An Interview with Fethullah Gulen that You Won't See in the Hate Media

I read an interview with Fethullah Gulen that is hard to find in the hate media, because the reporter is not "pursuing something to create sensation" or she is not after to make a self-promotion. Jamie Tarabay of NPR visited Fethullah Gulen in his place and asked many brave questions along with the clear answers.  

A Rare Meeting With Reclusive Turkish Spiritual Leader Fethullah Gulen

The Atlantic: It's so rare to have an interview with you, why is that?

Fethullah Gulen: I grew up in a humble family with a shy personality. I accept these kind offers out of respect for those who are requesting such interviews, otherwise, I would prefer to live a secluded life just by myself.

An Anatomy of Copycat Blogs-2: When did Fethullah Gulen Come to USA?

Some bloggers claim that "Gulenists create confusion by putting different years" with regards to Fethullah Gulen's arrival to USA. Yet in reality, it is those copycat bloggers who mostly claim that Fethullah Gulen came to US in 1998, which is not the accurate date. Let's see what some "experts" say about this:

For example, in Sibel Edmond's blog we see this statement:

An Anatomy of Copycat Blogs-1: Fethullah Gulan or Fethullah Gulen?

When some bloggers first launched an attack on Fethullah Gulen, Gulen Movement or so-called Gulen Charter Schools, they got their inspiration and information from foreign sources, especially the ones with Islamophobic or ultra-nationalist Turkish ties. As a result, we have seen a lot of hilarious mistakes and errors in these blogs ranging from factual errors to spelling mistakes and misinformation.

Top-notch School isn’t Marred by Loose Ties to Turkish Cleric

Below you will see how the anti-charter groups' claims have been refuted.

SHOULD MASSACHUSETTS be afraid of Fethullah Gulen? That’s the question at the heart of the whispering campaign against the Pioneer Charter School of Science, a high-achieving public school in Everett whose loose connections to the influential Turkish religious figure came under heightened scrutiny when it sought state permission to expand to a second location in Saugus.

Fethullah Gulen's Poems Turned into Songs

This is interesting and good news. Apparently, some musicians from all over the world have come together and recorded an album where they sang the poems of Fethullah Gulen.  

Artists from twelve different countries composed music for poems written by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is known for his global message of peace and inter-faith tolerance, for an album titled “Colors of Peace-Rise Up” to promote peace and tolerance.

Dani Rodrik for the Last Time

Etyen Mahcupyan continues to reveal the truth about Dani Rodrik, the renowned son-in-law of Cetin Dogan, prominent member of Ergenekon Terrorist Organization.

It is quite natural for a person to exhibit extra sensitivity and subjectivity toward a specific topic when it concerns his relatives. We can understand such a person if we come to accept that we should be more tolerant toward them and put ourselves in their place. At the beginning, many people in Turkey shared this approach for Dani Rodrik, a successful academic with international fame and a scholar known to be an advocate of democratic values. But he had come face-to-face with a very unexpected situation.

Who Conspired Against Dani Rodrik?

By Etyen Mahcupyan

When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in the elections held in early November 2002, the military decided to take some action. In the following months, Çetin Doğan, the former head of the 1st Army, sent faxes where he made analogies between the AKP’s election victory and the Nazis coming to power; he sent these documents directly from his office.

Response to Hatchet Job on Fethullah Gulen

"Dr. Kurt's blog on Gulen Charter Schools"

When Fethullah Gulen published his article on Financial Times, I was expecting a response from the infamous Islamophobes or those who happen to be in close connection with them. My prediction came true with the latter. Stephen Schwartz, who always seems to attack the mainstream Muslims in the U.S., published a incendiary and biased article in response to that of Mr. Gulen. Mr. Schwartz was mostly busy with attacking Mr. Gulen than criticizing the content of Mr. Gulen's article. He even brought that fallacious Gulen Charter Schools concept to the table again. Anyway, a timely and nice response came from Dr. Scott Alexander.  

Harmony Public Schools to Receive $30M Federal Fund

From Goose Network

I read the news (seems a bit late, though) that Harmony Public Schools will receive almost 30 million dollars from the federal government as part of the race-to-the-top program. That should be a well-deserved accomplishment considering that Harmony Public Schools became a nationwide brand after they were featured at 60 Minutes.

Gulen Charter Schools Have Hidden Agenda!

The caricature originally appeared on Get the Fact. Noticed that the Goose Network also picked up the story :)

60 Minutes, Fethullah Gulen and Gulen Charter Schools

60 Minutes created some buzz and a number of comments were made over the topic. One interesting observation came from Dr. Kurt and here is the part of his comments about Fethullah Gulen and the newly-coined phenom Gulen Charter Schools:

Hot-Topic Question at Yahoo Answers

The hot-topic of Gulen Charter Schools was asked as a question at Yahoo. I added the links here in this page.

Question was simple and the answer also looks brilliant:

MerryLynn Gerstenschlager of TEF Provides Inaccurate Information

From Gulen and Charter Schools

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!"

Islamophobia Network Targets Top Performing American Schools

"Michael Shank is talking about the latest Islamophobia attacks on Turkish people. The schools Turks work for are called Gulen Charter Schools, a term that has no equivalent in education. People who created the concept of Gulen Charter Schools do not care about this equivalency issue. All they look for is extra money that would come from Islamophobia network.

Gulen Charter School Facts: Oda TV of Turkey is Behind Anti-Charter Groups in US

On September 9, a high court in Istanbul, Turkey, has accepted an indictment of 14 suspects, including some journalists who are accused of being members of Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

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.

I will answer two more claims:

Claim: Waco Harmony Science Academy students, in a celebration in Indian Springs Park, trampled the United States flag (taken from Garner's talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011).

Answer: When I first heard this claim, I was really surprised, because it was a serious claim that should be taken in due care. Since Garner resides in Waco, she makes the story more convincing. But the "truth has a bad habit of revealing itself one day."

Donna Garner had a couple of mistakes here: first of all, instead of putting such a bold claim and puzzling everyone in the radio show, she should have asked Waco Harmony Science Academy administrators/students/parents if such an incident took place.

I did what Donna Garner forgot to do. I found Waco school's phone number and asked Mr. Kose (Principal) if there was such a thing. He told me that that festival or celebration took place last year, yet Garner presented the incident as if it happened yesterday. On the other hand, there was no such an incident as Garner alleged. Rather, the students carried American flag on their head let alone trampling it.

Principal's explanation seemed logical to me, because if such a vehement event had occured, the public would have heard about it after several angry parents or any other spectators had reported this incident finally hitting the local papers' headlines. Since we heard nothing about it, then we conceive that Garner is doing nothing but manipulation and distortion of events.

Claim: "Gulen Charter Schools" are trying to bring sharia laws to the United States (taken from Garner's same talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011)..

Answer: Actually, this claim is the reason why some people never take Donna Garner and similar people seriously, because they do not present any solid claim that could make us say "A-ha". On hearing such an allegation, one would only laugh at that and appreciate the sense of humor those people possess.

In the same vein, Peggy Littleton said something similar in nature a few months ago: "I believe — and this is just my own personal opinion, without any factual data to back it up — one of the only reasons the Obama administration is willing to stand in the face of teachers' unions ... by making states adopt charter school rules ... I think that he's doing that because of these Gulen schools. The Gulen schools are the Muslim schools in our country ... telling the kids of the United States of America, 'Hate Americans' and the whole rest..."

There are so many fallacious presuppositions that one really wonders if it is really possible to give a proper answer to that. It is like trying to operate on someone who has had a tragic accident. We are not sure if we can save the patient after all.

As for Garner, she is just whistling in the dark, having no idea of what she is really talking about. Such a claim deserves a sarcastic tone such as "Oh, really? The I must tell the White House, the Army and all other government entities that America is facing the danger of adopting sharia law (!) Oh, wait a minute, this would be useless, since our President is already Muslim!"


Is this what you want Ms. Garner? As a scholar, I do not think that sarcasm would do good to you, but in the face of such ridiculous allegations, one cannot help but produce sarcasm. 


Enough said. I guess the best way is to direct our attention to parents and students who are essential part of those schools and at the end of the day what matters will be what those people say and think rather than the baseless allegations of unscrupulous attackers like Donna Garner or Peggy Littleton.


Of course without the absurd label of Gulen Charter Schools...

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 3

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

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 (!)

Donna Garner: A True Sciolist - 2

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 in the 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. 

 

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Gulen Charter Schools Attackers Linked to Ergenekon

This is very interesting that attackers of Gulen Charter Schools proudly admit their membership with clandestine Ergenekon organization in Turkey.

In a lot of comments including the ones in Texas Tribune and other ones, I found out that those attackers of so-called Gulen charter schools never deny their relationship with Ergenekon. Some of them are working very hard to stop Fethullah Gulen that they somehow belong to someone's payrol.

When you live in Arizona and when your house has been foreclosured and when you are the ex-parent of a charter school, you will gladly accept any kind of "quasi-violuntary" job to wage war against Gulen charter schools.

One of the members of Ergenekon admitted that they tried so hard to make officials reject the application of a charter school on grounds that it is a Gulen charter school.

You probably wondered what this Ergenekon thing is about. There are some articles about it.