by Robert Spencer
Evidence continues to mount that the Gulen Schools are not as benign as they are assumed to be.
"FBI Raids Gulen School in New Orleans," by Diana Samuels for The Times-Picayune, December 18 (thanks to A.M.H.):
NEW ORLEANS—FBI and Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School officials aren’t saying why the FBI converged on the Baton Rouge school’s campus Wednesday evening, carting off boxes. But the school has ties to a controversial education movement inspired by a Turkish Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gulen. And other schools connected with that movement have reportedly been investigated by the FBI.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2011 that the FBI was investigating whether employees of charter schools affiliated with the Gulen movement were kicking back part of their salaries, funded by taxpayers, to the Turkish Muslim movement of “Hizmet.” The Inquirer reported the investigation was “nationwide,” but coordinated by prosecutors in Pennsylvania, where Gulen lives.
Kenilworth’s ties to the Gulen movement aren’t direct or publicly advertised. Kenilworth Superintendent Tevfik Eski has previously denied to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune any connection between Gulen and the school.
But in 2011, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reported that Pelican Educational Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs Kenilworth, does have various connections to the movement.
For example, Karen Fontenot, vice president of Pelican’s board, spoke in 2010 at a conference on the Gulen movement and said, “I’m on the advisory board of the schools –the Gulen schools in Louisiana.”...
Robert Spencer
Source: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/louisiana-fbi-raids-gulen-school-in-baton-rouge.html
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
1 comment:
And after years of investigations and raids (due to constant allegations mostly from people who don't work at the schools, not a single arrest has been made in connection to these allegations. I'm a non-Turkish administrator of one of these charter schools accused of being "Gulen" schools. Our Turkish employees who make up only a small fraction of our employees are free to give money to any religious organization they wish. That is not illegal as long as they are not forced into doing so. In fact for Muslims it is obligatory to their faith to give part of their earnings to their religious institutions. It's no different then many Christians giving money to their churches.
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