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!     

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 4

This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner. I have been getting nice feedback on previous articles and I am glad that a number of websites quote from my article.

I designed these articles in Claim&Answer format so that I could reveal Garner's wrong points and fallacies easily. Honestly, I found a number of points that prove why Garner is wrong, but I did not want to deal with each and every fallacious argument, because there were so many!

I will continue to write on these people like Donna Garner, since there are plenty of them who unscrupulously attack on some charter schools and putting them foolish labels such as "Gulen Charter Schools". Most of those attackers are not aware of the fact that the claims and allegations they made are entirely "null and void". Talking to the parents and students, I gathered invaluable data on these so-called Gulen Charter Schools and parents aptly state that there is no religious agenda at those schools. This issue deserves another article; therefore, I leave the floor open for subsequent articles.

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 3

Absurd Cheating Claims by Donna Garner

I continue with the third part of Donna Garner's funny accusations.

Claim: The Gulenists had already taken over the Turkish National Police by giving applicants the answers to the exams. If this is standard protocol in Turkey by the Gulenists, I have to ask whether there is any outside monitoring of test security when the Gulen Charter Schools in the United States administer the state-mandated tests (TAKS in Texas) and the SAT/ACT.  If not, can we trust the Gulen Charter Schools’ (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas) test results to be credible?

Answer: Since Garner's presupposition is based on a false acceptance, the rest of the questions automatically qualifies for nothing but absurdity. First of all, the first claim is just fabrication with no official court decision or something similar. It is just an absurd claim asserted by the very same underground paramilitary organization (which is called Ergenekon in Turkey) who does any sort of dirty job including taking country's prime minister to the scaffold and dropping bombs in order to create chaos in the country. Ergenekon is a large topic and there are even scholarly articles about it, but as a first step you can start reading from a semi-scholarly article .n Wikipedia. Maybe I can provide more articles in the future about this terrorist organization.

Today I saw a joke on the web about Gulenists with a sarcastic tone. This joke actually summarizes the mindset of those who create havoc in Turkey.

"Reliable sources tell MNN that Gulenists are behind the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, a very prominent British investigative journalist, in a bid to silence the last remaining pockets of opposition both to the governing party and to the movement that now dominates the military, the police, the judiciary, the ministry of interior, the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of forestry, the ministry of feeding cattles etc. The arrest implies that the threat is now on our shores. 

Sources tell MNN, Brooks was preparing a book on the sinister activities of Gulenists within the British state structures who have relentlessly tried to infiltrate every and each state agency. The police who carried the investigation, the prosecutor who ordered the arrest and the judge who decided for her detention are all believed to be from the movement. It is strongly believed that Gulenist policemen within Scotland Yard have fabricated evidence to get Brooks, a very brave and prominent investigative journalist, arrested. The arrest comes after the detention of two very prominent Turkish reporters in Turkey, where the movement has her power house, back in March. The arrest of Brooks vindicates the concerns that Gulenists are now not only a threat for Turkey but for the globe and even for mankind."

The same vein of the same mentality extends to the United States in order to deceive naive people like Donna Garner and some others so that they could invent new concepts such as Gulen Charter Schools.

As for the alleged cheating in TAKS, this is another vehement claim that puts a number of people and organizations into its target ranging from TEA (Texas Education Agency) and Harmony Schools to countless students, teachers and administrators. Harmony Schools officials say that during the TAKS Tests their schools are strictly supervised and observed by TEA officials. There is no single incident of cheating at Harmony Schools. Ms. Garner establishes imaginary relationships among irrelevant people and organizations. Even if the first claim were to be true, this again would prove nothing about Harmony Schools.
 

My answer shows that Ms. Garner invents something out of the blue and sensible people (like me) try to correct her inventions (!)

TO BE CONTINUED

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 2

Donna Garner Brings Nonsensical Arguments

I will continue to give answers to Donna Garner’s groundless claims. In my last article, I briefly mentioned the superficial and wrong perceptions and knowledge from Donna Garner, who even lacks the basic information despite continuously labeling some charter schools as “Gulen Charter Schools”. Let's continue to answer Garner's weird claims.

Claim: “I received this note from a local pastor:

Hi Donna,

The local Harmony Science Academy is obviously one of these schools.  One of our church families had a daughter there, but the Muslim influence and foundation of beliefs and practices led them to remove her.

Thanks for bringing attention to this.

R.” (Taken from her article on ISD Initiative website dated February 10, 2011)

Answer: A dubious and obscure claim! First of all, there is no name mentioned here. No name of the pastor or Harmony School, having 33 campuses in Texas, is given. Why are you scared Ms. Garner? Do you think people will bug the pastor? Or are you just making up stories?

Looks like she is just making up brand-new stories. Besides, I can also write similar things about any school or any other organization. For example, something like this: “Hi Donna… The local elementary school here is one of these schools where you find child abuse. One of our church families had a son there, but the abusive manners of the teachers led me to remove my son.” Looks familiar right? Here I could have put the name of a famous elementary school and defamed their name.

Also, if there were to be such influence, brainwashing or similar practices, some other parents would definitely pull out their kids and that would hit the local and national headlines as well. Since it is illegal to teach religion in public schools, any contrary practice will put that school into trouble.

Before making an ambiguous claim, people should think twice, because these kinds of claims, without any backing factual data, could leave a permanent negative spot on the mentioned organizations.

Claim: Students at the so-called Gulen (charter) schools celebrate various Turkish Muslim holidays (taken from her Education News article dated March 24, 2011).

Answer: Superficial claims are abound. This was another one I came up while reading Donna Garner’s stories.

According to my research, there is no such Muslim celebration at Harmony Schools. Moreover, Donna Garner displays her ignorance again. The term “Turkish Muslim holidays”, if two Muslim religious festivals are meant (Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha) by this, is something non-existent and somewhat ridiculous concept. Muslims have two major religious holidays and you do not have to bring the adjective “Turkish” in front of the Muslim Holidays. On the other hand, such a celebration requires the witness of a couple of hundred students and some parents, administrators and other community members. At the end of the day, one would leak this “mysterious” and “secret” event to the media, wouldn’t s/he?

All these things point to one fact: Donna Garner is a couple of miles away from the facts. She just makes up the stories and throws mud on people. I would expect her to closely investigate the issue she is working on.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 1

The charter school controversy is going on full throttle and some charter schools, infamously called Gulen Charter Schools, have recently become a scapegoat in this process.  After revealing some information on Peggy Littleton, I have now turned my attention to other attackers. Recently, Donna Garner has made some buzz on Harmony Schools in Texas. She has some accusations on so-called Gulen Charter Schools at different internet sources and as a scholar, I made my own investigation with those schools and refuted Garner’s groundless accusations. Her knowledge in those issues is just superficial and she doesn’t even know  the simplest facts on neither charter schools nor Harmony Schools. That is why, henceforth, I will start calling her a sciolist (meaning “a person with superficial knowledge”). 

Let us take a look at some of her accusations along with my consequent refutations. I will not provide the links about her accusations, but will give the resources that she “contributes” to. I will also use claim-answer format to expose more about her sciolism:

Claim: "I imagine that many of these people (U. S. Congressmen Gene Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, Kofi Annan, Mayor Tom Leppert, Dr. Terri Grier, Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth A. Jones, Bill White, Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed (Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University), and James Baker) help to fund the Turkish charter schools where Islam is the predominant religion." (taken from her article on isdinitiative.org dated February 11, 2011)

Answer: "What an imagination" (!) I should say. The names are so irrelevant that it is hard to find any logical relationship among each other. Besides, Dr. Grier is the Superintendent of Houston Independent School District (HISD). How come an ISD superintendent helps the funding of a charter school?  That is ridiculous. Garner has no proof of such funding other than her wild imagination. Besides, if a person shows up at the Gulen Institute, does it mean that s/he helps the funding of charter schools? What kind of correlation is here? Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary, has nothing to do with charter schools. He works for a Speakers Bureau giving keynote speeches around the world. This is pure ill intention to find such a relationship. I don’t want to go over the names separately, but two examples should suffice.

Claim: How would Turkish teachers (many here on visas) teach our American children about such historical events as the Holocaust? (taken from ramparts360.com) How could those Turkish teachers teach American children about the Constitution, Civil War and American History? (taken from her talk on City on a Hill radio)

Answer: Let me start with a question and a simple stat as an answer that I took from Harmony Schools officials: how many Turkish teachers are there at Harmony Schools teaching Social Studies? ZERO. Ms. Garner is so ignorant that she is not aware of the simple facts. Yet, interestingly, she does not bother to ask school officials before she comes up with a conclusion. Please do not worry Ms. Garner. Our American History is told by local American teachers.

Addendum: On the Ghostfighters page, where you can find the same article that I got from ramparts360.com, on top of the headline, a sentence reads: “we are funding charter schools that teach the kids to kill us.” Another bold and reckless claim... Imagine a school where you teach your kids how to kill their parents. None of the students react this! None of the parents, fellow teachers or community members show any reaction to this! Is it possible? If there were such things at these schools, we would have heard this somehow and some way, right? Or at least we would have heard some attempts from elementary and middle school kids to kill (!) their parents. I am ashamed to talk about those baseless claims, but attacking innocent schools with a partisanship attitude is what people like Donna Garner do. I wish we could dwell on more sensible things. By the way, I found that I was not alone. More things could be found on Donna Garner on the internet.

Donna Garner is a rich resource in terms of superficial and false information. She is the embodiment of sciolist approach. I am planning to write more about her false claims and their answers.

TO BE CONTINUED…

An Ignorant Attacker: Peggy Littleton

As Chet Hardin states El Paso County Commissioner Peggy Littleton is not an expert on Fethullah Gulen. But that didn't stop her from lecturing at a right-wing education conference, featuring presenters like stealth-jihad activist Frank Gaffney, and conservative columnist Ann Coulter, on the dangers of Gulen's quasi-influence on American charter schools.

“Littleton, despite her public comments on the subject, couldn't come up with a specific concrete example of Gulen's untoward influence over, or profit from, a charter school,” says Hardin.

Littleton believes that, without any facts or data to back it up her assertion, those charter schools, also called Gulen Charter Schools in some circles, are being helped by President Obama. This is really something people can never imagine in their wildest dreams. I will come to the details she embellishes about President Obama but to claim that “Race to the Top” initiative was started just for the sake of “Gulen Charter Schools” is nothing but wishful thinking or just sheer ignorance.


This is not the only gaffe made by Littleton. Let’s hear more from her: "A Gulen school is, they are schools that are actually are being applied for by a gentleman, and I forget his first name, Mr. Gülen; he's a gentleman who lives in Turkey."

Again, Ms. Littleton even lacks the most basic information about Fethullah Gulen, who currently resides in Pennsylvania, not Turkey. Besides, during that aforementioned conference, Ms. Littleton spells the last name of Gulen as “Gulan”. Littleton confesses that she hasn't spent much time researching Gulen schools. "I am by no means the expert on this. I do about 60 to 80 hours a week doing roads and streets and bridges and commissioner work,” she says. Then how could someone be so assertive in her claims?


Moreover, she thinks that all charter school applications are made by Fethullah Gulen, another fallacy she gets trapped into. It is weird to know that Ms. Littleton is a former state board of education member. She looks too ignorant to know most basic facts about the charter schools.  

In her interview with Chet Hardin, she admits that she has no evidence — at all, none — that directly links Gulen to any of the more than 100 charter schools throughout the United States.


Read more

Gulen-Inspired Schools Promote Learning and Service

A Response to Philadelphia Inquirer Article 03.20.2011

 Gulen-Inspired Schools Promote Learning and Service

 by Dr. Jon Pahl and Dr. John Raines

            The recent article “U.S. Charter-School Network Draws Federal Attention” by Martha Woodall and Claudio Gatti can shed light on the existence of schools around the globe founded and led by individuals inspired by Muslim public intellectual Fethullah Gülen.  Unfortunately, the article also accepts unfounded allegations, if not smears, of Gülen and the informal Hizmet (service) movement.  Our own research, based on years of familiarity with the writings of Gülen, and associations with Turkish businessmen, scientists, and civic leaders, suggests a very different story.  These schools have consistently promoted good learning and citizenship, and the Hizmet movement is to date an evidently admirable civil society organization to build bridges between religious communities and to provide direct service on behalf of the common good.

In the first line of their article, Woodall and Gatti claim that “the FBI is investigating” Hizmet schools, “sources say.”  This leads the reader to believe the FBI would be these “sources” and these charter schools were run by Fethullah Gulen. In fact, as the article later clarifies, “federal officials declined to comment.”  So who are these “sources?”  A simple web search by Woodall and Gotti, or actual visits to the schools, might have led them to discover the good the schools are doing and these schools had no official contact with Fethullah Gulen.  And as the article admits, here in the U.S. they “meet federal standards.”

Gulen inspired schools are often located in the poorest and most conflict-laden regions of the globe with higher percentage of scholarship students and tuition waivers.  They graduate students.  They are gender-inclusive (although some are boys’ or girls’ schools).  In Northern Iraq, the schools have especially promoted girls’ learning, as studied by sociologist Martha Ann Kirk.  In our experience—we’ve visited or studied Hizmet schools in Indonesia, Pakistan, Uganda, Kenya, and in the U.S—the schools generally exceed local standards by considerable margins.  The stories of these schools have not received the attention of the Afghani schools profiled in Greg Mortensen’s Three Cups of Tea, but they are very much in the same vein.  The schools welcome students of all (and no) religious backgrounds, and they promote critical study of the sciences—something the U.S. (and the world) sorely needs!   

A simple web-search by Woodall and Gotti would also have taken them to Fethullah Gülen’s website:  http://www.fethullahgulen.org/.  The banner there reads:  “understanding and respect.”  Gülen’s most widely read book carries the title Toward a Global Civilization of Love and Tolerance.  It is a counter to Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” argument.  Gülen advocates in the book for scientific education, inter-religious dialogue, and democracy.  Far from “not being linked to terrorism,” as Woodall and Gatti’s article damns-with-faint-praise, Gülen immediately and forcefully condemned the 9/11 attacks, calling Osama bin Laden “a monster.”  Gülen has been described, not without reason, as a Muslim Gandhi.  Recent events in Egypt carry more than a hint of influence from the kind of Sufi Islam that Mr. Gülen encourages.  A Conference in Cairo in 2009 that was convened to study Gülen’s thought was packed with young people and civic leaders.  It took as its theme the Arabic term “islah,” or “reform.”

Finally, what makes Woodall and Gatti’s article particularly troubling is its conspiratorial tone.  In fact, their story originated in the August 17, 2010 USA Today.  Woodall and Gotti appear to have recycled an old story without much research of their own, adding to it instead vague allegations and suspicions.

 Hizmet simply means “service” in Turkish.  The term refers to the spirit of the civil society movement inspired by this modest imam, and does not refer to some grand effort to “push for an authoritarian Islamic state,” as Woodall and Gotti imply.  University of Houston Sociologist Helen Rose Ebaugh has published the best general book on the movement, entitled The Gulen Movement:  A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam, and Georgetown Professor John Esposito (a Temple University graduate) has published with Ihsan Yilmaz a book entitled Islam and Peacebuilding:  Gülen Movement Initiatives.  

All in all, a little research by journalists, and readers, will lead to a more nuanced appreciation of this complex and fascinating global movement.  The Hizmet movement has already done much to promote inter-religious understanding, respect, and civil service--not to mention good learning--whatever the possible failures of some particular individuals, which we trust any investigation will discover.   In this era when Turkey might play a vital role as a bridge for peace between the West and the Muslim world (as a Turkish ambassador recently did in securing the release of four New York Times correspondents detained in Tripoli), it is important that journalists do their homework and report accurately and fairly on events and movements, and not circulate unsubstantiated allegations and stereotypes.

Jon Pahl, Ph.D.

Professor of the History of Christianity in North America

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

John Raines, Ph.D.

Professor of Religion

Temple University

A Fictitious Phenomenon: Gulen Charter Schools

In the last two years, a new trend has been started by some mysterious bloggers later joined by a few self-identified scholars with PhDs. They came up with a brand-new term, a totally new coinage, for the charter school world: Gulen Charter Schools. While the early-bird alarmist bloggers tried to attract people’s attention to those schools by claiming that Fethullah Gulen involved in the foundation and administration of some US charter schools, others – specifically the academics – based their arguments on these blogs as if the latter were highly credible sources. Moreover, in an effort to make their claims look authentic alarmist bloggers employed Charter Schools’ open-to-public data, such as tax returns and H1B visa applications which indeed have been scrutinized by local and federal government agencies many times for various procedural reasons.

The question here is what charter schools are and in what sense they could be compared with the schools founded throughout the world by the people inspired by Fethullah Gulen. 

According to uscharterschools.org;

Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school's contract. Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor-- usually a state or local school board-- to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them and the public that funds them.

Uscharterschools.org also provides some other definitions of charter schools from various independent sources such as this one:

Charter schools are semi-autonomous public schools, founded by educators, parents, community groups or private organizations that operate under a written contract with a state, district or other entity. This contract, or charter, details how the school will be organized and managed, what students will be taught and expected to achieve, and how success will be measured. Many charter schools enjoy freedom from rules and regulations affecting other public schools, as long as they continue to meet the terms of their charters. Charter schools can be closed for failing to satisfy these terms. ("Charter Schools Description", Education Commission of the States, 2005)

These definitions clearly state that charter schools are public institutions owned by the public, operated for the sake of public by using public money, and responsible to the institutions representing the public. They have to be transparent – as dictated by the laws in the US – open to public by providing equal opportunity of enrollment to anyone legally eligible for the application to the school, cannot discriminate even by requiring certain test scores as a requirement for enrollment. Charter schools are operated by contractors for a specified term and the contract could be renewed based on the schools’ performance. They are accountable for their academic and fiscal performances to the institution (state, local school board etc) who granted them this privilege in the name of public. This means the contractors do not really own the schools but operate them for a pre-arranged time period. Then, if the contract is renewed they are good to go; but if not, it turns into a regular, government operated public school overnight. 

Gulen Charter Schools?

Academics studying Gulen-inspired schools founded throughout the world by the people who were inspired by Fethullah Gulen’s teachings have coined the term Gulen Schools (or Gulen-inspired schools/institutions) for convenience purposes (see Ebaugh, 2010, p. 96). Although Fethullah Gulen does not accept any affiliation to his name, whether it is people or institutions, it has been useful to call them Gulen Schools. Dr. Thomas Michel describes Gulen Schools as follows:

[T]he schools inspired by Gülen’s educational understanding are not religious or Islamic. Instead, they are secular private schools inspected by state authorities and sponsored by parents and entrepreneurs. They follow secular, state-prescribed curricula and internationally recognized programs. (Michel, 2006, p. 111)

Gulen-inspired schools, unlike charter schools, are private schools financed by tuition fees and donations of local businessmen who pledged their support at school fundraisers that are held on yearly basis. They are open to public as long as students could pay the tuition and at the same time pass a certain qualification test held either by the school itself or – in Turkish case – by the state. For those who are well qualified without proper financial support, there are scholarships such as tuition waivers and even stipends. Moreover, these private schools are predominantly boarding schools where there usually is no option other than living in the dormitories under the tutelage of school administration. 

The business circles of the movement are the main sponsors of these schools, supporting them financially until they are able to raise their own revenues through school fees. In each country, the community works in co-operation with the local authorities, who often provide logistical assistance and supervise the curriculum:

Some schools are completely built and funded by businessmen and industrialists, while some are joint ventures between the state and the trusts. The state provides the building, electricity, water, etc., and the trusts provide teaching, the teaching staff, and all educational materials and resources.

Some are eventually completely funded by student fees. They work as non-profitable companies or trusts, that is, all the income incurred goes back to the students again as educational investment (new teaching materials and resources such as books, computers, software; and facilities such as labs, gyms, hostels, residence halls, etc).

Ruth Woodhall says, “Every school has its own independent accountants and accountancy system. They are all accountable to the local authorities (the state) and the trust's inspectors, and comply with the state and international law.”[1] Ian G. Williams adds that the schools do receive summary and unpredicted inspections.[2] On the other hand, a qualitative field research about Kenya's Gülen-inspired schools suggests that the schools have been functioning not only as a secular alternative to religious, Christian missionary schools and Islamic schools, but also as barriers to potential ethno-religious conflict between Kenya's local Christian tribes and its politically empowering Muslim minority.[3]

Charter schools allegedly affiliated to Fethullah Gulen have none of the above-mentioned characteristics that Gulen-inspired schools display. They are neither founded as private institutions, nor funded by private entrepreneurs and they are not allowed to charge any sort of tuition fee let alone putting enrollment requirements to select students that have promising academic potential. They don’t administer any entrance or qualification test. Unlike Gulen-inspired schools, charter schools have almost no donations from generous businessmen. If there is any donation, it probably comes from certain foundations like Dell Foundation or Gates Foundation within the scope of a larger project or initiative such as T-STEM. The budget of a charter school largely consists of the state money that is paid annually to each and every charter school in the nation. Charter schools also may not make zip code distinction as public schools and more than half of their students, statistics show that, come from disadvantaged areas. There is also no boarding school option as in the example of Gulen-inspired schools. Charter schools are day schools; therefore there are no dormitories that students can stay overnight.   

Here remains a question: Is there any Gulen-inspired school in the sense that I have described above? I can say “Yes,” this question. There are indeed handful Gulen-inspired private schools in the United States. One of them is the Pinnacle Academy of Northern Virginia (DC metropolitan area). Lately they have attracted the attention of the national and international media after President Obama hosted Inaugural White House Science Fair. Pinnacle team developed a digital and three-dimensional model of “Yeshilist,” an imaginary city that anticipates the accommodation needs of citizens who lose their homes during an earthquake and they introduced their project to President Obama at the White House.

Another Gulen-inspired school is Brooklyn Amity School, a well-known school by its achievements at some of the top academic competitions such as Science Olympiad, Math Contests, Robotics Competitions, Art Contests, and Future City Engineering competition.

I guess there are five or six Gulen-inspired schools in the US and those schools have no connection with some other charter schools. As I stated in my article entitled Gulen Charter Schools, the fact that some people inspired by Fethullah Gulen work for a charter school does not necessarily make this school a Gulen Charter School.  

Finally, I need to reiterate the fact that we should definitely make a distinction and put some space between Gulen-inspired schools and the non-existent concept of Gulen Charter Schools mistakenly claimed by some alarmist bloggers. I have described the nature of Gulen-inspired schools and their main differences from US charter schools. I hope self-proclaimed academics won’t fall into the trap of mistakenly-coined words again.

---

[1] Ruth Woodhall, “Organizing the Organization, Educating the Educators: An Examination of Fethullah Gulen’s Teaching and the Membership of the Movement, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.3-4

[2] Ian G. Williams, “An Absent Influence? The Nurcu/Fetullah Gulen Movements in Turkish Islam and Their Potential Influence upon European Islam and Global Education”, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.8.

[3] Mehmet Kalyoncu, “Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa: Secular Alternative in Kenya and Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda”, delivered during "Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement" conference on November 14-15, 2008, Georgetown University, p.1

A Vivid Example of Putting Foolish Labels: “Gulen Charter Schools”

A nice article from "Harmony Parent" to learn more about Gulen Charter Schools.

A recent article on Leave Charters Alone grabbed my attention about charter schools, their relative accomplishments within their short history and the baseless attacks on these schools some of which have been deliberately labeled as Gulen Charter Schools.

Author starts his/her article with an allusion to the recent movie (Waiting for Superman) about charter schools: Stories related to charter schools and their self-described movement has lately been featured in the media probably more than it has been for the past five years combined. This increase in public attention is indebted to many factors such as dedication of updated resources to the movement by the Obama administration and the latest documentary by Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim, “Waiting for 'Superman'”. As it has been the case wherever money is involved, the issue stirred a hot debate, emotions ranging from characterizing charter schools as the new savior of the broken education system to the latest demons to hijack money from our much-needy schools. 

...... The charters that achieved the reputation of being “high-performing” paved their success in this “high-accountability” period. Today there are dozens of these schools such as nationwide KIPP schools, California’s Green Dot public schools, Texas’ Harmony public schools or New York’s Harlem Success Academy. These charters have long track records and are subject to increasing public scrutiny. 

After giving a few reasons for the students re-entering traditional public school system, the author unfolds a recent misconception about a group of charter schools: On August 17, 2010, USA Today ran a story on Texas’ acclaimed Harmony Public School. In the article, Ed Fuller, a University of Texas-Austin researcher, was quoted "It's not hard to be 'Exemplary' if you lose all the kids who aren't performing" (www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-turkishfinal17_CV_N.htm).

More than one month later Harmony was featured on Texas Tribune on September 27, 2010 with a title “What Drives High Achievement At Harmony Charters?” (www.texastribune.org/texas-education/texas-education-agency/what-drives-high-achievement-at-harmony-charters-/). This time Fuller conceded that the percentage (Fuller reported the network’s attrition rate as 50% in USA Today) was merely an estimate based on an informal review of high school-level data, not a comprehensive study. Fuller also said that he did not find that the students who left had significantly lower test scores than those who stayed. This is an example of the same account reported in two completely different ways. 

How come a researcher like Ed Fuller falls into the trap of declaring unverified data? Is it because of some sort of pressure on him to publish those bogus data? Or is it something else that we don’t know? Why did he make his claims so confidently on national level and then pulled in his horns on statewide level? Besides, which data are we going to trust from now on? What is worse, there are substantial amount of people basing their accusations and attacks on these unverified facts, using such data or similar ones to attack certain charter schools and label them ‘Gulen Charter Schools’. This ‘Gulen Charter School’ concept, by the way, has recently become a popular tag. There are plenty of amateur free-to-buy websites and blogs that have started an unprecedented smear campaign on so-called Gulen Charter Schools. It is not easy task to determine their main causes, because, so far, in charter movement history, no such smear campaign has launched on any charter school group with all various blogs and amateur websites. Ironically, this campaign is performed against one of the most successful charter school chains in Texas or in any other state. It is also not fair to call these schools “Gulen Charter Schools” giving credit to Fethullah Gulen who repeatedly insisted that he has no ties with these schools in any way (see the same USA Today article). If there is a success story, it belongs to teachers, parents, administrators and of course the students of these schools. We should refrain from putting simplistic labels such as Gulen Charter Schools.

On one occasion, I saw a mini-article claiming that Math-Counts (MathCounts USA official website) is a Gulenist organization. That is just plain ignorance, not knowing the years-long American tradition. When you combine your ill-intention with utterly ignorant approach, you just come up with nothing but some embarrassment. How can someone be filled with so much hatred and ignorance at the same time? Like I said above, it is not easy to find out the main motives of people attacking charter schools and labeling them with something (Gulen Charter Schools) Americans have never heard until recently. Maybe this labeling (Gulen Charter Schools) is the 21^st century version of a new opposition in American society. We have already wasted the 20^th century with labeling people, groups and organizations and this century will put the burden on the shoulders of those labeled ones: get rid of your “Gulen Charter School” or any other label if you can!

After seeing Ed Fuller’s initial accusation and subsequent deflation, I wonder if other accusations of those attackers (on the same blogs) are the products of same helter-skelter approach. The attacks and accusations are solely based on rumors with no academic credibility. At the end of the day, it is curious to know the thing operating behind the curtain. Are “Gulen Charter School” attackers doing this just because they are against charter schools or they really care about our children’s education or they want to add more fuel to their Gulen antagonism? Throughout the history, seemingly innocent intentions have turned out to be a part of a bigger plan.

To make long story short, having served and positively changed the lives of hundreds and thousands of children, charter schools, just like any other schools, deserve to get rid of foolish labels put by clumsy researchers and ill-intentioned people.

Answers to Parents on "Gulen Charter Schools"

On some websites, a person named Fethullah Gulen is accused of having charter schools along which a list is given. I have a son who goes to one of the charter schools in the list. Though, I am very happy with the school and have not heard anything about Fethullah Gulen nor about Fethullah Gulen charter schools, I am confused by this information. I would appreciate if you commented on this matter.

It is quite interesting that defamation of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen appears to have started recently, after political developments in Turkey and the number of such accusations increases every day. There are several points you need to know in order to contextually understand this issue:

About Fethullah Gulen

Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish scholar, thinker, social entrepreneur and opinion leader known for his stances for democracy, interfaith dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and secular education where universal values are embodied by altruistic teachers. Numerous non-governmental organizations have been established by citizens inspired by his life and works in the areas of education, interfaith dialogue, health-care, disaster relief and economic assistance.

In order to promote interfaith dialogue in his home country he has met with the leaders of various religious minorities including the Greek Patriarch, Armenian Patriarch, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, and others. In recognition of his contributions to interfaith understanding, he was given personal audience by the late Pope John Paul II.

Former U.S. President Clinton commented in an address to an audience at New York Turkish American Cultural Center that Turkish-Americans “are contributing to the promotion of the ideas of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fethullah Gülen in his transnational social movement.” And they “are truly strengthening the fabric of our common humanity, as well as promoting the ongoing cultural and educational ties that bind our world together.” Recently former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan commented that the activities of the Gulen Institute hosted at University of Houston overlapped with his efforts during his tenure at the U.N. You may or may not agree with President Clinton’s or Secretary Annan’s views in other areas, but let’s agree that appreciation at this level is an indicator of significant positive social impact.

Further Readings:

“Fethullah Gulen’s Contribution to Muslim-Christian Dialogue in the Context of Abrahamic Cooperation” by Dr. Pim Valkenberg, November 3, 2005, Rice University

“Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen” by Ali Unal, October 2000, Fountain Press

Fethullah Gulen is a supporter of democracy and human rights. He was one of the first Muslim scholars who publicly condemned September 11 attacks, and continue to condemn any form of terrorist actions. After the September 11, 2001, Gulen released a message both in New York Times and Washington Post to condemn 9/11 attacks.

With regards to claims about Fethullah Gulen:

1. Defamatory Postings Appear on Hate Sites: The inflammatory articles appear mostly as blog entries on xenophobic sites or radical websites. Some of them can easily be regarded as hate websites lacking scientific or even logical credibility.

2. Self-contradicting claims: Defamatory claims against Fethullah Gulen appear to be custom designed depending on the audience. In Turkey, Gulen is accused by marginal circles of being a CIA-agent, a Mossad agent, the Vatican’s secret cardinal, or an agent of the U.S. in pursuit of the latter’s Greater Middle East Project. There are also claims that he is Jewish. To the Western audiences, he is depicted as a threat to secularism, pursuing a theocratic regime and recently as a person who is trying to infiltrate U.S. through charter schools which they portrait some schools as Fethullah Gulen charter schools. I don’t think one needs to be a brain surgeon to recognize the self-contradictory nature of these claims. The interesting thing about these claims is that some of them are made by the very same people, not realizing that some members of the audience speak both languages. The following article illustrates this phenomenon.

“Hypocrisy in languages: criticizing Fethullah Gülen, English or Turkish?” by Abdulhamid Turker, 10 November 2009, Today’s Zaman

3. Manipulating the facts: Some of the defamatory articles distort, hide or otherwise misrepresent facts. For an example, see :

“Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article” by Dogan Koc, January 29, 2010, Fethullah Gulen Forum

Questions to ask:

1. If the defamatory accusations about Gulen were true would he be granted permanent residency as an educational expert by the US government?
2. How is it possible that these claimants are able to see what the intelligence agencies are not capable of seeing?
3. Is there a connection between these marginal groups with the ongoing Ergenekon trial in Turkey where a clandestine armed group with links to the hard-liners in the military are being brought to justice for the first time in Turkish history? Is there a pattern to the defamatory sites?
4. More importantly, what is your evidence?

Further Readings:

Ergenekon Trial

Ergenekon Facts vs. Fiction:

With regards to charter schools:

According to our research charter schools are non-sectarian public schools. Through systematic inspections and audits, state regulation agencies ensure that charter schools are nonsectarian in their programs, admissions policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and are not affiliated with a sectarian school or religious institution. Furthermore, charter schools are subject to the same standards of accountability with the public schools. They are funded by the states and are accountable to the states. State boards of education oversee and inspect these schools.

It is conceivable that some individuals who work in private and public institutions are inspired by the works of Mr. Fethullah Gulen if they are originally from Turkey. According to a survey conducted by Dr. Akbar Ahmed, a professor at an American university, Fethullah Gulen is regarded as a top contemporary role model in Turkey. Various online polls suggest high levels of approval for Gulen’s ideas in Turkey. You can read “Gulen and U.S. Educators” here in our blog.

Fethullah Gulen and U.S. educators

Finally, you pointed out as a parent that you were happy with the school that your child attends and if the school’s accountability rating is high, our humble opinion is that that all what should matter. The people who started all these claims and accusations on the blogs, calling them Fethullah Gulen charter schools or simply Gulen charter schools, seem to have agenda and post their baseless accusations on any website they come across for disinformation purposes.

I hope that these comments help answer some of your questions.

Fethullah Gulen and Harmony Public Schools

Below is an excerpt from a Texas Monthly article written by William Martin, a Rice University professor emeritus. It illuminates the nature of relationship of Fethullah Gülen to some charter schools in the United States, sometimes referred to as Gulen charter schools ( The term itself "Gulen charter schools" is incorrect, as I describe here on my Gülen and Charter Schools blog).

.....

The founder of the Harmony schools (aka Harmony Public Schools, Cosmos Foundation) is an intense but unfailingly courteous 43-year-old named Soner Tarim, who was born and raised in Istanbul. In 1991, while Tarim was teaching at a Turkish university and working on his doctorate in aquatic ecology, his older brother asked him to come to Houston to look after his wife and three children while he underwent treatment for colon cancer at M.D. Anderson. As the ultimately unsuccessful treatments dragged on, Tarim started taking courses at the University of Houston to improve his English. He also began to check out possibilities for continuing his scientific studies in the U.S. After his brother died and his family returned to Turkey, Tarim enrolled at A&M in 1994, where he joined a cohort of more than 150 Turkish graduate students, nearly all studying math, science, and engineering.

As he gained more teaching experience at A&M, he and some of his colleagues discovered that, unlike beginning students in Turkey, many of the freshmen in the undergraduate courses they were teaching did not have the basic math and science skills needed for college work. To bring their struggling charges up to speed, they began offering free tutorials in the afternoon. They soon realized that what these students lacked was not intelligence but instruction.

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Read the article:

Click the link below to read an interesting interview with Gülen-inspired educators working at U.S. charter/public schools (note: these are not Gulen Charter Schools):

Also read Mr. Gülen's response to the question about his relationship with a group of U.S. charter schools.