LAUSD Will Not Renew Turkish Imam Gulen-Linked Schools’ Charters

August 27, 2014 By administrator

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Unified School District Board on Tuesday voted unanimously to not renew the charters of two schools operating under the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia Science Academy.

The Magnolia Academy 6, a middle school in Palms and the Magnolia Science Academy 7, an elementary school in Northridge, were both slated to be shutdown after an LAUSD audit deemed them insolvent based on IRS standards due to a $1.7 million deficit and charged financial misappropriations by the school administrations. The audit also found that the school had

However, in late July LA Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin granted an injunction in order to not disrupt the student community, but ordered a strict investigation into the finances of the MERF and the Magnolia schools. Lavin’s ruling means that the schools will remain open after Tuesday’s vote but their charters will not be renewed for operation beyond that.

This ruling comes a week after the Joint Legislative Audit Committee called for a statewide audit of the Magnolia Science Academies of California, which runs 12 tax payer-funded charter schools in the state that have ties to the Gulen Institute, affiliated to the Turkish cleric Fettulah Gulen.

The audit, requested by State Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, brings forth major concerns of misappropriation of tax payer funds of the 12 Magnolia charter schools and their parent company, the Magnolia Education and Research Foundation (MERF).

“Charter Schools play an important role in the public education system by delivering a high quality education to our students. I am deeply troubled that public education funds are being abused by the Magnolia Academies. It was important to bring this request forward to ensure that our tax payer dollars aren’t being misspent, at the expense of the students, and the taxpayers who support public education.” said Nazarian.

On the national level, Gulen-affiliated schools have come under investigation for questionable financial practices, to filling teacher positions with often unqualified people brought in from Turkey.

Gulen-affiliated charter schools in Arizona, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and New Jersey have been under investigation by the FBI since 2011.

Turkish Imam Fetullah Gulen: The Phantom of the Poconos … Paid for by US Tax Dollars

July 13, 2014 By administrator

Written by Ellen Lubic

Citywatchla.com EXPOSED-The Gulen Movement is advertised by its’ leader and his PR advisors as a “transformational and social movement led by Turkish Imam, scholar and preacher, Fetullah Gulen.”

This highly secretive movement is often compared to the Catholic secret society, Opus Dei. Their goal is to be the world’s leading Muslim network, and although it advertises that “it is funded by its ‘own members” it is actually funded by American tax payers.

In the real light of day, Fetullah Gulen, who is the single largest charter school operator in the U.S., was chased out of Turkey by current Prime Minister Erdogan and his forces in 1999 and was given refuge in the United States, first by Bill Clinton, then by George Bush, and now by Barak Obama.

He lives in a large compound with a fortress-like surrounding and many armed guards in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. From this protected enclave, and with the further protection of our government, he is fomenting revolution in Turkey to turn his homeland from a secular nation into an Islamist state ruled by strict Sharia law.

Even though the Turkish regime wants him extradited to stand trial for promoting insurrection and various other scandals, he is safe in America, calling the shots for extremists in Turkey. He sends huge amounts of money to the Middle East and Turkey to promote his cause.

And this prodigious donation to influence Turkish/Sharia politics is all paid for by We the People, the American taxpayers.

Gulen is the largest owner of charter schools in the U.S. He owns over 147 active charter schools with dozens more awaiting approval in many states including California, with tens of thousands of students who are taken out of public schools to attend his Islamic based charters which teach Turkish language as their prime language and their main focus on Turkish history.

He used to also teach Sharia law in these gender segregated schools, but when that became a problem he focused on math and science instead, and now teaches Sharia law on weekend outings for his students. His plan is to educate all students to follow him as their religious and political leader of Turkey, and all of them to return to his homeland with him as his supporters.

Most of his teachers, and all of his principals and other organizational leaders, are Middle Eastern men who are allowed into the U.S. on green cards to run this multibillion dollar operation. According to the tax research done by Sharon Higgins who is the best reporter on his activities, he nets about $500 million a year, all on the back of the American taxpayer.

Each student gets ADA money, average daily attendance, which the school district is mandated to release since the money for education follows the student. Each school has between 300 – 800 students financed by American tax money at about $7,000 per student, which represents a huge fortune over the past 15 years.

It is this money that is paying for fomenting revolution in Turkey where Gulen plans to return soon to become the nation’s leader and make his country a true Sharia ruled state. This means that girls no longer will be going to school, and all will be forced to wear purdah. Boys will be studying mainly Koran as in madrassas world wide.

In an addition to American charter schools, Gulen runs about 1,000 other schools world wide. His goal it would appear is to establish a second Ottoman Empire and all under rigid Sharia law.

Erdogan and his government see Gulen as a danger to their secular nation. He is pressing criminal charges against Gulen for a wire tapping scandal, and he feels that this is not only a religious movement, but it is also political and illegal. He accuses the U.S. of sheltering and supporting Gulen, and he wants him extradited to Turkey to face criminal charges.

All of this is factual and further information can be found online.

Azerbaijan shuts down ‘Gülen-linked’ schools

June 19, 2014 By administrator

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Anadolu Agency

Azerbaijan’s government-run energy company has announced that private schools run by affiliates of the movement led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have been closed down.

From February to April, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) took over dozens of private high schools, university exam preparation centers and universities run by a Turkish education company called Çağ Ögretim, which is thought to be linked to the Gülen movement.

SOCAR announced on June 18 that it had decided to close the schools, which were operated by the company now known as Azerbaijan International Education Center, due to “high maintenance costs and difficulties in project management.”

In Azerbaijan, 13 schools, one university and 13 prep schools linked to Gülen affiliates had been operating. Two years ago all of these institutions were transferred to the Azerbaijan state oil company, SOCAR, but preserved their management, teachers and curriculum without any changes. Diplomatic sources said these schools were still operating and there were no changes in the administration’s view of them.

Pro-government newspapers have reported that the Gülen community has succeeded in “infiltrating” the Azeri state and is influencing the decision-making process of Turkey’s oil-rich neighbor.

In March, Azeri media reported that Elnur Aslanov, the head of President İlham Aliyev’s Political Analysis and Information Department, had been sacked over alleged links to the movement.

The move came after claims that Gülen’s network had infiltrated state institutions in Azerbaijan and established cohorts among politicians.

Tension between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Gülen, former allies, has been simmering for years, but boiled over after the government’s decision to close private test prep schools (dershanes) across the country.

The move to shut down the test prep schools came amid Erdoğan’s struggle against what he calls the “parallel state,” which he accuses of plotting against the government through corruption and graft claims.

The rift between the government and the Gülen movement was crystalized on Dec. 17, 2013, when massive graft investigations were initiated by prosecutors and police chiefs allegedly linked to Gülen.

Thousands of people, including Erdoğan, national intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and a wide range of journalists, academics, business leaders and nongovernmental organization representatives, have been wiretapped for years by the police as part of different probes, Turkish media claimed Feb. 24.

June/19/2014

FBI ‘raids 19 schools associated with Turkish Imam Gülen’

June 14, 2014 By administrator

By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal education writer

U.S. federal agents have raided 19 charter schools, including three in Ohio, where an FBI criminal investigation in Cleveland has led to search warrants in Indiana and Illinois over the past week, Ohio-based Beacon Journal has reported.

Concept Schools, a charter school operator headquartered near Chicago, manages 19 charter schools in Ohio, second only to Texas with 44 such schools. There are nearly 140 charter schools, spread across 26 states, reportedly associated with Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic cleric exiled from Turkey, living in Pennsylvania.

Concept Schools, which emphasizes math and science, has been investigated previously by the U.S. Department of Labor for its use of foreign workers. Ohio audits found that public money for the schools had been used improperly for visas, according to the report.

The Turkish government has recently started an international campaign against the global network of schools affiliated with Gülen, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ally-turned-nemesis.

Source: www.ohio.com

Syria: Armenian churches, schools hit in Aleppo bombings

June 2, 2014 By administrator

Armenian churches, schools, residential houses and stores have come under bomb attacks in Aleppo, Syria amid the growing violence and tension in the city.

The Armenian-populated district of Nor-Kyugh has suffered the heaviest damages, the local weekly Gandzasar says in a Facebook post.

Two ethnic Armenians, Stepan Arushyan and Zareh Ghazaryan, have been wounded in the attacks, but their condition is reported to be satisfactory after medical assistance.

Aleppo-Armenian sources earlier told Tert.am that most of the Armenians had found shelter in their buildings’ cellars to avoid the continuing attacks of makeshift missiles against the district.

Photos by Maria Gabrielyan

Turkish FM Davutoğlu annuls decree ordering Turkish embassies to support Gülenists: Reports

May 20, 2014 By administrator

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu arrives to attend a Friends of Syria meeting at The Foreign Office in London, May 15. REUTERS Photo

A 2003-dated decree ordering Turkish embassies abroad to support and facilitate the activities of the Fethullah Gülen community has been annulled upon the instruction of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, two Turkish newspapers have reported.

Newspapers Cumhuriyet and Zaman said the decree annulling the 2003-dated decree was sent to Turkish embassies and consulates several weeks ago. The first decree was signed by then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül during the first months of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government with the demand of support from National View Organizations and Turkish schools operated by the Gülen community.

Zaman said the members of the Gülen community and representatives of its affiliated organizations were not invited to the celebrations of the April 23 National Sovereignty and Children Fest by the embassies, in a first sign of the implementation of Davutoğlu’s decree.

Foreign Ministry officials preferred to remain tight-lipped and not comment on the annulment, the paper said, but quoted an anonymous Turkish ambassador as saying, “The speech delivered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the ambassadors’ conference and the annulment of this decree is already a clear message.”

The relations between once allies, the AKP government and the Gülen movement have deteriorated and turned into an open struggle following the launch of a massive corruption and graft operation that engulfed four of Erdoğan’s ministers, Erdoğan himself and his family as well. Accusing the Gülen community of attempting a plot against the government, Erdoğan described its leader, Gülen, a self-exiled Islamic scholar in the U.S., as the head of an illegal organization and the architect of this treacherous act against the Turkish state.

Erdoğan said the activities of the Gülen community abroad were dangerous and he will ask his foreign interlocutors to take the necessary measures against them.

Source: hurriyet daily news

May/20/2014