Turkish-American Writer Details Gulen's Charter School
Network
By Stephen Sulayman Schwartz
Originally published in American Thinker, September 4, 2012
A secretive foreign network of Islamic radicals now operates dozens of
charter schools — which receive government money but are not required to adopt a
state-approved curriculum — on U.S. soil. The inspirer of this conspiratorial
effort is Fethullah Gülen, who directs a major Islamist movement in Turkey and
the Turkish diaspora, but lives in the United States. He is number 13 among the
world's "50 most influential Muslims" according to one prominent listing.
Gülen has been criticized as the puppet master for the current
Turkish government headed by the "soft Islamist" Justice and Development Party,
known by its Turkish initials as the AKP, in its slow-motion showdown with the
secularist Turkish military. But Gülen is also known in Muslim countries for his
network of 500-700 Islamic schools around the world, according to differing
sources favorable to his movement. A more critical view of Gülen's emphasis on
education asserts that his international network of thousands of primary and
secondary schools, universities, and student residences is a key element in solidifying an Islamist political agenda in
Turkey.
But in startling news for Americans, the Gülen movement operates more than 85
primary and secondary schools on our soil. A roster of the Gülen schools and of the numerous foundations
that support them has been released to the public by the
patriotic group Act! for America. The Gülen schools are often designated as
"science academies" and are concentrated in Texas, Ohio, and California — with
others scattered across the rest of the country.
Two states that host Gülen charter schools are Arizona and Utah. In the
former, the Daisy Education Corporation (the Gülen movement loves friendly
sounding institutional names) operates three schools in Tucson: one serving
kindergarten through the eighth grade, another designated as an elementary
school, and a middle-high school, all under the rubric of the Sonoran Science
Academy. In Phoenix it runs a satellite kindergarten-to-10th-grade campus with
the same name.
The appearance of Gülen charter schools in Tucson has produced critical
attention in local media. The Tucson Weekly published a report at the end of 2009 noting that
the Sonoran Science Academy in the southern Arizona town had been named "charter
school of the year" by the Arizona Charter School Association. But writer Tim
Vanderpool reported that according to one dismayed parent, who declined
identification while pointing out the Gülen movement's history of intimidating
critics, "the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators
into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the
teachers await work visas. … She says several Sonoran Academy parents believe
the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen's brand of Turkish nationalism,
advance sympathy for that country's political goals such as winning acceptance
into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgment of Turkey's
genocide against the Armenians during World War I." Such issues are exotic, to
say the least, for Tucson parents.
Earlier in 2009, the Beehive Science and Technology Academy, a high school in
Salt Lake City, came under similar critical scrutiny from the Salt Lake Tribune. That
major daily's writer, Kirsten Stewart, reported that the Utah State Charter
Board had begun an investigation of the Beehive school, following complaints
from a former teacher and an alarmed parent. The complainants asserted that
while "Beehive advertises itself as a public charter school offering
college-bound seventh through 12th graders a foundation in math and science …
the school has another mission: to advance and promote certain Islamic beliefs.
They point to questionable financial transactions and hiring practices as proof
of the school's covert ties to Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen."
But while Fatih Karatas, principal of the Sonoran Science Academy middle
school in Tucson, flatly denied any connection with the Gülen movement, Beehive
principal Muhammet "Frank" Erdogan in Salt Lake City admitted such links in the
case of his school. The Salt Lake Tribune quoted his admission that,
along with him, "many of Beehive's teachers and founders also support Gülen's
ideals." The paper also described how "Adam Kuntz, a first-year history teacher
at Beehive, was fired [in spring 2009], he alleges, for taking academic freedom
concerns to the state board. Earlier in the school year, Kuntz had a run-in with
Erdogan over a lesson plan on World War II and the Holocaust. Erdogan wanted
Kuntz to revise the plan and during a tape-recorded meeting, questioned
conventional accounts of the genocide."
Kelly Wayment, a parent of three children in the school, was removed from his
post on the Beehive administrative board after he emailed other parents about
Gülen movement influence in the school. Wayment told the Salt Lake
Tribune that, as in the Tucson case, teachers "tend to be from Turkey and
central Asian republics living here on work visas."
Americans should ask both why and how the Islamist Gülen movement has managed
to establish such a large presence for Turkish religious political
indoctrination in publicly financed education — and should unite to oppose
it.
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington,
D.C.
charter schools — which receive government money but are not required to adopt a
state-approved curriculum — on U.S. soil. The inspirer of this conspiratorial
effort is Fethullah Gülen, who directs a major Islamist movement in Turkey and
the Turkish diaspora, but lives in the United States. He is number 13 among the
world's "50 most influential Muslims" according to one prominent listing.
Gülen has been criticized as the puppet master for the current
Turkish government headed by the "soft Islamist" Justice and Development Party,
known by its Turkish initials as the AKP, in its slow-motion showdown with the
secularist Turkish military. But Gülen is also known in Muslim countries for his
network of 500-700 Islamic schools around the world, according to differing
sources favorable to his movement. A more critical view of Gülen's emphasis on
education asserts that his international network of thousands of primary and
secondary schools, universities, and student residences is a key element in solidifying an Islamist political agenda in
Turkey.
But in startling news for Americans, the Gülen movement operates more than 85
primary and secondary schools on our soil. A roster of the Gülen schools and of the numerous foundations
that support them has been released to the public by the
patriotic group Act! for America. The Gülen schools are often designated as
"science academies" and are concentrated in Texas, Ohio, and California — with
others scattered across the rest of the country.
Two states that host Gülen charter schools are Arizona and Utah. In the
former, the Daisy Education Corporation (the Gülen movement loves friendly
sounding institutional names) operates three schools in Tucson: one serving
kindergarten through the eighth grade, another designated as an elementary
school, and a middle-high school, all under the rubric of the Sonoran Science
Academy. In Phoenix it runs a satellite kindergarten-to-10th-grade campus with
the same name.
The appearance of Gülen charter schools in Tucson has produced critical
attention in local media. The Tucson Weekly published a report at the end of 2009 noting that
the Sonoran Science Academy in the southern Arizona town had been named "charter
school of the year" by the Arizona Charter School Association. But writer Tim
Vanderpool reported that according to one dismayed parent, who declined
identification while pointing out the Gülen movement's history of intimidating
critics, "the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators
into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the
teachers await work visas. … She says several Sonoran Academy parents believe
the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen's brand of Turkish nationalism,
advance sympathy for that country's political goals such as winning acceptance
into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgment of Turkey's
genocide against the Armenians during World War I." Such issues are exotic, to
say the least, for Tucson parents.
Earlier in 2009, the Beehive Science and Technology Academy, a high school in
Salt Lake City, came under similar critical scrutiny from the Salt Lake Tribune. That
major daily's writer, Kirsten Stewart, reported that the Utah State Charter
Board had begun an investigation of the Beehive school, following complaints
from a former teacher and an alarmed parent. The complainants asserted that
while "Beehive advertises itself as a public charter school offering
college-bound seventh through 12th graders a foundation in math and science …
the school has another mission: to advance and promote certain Islamic beliefs.
They point to questionable financial transactions and hiring practices as proof
of the school's covert ties to Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen."
But while Fatih Karatas, principal of the Sonoran Science Academy middle
school in Tucson, flatly denied any connection with the Gülen movement, Beehive
principal Muhammet "Frank" Erdogan in Salt Lake City admitted such links in the
case of his school. The Salt Lake Tribune quoted his admission that,
along with him, "many of Beehive's teachers and founders also support Gülen's
ideals." The paper also described how "Adam Kuntz, a first-year history teacher
at Beehive, was fired [in spring 2009], he alleges, for taking academic freedom
concerns to the state board. Earlier in the school year, Kuntz had a run-in with
Erdogan over a lesson plan on World War II and the Holocaust. Erdogan wanted
Kuntz to revise the plan and during a tape-recorded meeting, questioned
conventional accounts of the genocide."
Kelly Wayment, a parent of three children in the school, was removed from his
post on the Beehive administrative board after he emailed other parents about
Gülen movement influence in the school. Wayment told the Salt Lake
Tribune that, as in the Tucson case, teachers "tend to be from Turkey and
central Asian republics living here on work visas."
Americans should ask both why and how the Islamist Gülen movement has managed
to establish such a large presence for Turkish religious political
indoctrination in publicly financed education — and should unite to oppose
it.
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington,
D.C.