner’s previous articles. Despite citing several sources, Garner’s some of claims cannot be found in these sources. It seems to me that Garner has made certain deductions out of some sources, but what is going on inside her mind is a mystery, because to come up with such conclusions out of those sources require a different sort of processing in the brain!