120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/120-american-charter-schools-and-one-secretive-turkish-cleric/375923/

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Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen at his Pennsylvania home in September 2013 (Reuters)

It reads like something out of a John Le Carre novel: The charismatic Sunni imam Fethullah Gülen, leader of a politically powerful Turkish religious movement likened by The Guardian to an “Islamic Opus Dei,” occasionally webcasts sermons from self-imposed exile in the Poconos while his organization quickly grows to head the largest chain of charter schools in America. It might sound quite foreboding—and it should, but not for the reasons you might think.

You can be excused if you’ve never heard of Fethullah Gülen or his eponymous movement. He isn’t known for his openness, despite the size of his organization, which is rumored to have between 1 and 8 million adherents. It’s difficult to estimate the depth of its bench, however, without an official roster of membership. Known informally in Turkey as Hizmet, or “the service”, the Gülen movement prides itself on being a pacifist, internationalist, modern, and moderate alternative to more extreme derivations of Sunni Islam. The group does emphasize the importance of interfaith dialogue, education, and a kind of cosmopolitanism. One prominent sociologist described it as “the world’s most global movement.”

Much of the praise for the Gülen movement comes from its emphasis on providing education to children worldwide. In countries like Pakistan, its schools often serve as an alternative to more fundamentalist madrassas. Gülen schools enroll an estimated two million students around the globe, usually with English as the language of instruction, and the tuition is often paid in full by the institution. In Islamic countries, where the Gülen schools aren’t entirely secular: The New York Times reported that in many of the Pakistani schools, “…teachers encourage Islam in their dormitories, where teachers set the example in lifestyle and prayers.” But the focus is still largely on academics. Fethullah Gülen put it in one of his sermons, “Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping Allah.”

In Western countries such as the United States, Germany, and France, there isn’t any evidence whatsoever that the nearly 120 Gülen charter schools in America include Islamic indoctrination in their curriculum. The schools are so secular that singling out the Gülen schools as particularly nefarious, simply for being run predominantly by Muslims, smacks of xenophobia.

[seveneyes]

1. “Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping Allah.”

Only if you are brainwashing the youth. Religion kills.

[AngryAmish]

2. This is very insidious.

For the last year or more the Gulen Movement has been at war with the Islamists who currently run Turkey.

How did the Gulen Movement come to become embedded with the Turkish Deep State? They ran cram schools for the big test to get into Turkish universities and civil service. They have recruited people with brains and put them in positions of power. They helped elect Erogan and now Erogan and the Islamists have allied themselves with the old secular Turks who Erogan previously purged. It sounds crazy but remember this is old Byzantium and Byzantine politics are Byzentine.

These schools engage in immigration fraud and abuse of the HB1 system. There is contracting fraud.

We do not need this in America.

[el_bryanto]

3. It feels like the author wanted to write an article about the lack of transparency

in charter schools, and used this particular set as a way to get there, because conservatives don't much like Muslim organizations, and liberals don't like government money going to religious organizations.

Bryant